Calculated Risk: USU Statistics Scholar Pursuing Internship Toward Actuarial Science Career

When California-born Utah County resident Briggs Rober started his undergraduate studies at Utah State University, he had his sights solidly set on mechanical engineering.

“I thought engineering was in my blood,” says Rober, who graduated from Maple Mountain High School in Mapleton, Utah, in 2021. “Have you seen my uncle Mark Rober — former NASA engineer and Apple product designer, inventor, educator — on YouTube with his glittery parcel thieve deterrents and app-integrated costumes?”

While Rober, a USU Presidential Scholarship recipient, did well in his engineering studies during his first year at Utah State, he found himself gravitating toward data analytics.

“While serving as a volunteer abroad on a two-year break, a friend told me about his brother who is an actuary,” he says. “I didn’t know much about the field, but I liked the idea of a profession steeped in statistics and finance.”

Returning to his studies at USU, Rober chose a statistics major with an actuarial science emphasis, along with an economics major.

What, exactly, is an actuary and what is actuarial science?

“Simply put, actuarial science is the study of financial risk and how to mitigate against it, primarily through insurance,” Rober says. “An actuary is a business professional who uses mathematics, statistics, financial theory and more to analyze and manage financial risk and uncertainty.”

Rober says faculty mentor Dan Coster, professor in USU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, helped him explore the actuarial science emphasis offered by the department.

“Dr. Coster, the lead professor for actuary classes, was a great support to me and does an amazing job of keeping students informed of internship opportunities,” he says. “He and other faculty invite several professional actuaries to speak on campus each year, which provides incredible networking experiences.”

Coster describes Rober as a “go-getter.”

“Briggs has actively applied for internships each year he’s been in the program,” he says. “He has been very focused on what he wants to achieve and has taken the initiative to make sure he has the skills necessary to pursue competitive positions. This means he’s not only completed the required coursework but he’s devoted extra time to developing the ability to effectively communicate complex mathematical and statistical concepts to clients — a critical skill for an actuary.”

Rober completed his bachelor’s degree in May 2026, but is returning in the fall to take three more courses at USU. He is currently pursuing a competitive internship in Denver with Aon, a British-American professional services firm that provides actuarial consulting to large corporations in varied fields. The internship will position Rober for consideration for a full-time position.

“At Aon, I’m doing actuarial consulting, which involves helping companies price their benefits packages for their employees,” he says.

In a previous internship, Rober worked with Texas-based Lewis & Ellis, nationwide actuarial consulting firm, which assigned the undergrad to a project involving audits of Medicare plans on behalf of the U.S. government.

“It was a more intensive, experiential assignment than I expected from a summer internship,” Rober says. “I found myself the middleman between executives of large insurance companies, such as United Healthcare and CVS, and the U.S. government.”

Coster says USU’s bachelor’s degree program equips students for entry-level positions and specifically prepares them for successful completion of two professional examinations, the Society of Actuaries P-test (probability theory in actuarial methods) and the FM-test (financial math.)

“For better access to employment, we encourage our graduates to take both of these exams,” he says.

Coster says the demand for actuaries remains consistently high, and USU’s program positions graduates for fulfilling, well-compensated careers.

“Constant changes at the federal and state level to insurance regulations, along with rising costs, require frequent recalibration of all forms of insurance, including health, property, vehicle and more,” he says. “Our program prepares students to work in every type of insurance, investment and portfolio management including retirement funds, government risk management agencies and the Social Security Administration, actuarial consulting firms, as well as any high-tech company that has financial assets that must be managed domestically or globally.”

Rober agrees.

“I’ve found that, in my internships, I’ve been able to excel — pun intended — thanks to the coursework I was exposed to,” he says. “While most industries require lots of hands-on experience to understand company-specific workflow, I already had the communications skills, field-relevant vocabulary and technical skills that gave me a leg up.”