Theresa Chappell

Theresa Chappell is working towards a career in actuarial science through graduate coursework at the University of Iowa. She also works at AEGON USA in their annuities division and is working to pass the exams needed to qualify for work as an actuary in annuities or possibly health insurance.

“The math classes that I had a Cornell definitely provided a solid foundation for my work at Iowa and the exams that I’ve taken,” she says. “I think that one of the most valuable things about my Cornell education was the small class size and the interest of the faculty in the students.  It was a huge help in my studies that the only focus of the faculty was the one class they were teaching.”

At Cornell, Chappell had the opportunity to combine mathematics with her other major: music.  Her senior project focused on tuning and temperament in music, and involved measuring the distance between notes mathematically.

Chappell found that Cornell’s One Course At A Time schedule allowed her to pursue both academics and outside activities with passion.

“OCAAT made it easy to schedule work-study and extracurriculars, like choir and voice,” she says. “OCAAT was one of the main reasons that I chose Cornell, and I’m glad that I made that decision.”