The Council Foundation announced its 2017 scholarship recipients, recognizing college students who completed internships at member firms and demonstrated exceptional potential for careers in commercial insurance brokerage. The scholarship program was expanding during this period as member firms invested heavily in building the talent pipeline. Recipients were selected through a competitive process evaluating academic performance and internship evaluations.
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THE COUNCIL FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2017 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
Foundation Awards $375,000 to Standout Industry Interns
WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 11, 2017 – The Council Foundation announced today that it is awarding $375,000 in academic scholarships to 75 college students interested in pursuing careers in insurance brokerage. Each student will receive $5,000 towards their college education.
The Foundation’s Scholarship Program works directly with the internship programs of member firms of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. The program is designed to expose college students from across the country to, and potentially keep them in, the commercial insurance brokerage sector after graduation. Of the 50 students who received scholarships in the program’s pilot year last summer, 68 percent were hired or repeated an internship with a Council member firm.
“It is very gratifying to partner with our member firms in this way and to see the scholarship program’s early signals of success,” said Ken A. Crerar, President/CEO of The Council. “The program is, without a doubt, drawing more talented young folks to the entrepreneurial spirit of the brokerage business.”
“Having the industry’s support means more than words can express,” said Alexis Wallace, a scholarship recipient who interned at Lockton Companies. “This scholarship gives me a hand up and grows my passion for insurance.”
Students must be formally nominated by the respective brokerages at which they worked. Awardees are then determined by an independent committee.
“This really makes a huge difference with my upcoming semester,” said Abel Richards, a scholarship recipient who interned at Hays Companies. “I am studying abroad and have been working three jobs this summer to pay for the upcoming semester. I am so grateful to The Council Foundation.”
Firms that participated included: Arlington/Roe & Co., Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, Assured Partners, Inc., Bolton & Company, Borislow Insurance, Brown & Brown, Inc., Cottingham & Butler, Inc., CRC Group, Crystal & Company, Hays Companies, Heffernan Group, Huntington Insurance, IMA Financial Group, Inc., Interwest Insurance Services, LLC, Johnson Kendall & Johnson, Inc., Lockton, Inc., M3 Insurance, Marsh & McLennan Agency, Pritchard & Jerden, Inc., RCM&D, Inc., Roach, Howard, Smith & Barton, Inc., Capacity Holdings Group LLC, The Crichton Group, Upshaw Insurance Agency, Woodruff Sawyer & Co.
“The Council Foundation scholarship program helps us attract the best and brightest kids from colleges in our area,” said David Becker, CEO of Cottingham & Butler in Dubuque, Iowa. “Our intern recipients were inspired by the competition and humbled by winning. For many of them, they face the daunting challenge of graduating with significant student debt and The Council Foundation scholarship will help them finish school with a much lighter burden.”
“We are incredibly grateful to The Council Foundation for its investment in our intern,” said Jennifer Borislow, founder and president of Borislow Insurance in Methuen, Massachusetts. “The program reinforces the value of a career in the insurance brokerage business and generously supports an intern’s ability to plan for the future.”
The 2017-18 scholarship recipients are:
The mission of The Council Foundation is to secure the future of the commercial insurance brokerage business by attracting and developing tomorrow’s talent and supporting forward-thinking research. Since 2006, the Foundation—formerly known as the Foundation for Agency Management Excellence (FAME)—has awarded $1.83 million to 375 students across the country.
The Council Foundation is a 501c(3) organization administered by The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. Contributions made to the Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
For more information, contact Cheryl Matochik, senior vice president of Strategic Resources & Initiatives, at [email protected].
