"Invest congratulates the students — representing 13schools — who earned scholarships this year," said Lindsey Shank,Invest board chair and operations manager at Hull & Co., in arelease. (Photo: Shutterstock)

The nonprofit Invest, a classroom-to-career education programfor the insurance industry, announced it awarded $29,500 inscholarships to 22 students pursuing insurance-related degrees.

In affiliation with the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers ofAmerica, Invest works in high school and collegeclassrooms across the U.S. to educate, train, and attract the nextgeneration of insurance professionals.

"Independent agents and brokers shouldn't leave recruiting tochance. They should be intentional," Peter van Aartrijk, Investboard member and principal of Aartrijk, toldPropertyCasualty360. "They need every generation of workersrepresented in their firms, especially at sales and service levelpositions where customers tend to prefer interacting with peopleplus or minus five years of their age.

"Invest has been building a pipeline of talentedrecruits, and it's up to insurance professionals to embracethem, mentor them, and challenge them. The next generation also canreverse-mentor older workers in the agency with knowledge andcomfort about new technologies, for example. And, if you're anowner looking to sell, merge, or partner in the next five to 10years — as so many are — keeping your talent strong is an excellentway to prepare for the future and create more value."

Scholarship recipients

To apply for the 200 scholarships, students from around the U.S.submitted essays detailing how Invest influenced their educationalplans. The applicants also answered questions about a real-worldinsurance case study.

Invest board member judges selected recipients based on thequality of their essays as well as their grade-pointaverages and extracurricular activities. The scholarship checks,which were funded through corporate and direct contributions, willbe mailed directly to each student's institute of higher educationto be used for educational expenses.

The 2020 scholarship winners from Florida, NewYork, California, Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania include:

Related: 

• Saint Joseph's University wins 2020 risk managementchallenge
• Investing in future surplus linesprofessionals
• How colleges, carriers are rising above theinsurance talent gap