Katie School of Insurance & Risk Management
Alumni Testimonials
“Well I wanted to go to a public school in Illinois, and the College of Business attracted me. I started off as a Marketing major, and then I got a scholarship to join the Katie School of Insurance program. And after I learned more about the industry and the Katie School I was really interested so I decided to pick up a double major in Marketing and Insurance.”
Eric Pan
“My junior year I was first introduced to the Katie School of Insurance and Debbie Babcock, who is the Associate Director. And Debbie really talked to me about the different opportunities within the Katie School. I started out in Accounting – didn’t like that, and when I heard about the opportunities within the Katie School of Insurance, I transferred over to an Insurance major, and then joined Gamma Iota Sigma and the Katie School of Insurance.”
Kevin Conner
“The Katie School was amazing for the fact that we used the CPCU books, which the industry uses also so you got to learn from what the industry is learning from, so you knew you were getting a good education in that way. And also, the Katie School had Jim Jones and Debbie Babcock if you had any questions about anything. Personal, school-wise, industry-wise – they always had an answer for you, always willing to talk no matter when you needed to talk whether it was a Friday afternoon or whenever, and they would just help me through the way.”
Kerri Mathews
“For me, the professors really made everything into everyday occurrences. We weren’t talking about the things that might happen or could happen; we were talking about something that happened yesterday. We were talking about culture as it’s happening around us. So it really got me into it where I could just watch the news and that was what we were talking about.”
Jason Engle
“I had the opportunity to travel to a few places. I went to Philadelphia for a Gamma Iota Sigma National Conference. I went to Chicago for a RIMS Conference, and then I went to San Diego for the RIMS Conference my senior year.”
Eric Pan
“My first day at Marsh McLennan, I went there kind of nervous – kind of like everybody did. But I remember on my first day, I stopped at Starbucks on the way, right across the street, and I happened to meet the Risk Manager of Pepsi-Cola that had talked in our class three months beforehand. And he said, ‘Oh you’re in the industry?’, and I said, ‘Actually, today is my first day.’ And he said, ‘Oh, you’ll do great; you know what you’re doing.’ And I walked in there with the confidence knowing that, yes, I did learn what I needed to know. And I walked in there and I knew what I needed to do. And I did it.”
Kerri Mathews