Bowie State One of Two HBCUs to Attend Specialty Insurance Symposium

Maguire Academy for Risk Management and Insurance Opens Doors to Industry

MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Saxon, jsaxon@bowiestate.edu, 301-860-3607

(BOWIE, Md.) – A Bowie State University delegation featuring College of Business students, faculty and university administration travelled to Chicago on March 23-24 for a management and insurance conference, where they learned about e specialty insurance and unconventional risk analysis to help position students to diversify this lucrative industry.  

William Roberts, executive director of the new Maguire Academy for Insurance and Risk Management at Bowie State, was joined by risk management students Kobe Brown, Serena Nwosisi, Lameia Cobley and Marcus Campbell to attend the Wholesale Surplus and Specialty Lines Insurance Symposium.This specialty insurance conference, enabled the students to learn about the latest trends in risk management around unconventional situations, such as what goes into insuring specialized aircraft for commercial use. 

“When our students interview for these jobs that usually go to white males and females, our students will be able to compete,” said Roberts. “Some of those jobs include risk manager, risk analyst, underwriter, claims manager and insurance fraud investigator.” 

This is first time Bowie State received an invitation tothe symposium in its twenty-year history, and the university was one of two HBCUs to attend the conference, along with Alcorn State University. Roberts said BSU’s participation in the conference falls in line with the Racing to Excellence goalsset by President Aminta Breaux, and he hopes exposing the students to another view of the insurance world encourages them to jump into an industry that is desperately lacking in diversity. According to Roberts, African Americans represents about two percent of professionals working in the insurance industry. 

“This market has been predominantly white for a long time,” said Roberts. “The reason Dr. Breaux wanted me to bring it to Bowie State is because our students need to impact this.” 

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