The Young Volunteer Achievement Awards recognised the outstanding contributions made by volunteers less than five years post-qualification and are judged based on the nominated applicants’ commitment to excellence in their chosen field of volunteering, leadership and determination to advance the profession.
2024 Recipients
Richard Zhou
Richard has been an excellent role model as Convenor of the Student Committee, leading a large group of young individuals into a motivated and cohesive group. Richard has created a safe place for students to start their journey as an NZSA volunteer, where they can go on with confidence to other committees later in their careers.
Richard’s energy, dedication and professionalism is evident to the NZSA Council, who can always reply on him to provide student volunteers or feedback that is critical to the success of the profession.
Richard has been an active volunteer over many years, including as a current member of the Events Committee where he has provided consistent committee support and mentoring of new members during a period of convenor succession.
Shashini Abeygunawardena
Shashini is an active contributor to the Sustainability Interest Group (SIG), including coordinating NZSA feedback to contribute to the International Actuarial Association Sustainable Development Goal Task Force.
Shashini drove the development of the Climate Change 101 session by SIG to the NZSA, coordinated to arrange the session with the Events Committee and chaired.
At the Nelson Conference Shashini presented on Sustainable Development Goals. Since then, she has further developed the material hosting a workshop at the Actuarial Association of Sri Lanka conference and sharing the material for our upcoming NZSA workshop, which again Shashini has spent a lot of time coordinating with the SIG and the Events Committee to find a suitable date and time to host this session.
Shashini is a deep thinker whose passion and commitment to sustainability shine clearly, challenging us as a profession to consider ESG in all that we do and particularly championing the social aspects which are often overshadowed with a focus on climate.
2021 Recipients
Caroline Moy
Caroline convenes the Events Committee, and has given significant time to ensure that NZSA events are a success, including working in the background to make sure that everything works as expected. She has demonstrated her adaptability as Covid impacted NZSA events, seamlessly transitioning from in-person to virtual events. Without Caroline’s contribution, we would not have been able to stay as connected and influential as we did over the past year. Caroline is a valuable member of the Society and a true ambassador for the profession. She has made sure we have a great team who are able to organise great events.
Donovan Stevens
Donovan has served on a number of NZSA committees over the past few years, including currently convening the Communications Committee. Donovan is currently heading up the rebuilding of the NZSA website, establishing a great team, working alongside the Secretariat, and all the while thinking about the wider communications system for the NZSA and how the website, newsletters, social media and other communications can work together. His combination of innovation and organisation is driving the success of the project, and will lay the foundation for the future communications of the NZSA, internally and externally.
2020 Recipients
Ethan Choi
Ethan burst onto the actuarial scene with an excellent conference presentation on “Beyond the Bitcoin” at the 2016 Conference. Since then he joined and is now chairing the Events Committee, a task he undertakes with both professionalism and enthusiasm. Ethan goes out of his way to ensure events are successful and has continued an excellent programme across the COVID-19 lockdown.
2019 Recipients
June Kuan
2018 Recipients
Ian Collins
Jessie McCreary
2017 Recipients
Jenn Dobinson