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November 24, 2009

Higher Education: Student finds success at internship

Two highlights of my job are visiting with University of Louisiana College of Business alumni and sharing success stories of our current students.

During the past month, I鈥檝e had the pleasure of doing both during our annual fund drive for the college.

We鈥檝e been calling alumni across the United States to visit with them about their successes and to share our successes with them. I鈥檝e been amazed at the warmth of the reception and the stories of success that have been shared.

One successful graduate recalled many outstanding faculty members who had significantly impacted his life. He asked, very sincerely, 鈥淎re your faculty still pushing students to do their best and expecting more of them than they expect of themselves?鈥�

Fortunately, I had the following success story to share in response to this question.

Elizabeth Ragland, a risk management and insurance senior, was recently named the Intermediaries and Reinsurance Underwriters Association Intern of the Year. She spent the summer interning for Signet Star Reinsurance in Greenwich, Conn., and Axis Reinsurance in New York as part of a program through the IRU.

She was in an elite group selected for the position, and then she stood out by being selected as the Intern of the Year.

Her selection as Intern of the Year was based on a competitive paper she wrote about the experience titled 鈥淐hanging the Face, Preserving the Purpose: a look at restructuring the Louisiana homeowners insurance market.鈥�

The paper will be published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of Reinsurance.

Ragland will earn a $2,500 scholarship and attend IRU鈥檚 Spring Conference in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., March 28-30.

When she first arrived in New York for training, Ragland told her mentor and faculty advisor, Christine Berry, that everyone was surprised at how much she knew about the insurance industry.

That鈥檚 not surprising, given we have one of only a few programs in the world that specialize in surplus lines and reinsurance. Certainly, our faculty have encouraged, motivated, mentored and brought out the best in Ragland, who responded to our high expectations with national success.

We鈥檙e all proud of our current and past students and will continue to encourage students to do more than they thought they could. I feel confident a future dean will enjoy making the phone call to Ragland to hear of her professional and personal accomplishments.

I also feel confident that she will fondly recall the outstanding education she received from 网曝门 faculty.

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