Insights

Understand the conference value for those still considering entering the profession.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Interviews with the Student Scholarship Recipients from the 2022 Event

URMIA asked the 2022 student annual conference scholarship recipients to share what they took away from the Indianapolis event. Matt Friedberg, a student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ, and Zane Smith, a student at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX, talked about what impressed them the most.

Q: What was most valuable about your annual conference experience?

Career advice and networking were the two aspects of the conference that stood out the most for the two students. “The most valuable part about the conference for me was getting career advice from so many professionals who have a passion for helping students,” said Smith.

“It was so great to meet people from all over the country who worked in different areas of the risk management industry. There is so much value in learning about various career opportunities within the career and what it takes to be successful in each one of them,” shared Friedberg.

Q: Describe an “ah-ha” moment for you during the conference.

“As soon as the conference activity began and I started meeting people,” shared Friedberg, “I realized how many careers exist in risk management. I spoke with many people in higher education risk management who worked as chief risk officers, risk directors, and safety officers and I talked with people in private insurance companies, too, including underwriters, brokers, claims adjusters, and countless other positions.”

Smith shared a learning from a session he attended, “My ‘ah-ha’ moment was during a session on social media. The panelists were discussing how social media can be used as a risk management tool and it really opened my eyes on how necessary it is to bring Gen Z talent into the risk management field because we grew up with the technologies that a lot of risks and risk management strategies are now based on.”

Q: What motivated you to apply for an URMIA conference scholarship?

“Leading a student organization for insurance students on my campus has given me a passion for both higher education and risk management,” said Smith. “I applied because I was excited to learn more about the intersection of those two topics.”

For Friedberg, attending the conference as seen as an extension of what he has already learned. He shared, “As a college student, I was eager to learn about all of the career opportunities in business and network with as many people as possible. The more I learned about risk management, particularly insurance brokerage, the more fascinated I became. Attending a risk management conference seemed like the best possible way to continue learning about insurance and risk management.”