Student Competition to Showcase Young Talent at RIMS

Attendees of the RIMS’ Riskworld annual conference in Chicago will have an opportunity to meet a cohort of aspiring risk management professionals, who are participating in a global university competition.

Teams from eight colleges around the world will compete in the Spencer-RIMS Student Risk Management Challenge that asks college students to form a risk management report based on a case study. The competition is put on by the Spencer Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that provides grants to students interested in pursuing a career in risk management.

The seven-month-long competition culminates at RIMS, where the top eight teams will present in a preliminary round on May 4. The advancing top three teams will compete in a final presentation round on May 5. A $10,000 award will go to the winning team, while second-place receives $7,500 and third-place receives $5,000. Spencer also pays for each team’s air fare, hotel stay and conference registration.

This year’s competition featured 61 universities from 16 countries. The eight teams competing at RIMS consist of three American universities (DePauw, Saint Joseph’s and Wisconsin-Madison) and colleges from India, Nepal, Australia and South Africa.

Students were given a case study of the climate risks affecting Huntington, West Virginia and were asked to act as risk management consultants to address the issues at hand. The first part of the challenge asked students to identify the top three to five risks that the city faces specifically due to climate change. The second part asked them how the city can protect itself against those risks and how would they go about implementing their solutions.

Tandeka Nomvete, director, external engagement at Spencer, said the challenge is designed to give students real-world risk management experience that prepares them for the kind of work they might encounter as a professional.

“It’s quite a complex problem, right? We’re asking them to identify the top issues related to climate change,” Nomvete said. “We’re asking them to present the solutions, and then we take it a step further and we’re asking them, how would you actually go about implementing all of these solutions that you’ve come up with? So they truly are acting as risk management consultant.”

Teams of four students per school will present their findings in front of a panel of risk management judges, formed primarily of chief risk management officers from various organizations and companies. Teams present for 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session where they’ll answer questions from the judges.

The top three teams will return the next day for a final presentation. The final session is open to any attendees who want to walk in and watch. The winning teams will be announced Monday evening at the Spencer Soirée held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Chicago.

Growing the industry

Spencer’s history dates back to 1979, when the RIMS Atlanta Chapter established a foundation to honor Robert Spencer, a respected risk manager who served as a vice president and president of the national RIMS organization until his death. The organization awards merit-based grants and scholarships to college students interested in pursuing a career in risk management.

“Really we have a sales job,” said Megan Miller, executive director, Spencer. “We have to sell this career to students. We have to stack it up alongside better known opportunities like finance, accounting, consulting.”

Spencer funds insurance and risk management college curricula and works with insurance companies to create internship opportunities. The foundation has awarded over $10 million in scholarships to students studying risk management and insurance. Most scholarship recipients stay in the industry once they see what a career in insurance has to offer, Miller said.

“It’s really important for the industry to come together and support any and all initiatives around talent because we’re just not attracting students at the same rate and at the same level as these other career paths, even though we can offer an equally lucrative and varied and rewarding career path as those other avenues,” said Miller.

Undergraduate scholarships are available to students at accredited universities in the United States and Canada who are seeking a career in risk management, insurance, and/or actuarial sciences. Spencer also offers scholarships to students pursuing a master’s in risk management and insurance-related fields.

While Spencer doesn’t have a specific diversity initiative, the foundation is proud of its work of identifying scholarship recipients from historically underrepresented groups.

“For the risk management and insurance industry to be able to evolve and to reach our potential, we’re going to have to have all types of people at the table,” said Nomvete. “We need to have people from different backgrounds, gender, ethnicity, ability. We need to have different people at the table that are making decisions for the various companies within our industry. And so I think that’s why it’s critical for us to start investing in that young and diverse talent now.”

By attending RIMS, students from competing teams get a chance to network with insurance and risk management professionals in addition to competing for a cash prize. Those connections could prove invaluable as they embark on a career in the industry.

“Most people in this industry are so grateful for the rewarding career that they’ve had that they’re happy to give back,” said Miller. “We have individuals who have created their own scholarship with their own funding. And that to me makes it easy to go out and sell insurance as a career because you know what a welcoming community these students are coming into, that there’s that many people that care enough to invest in the future.”

Topics
Talent
Training Development