After being notified that they have placed first and second in the IRUA 2017 Scholars Essay competition, our winners expressed their thanks as follows:
First Place Winner: Tanner Sowa
“To be published in the Journal of Reinsurance is very exciting for me, and so is the scholarship!” “Thank you IRUA once again for this opportunity.”
Mr. Sowa attended and graduated from the University of Connecticut. He is now an MSBA candidate at Wake Forest University. He interned at Aspen Re.
Second Place Winner: Patrick Levandoski
“I genuinely appreciate everything the IRUA Scholars program is providing me. It is going to be able to open a lot of doors and opportunities for me.”
Mr. Levandoski attends the University of Georgia in the Risk Management and Insurance & Real Estate School and expects to graduate in December 2017. He interned at Crum & Forster in Atlanta and was eligible for IRUA’s Scholars Program since Crum & Forster is a corporate affiliate of IRUA member, Odyssey Re. IRUA membership extends to all members within a corporate family of companies.
Each year, the IRUA hosts a Scholars Essay program. To be eligible, candidates must intern at a member or affiliate IRUA company. Interns must first complete and submit an application since for tax reasons only U.S. citizens and individuals legally permitted to work in the United States are eligible for the program.
Once approved a 2-3,000 word essay on a reinsurance/insurance themed topic must be submitted by September 1st of each year. The IRUA Scholars Committee will review the essays submitted and determine the winners of an award, the number and monetary value of which will be decided each year. The goal is for winners to be announced by mid-October each year.
For more information regarding the Scholars Program, please contact Jerry Wallis, IRUA Executive Director, at jwallis@irua.org
**NOTE: The specifics of the Scholars Program are subject to change at any time by either the Scholars Committee or the Board of Directors.
