It begins with the RMI faculty. The faculty member will have regular contact with the students, and the faculty member must be excited about the RMI field. I’ve always felt there is no greater calling than to serve others in their time of need, unless it is to lead others to careers of serving others in their time of need. After 40 years, I still marvel at the insurance mechanism – how it evolved, how it spreads the losses of a few over many, how the law of large numbers is employed to reduce risk, how reinsurance spreads risk globally, how this “socialist-type” mechanism operates successfully in a capitalistic society! We need to make sure that we continue to share that excitement with students whenever we interact with them. We need to create engaging courses with hands-on projects, simulations, interesting case studies, guest speakers (more on course design in a future post). The Spencer Educational Foundation (associated with RIMS) offers grants for “Risk Managers in Residence” programs to bring in risk managers to educate students about the challenges of risk management, insurance, and the events "ripped from the news headlines" as they say, that continue to make life interesting for those in the business of protecting their organizations from total destruction. And the word will spread.
On an encouraging note, I think most young people want to help their communities. We need to point out to them that there is no better way to contribute to their communities than to insure that people in those communities can recover quickly from disasters. Today, there are plenty of examples of disasters that have captured our attention – from the unfortunate combination of disasters in Japan, to Hurricane Irene and the floods that followed on the East Coast, to the piracy off the Somali coast, to the BP Deep Horizon oil rig explosion, to the earthquakes on the East Coast. (The East Coast has been hit hard, almost in Biblical proportions. I wonder if the DC politicians and greedy Wall Streeters are getting a message. But I digress.) And insurance professionals are there to help people put their lives back together and pay for the clean-up. We need to help students see this in our daily lessons, and the word will spread.
Students excite other students. When they hear an interesting speaker, when they come back from an interesting trip to visit insurance businesses or attend a conference at a fun venue, when they are working in an internship, when they are receiving several scholarships – the word gets around. Inviting alumni back to speak about their new careers will also contribute to this excitement. I’ve had alumni underwriting rock concerts, advising and providing coverage for professional hockey players, flying to the Gulf of Mexico to inspect an oil drilling rig (not the Deep Horizon) before insuring it, flying to London to place business at Lloyd’s, traveling throughout Europe to visit client sites, putting together coverage for a construction project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or the Olympics in Atlanta – the students are electrified by the adventures of alumni that are close to them in age, sometimes former classmates. And the word will spread.
An active student organization is also crucial to the growth of a RMI program (more on effective student organizations in a future post). Through their career preparation activities, networking with peers on and off campus through Gamma Iota Sigma, networking with industry professionals, guest speakers, socials, participation in conferences at fun locations, new member recruiting programs, the support from the RMI industry in internships, scholarships and other donations attracted by the student organization, and other activities, the program becomes very visible on campus. And the word will spread.
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