Alumni Profile: Xingyu Chen ’19

Coming to the U.S. as an international student from the bustling city of Beijing, Xingyu Chen ’19 wanted his college experience to take place in a quieter setting, where he could focus on his academic pursuits. “As I planned to work in the finance industry with a quantitative background, I was also attracted by MC’s various course offerings in Math and Business,” he says.

What he didn’t expect was the close relationships he would forge with the faculty in both departments, and how much their courses would prepare him for success in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“I had great relationships with many professors from different departments at Marietta. I have also stayed connected with some of them after graduation.”

Professors Matt Menzel and Mark Miller both wrote him letters of recommendation for graduate school, as did Associate Professor John Fazio in the Department of Business and Economics.

“One cool experience I had with Dr. Menzel was that in spring 2019, Dr. Menzel took me and another math student to MAA (Mathematical Association of America) Ohio section meeting, where we got second place in the Leo Schneider Student Team Competition.”

Dr. Duong Le, Associate Professor of Finance, helped prepare him for future Society of Actuaries exams during her classes in Finance. While he was a student at Marietta, he passed two SOA exams — Probability and Financial Mathematics. He is pursuing an associateship and fellowship at SOA, and has already passed five of the 10 exams: Probability, Financial Mathematics, Investment, and Financial Markets, Short-Term Actuarial Mathematics, and Statistics for Risk Modeling.

He was also close to Professor Steve Rader, who retired from the Theatre Department and currently teaches voice and articulation. Rader is also an international writing specialist.

“Dr. Rader mentored me throughout my time at Marietta College, both academically and personally. He has my utmost gratitude.”

In October 2021, Chen took and passed the Society of Actuaries’ EXAM LTAM (Long-Term Actuarial Mathematics), which is the sixth out of 10 exams certifying actuaries. He also has a full-time job at Taikang Insurance Group and works as a Senior Actuarial Assistant specializing in data/experience analysis.