Outreach
Read our new Katie School Outreach Blog here!
Promoting Diversity
ISU has partnered with College Greenlight, a platform started by Cappex in 2012, to further its diversity recruitment efforts. College Greenlight is the leading online college and scholarship search platform focused on the needs of first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students. Greenlight’s 275,000 registered students come from its network of more than 1,200 college access organizations and other community based organizations (CBOs), who use the site to help their students research colleges, learn about new colleges, organize their college lists, and find scholarships to fund their education. In addition, organizations can use College Greenlight’s counselor tools to track and measure student progress. In the state of Illinois, Greenlight’s network includes more than 40,000 students and 130 organizations, including Chicago Scholars, One Goal, Collegiate Scholars Program, Illinois Tech Global Leaders Program, and ISAC.
Through the Greenlight platform, ISU is able to send targeted messages to students who meet our recruitment parameters (e.g. grades, area of interest). Through its organizational network, College Greenlight has cultivated an incredibly diverse pool of students (nationally more than 70% of students are African-American or Hispanic/Latino). By using Greenlight’s student messaging features, ISU is able to generate new interest from students from underrepresented communities. College Greenlight also helps connect ISU’s recruitment team to college access organizations/CBOs who can become pipelines of diverse students. More and more colleges across the country are seeing CBOs as sources of diverse talent and looking to establish partnerships with these organizations to recruit high-achieving underrepresented students who will be successful on campus. In 2016, ISU hosted a very successful “Diversity in Insurance” event, which was attended by several organizations from College Greenlight’s CBO community.
Chicago-area high school students visit the Katie School
The Katie School partners with InVEST, a grassroots program that teams educators with representatives from the insurance industry to provide exposure for insurance career opportunities, to host students of underrepresented groups in higher education from various Chicago area high schools for an annual Illinois State University campus visit. Most recently, students from Chicago Vocational and Thornton Township High School visited on April 27, 2017.
The students spent the day experiencing college life and getting an invaluable opportunity to network with insurance students and professionals. They ate lunch with current Katie School students and heard testimonials on the benefits of pursuing a degree in insurance. Additionally, an independent insurance agent answered questions on the difference between independent and captive agents and discussed the opportunities in sales. After stopping for a quick photo op with Reggie Redbird, the students toured the ISU quad including the State Farm Hall of Business. Finally, representatives from COUNTRY Financial of various backgrounds chatted with students on the wide breadth of career opportunities available in the insurance industry.
See photos from the event here!
High School Student Testimonial:
"Before the ISU/Katie School presentation I knew I wanted to be in the insurance field but I wasn't sure what profession I would like to take on. For 6 weeks I've been learning about future job careers but insurance grabbed my attention. I started to look into insurance more and more but the Katie School Insurance presentation sealed the deal. The most fascinating part was the Country Companies Insurance presentation. When the underwriter came to my table I knew that's what I wanted to be. Katie School's presentation opened my eyes to opportunities that wouldn't have fallen in my lap. I hope my peers, younger siblings, and future children will have this opportunity to interact with Katie School."
High School Staff Testimonial:
"Bringing in the professionals really sealed the deal. Each was warm, genuine, knowledgeable and polite. The round table rotations permitted the students to interact with a variety of them in a private setting. This ISU/Katie school presentation provided students a totally different vantage point. From the IT intern who had simply gained interest from a seminar, to the Public Relations representative of Country Companies, students learned about the many career paths ISU and the Katie School offer."
To learn more about the Katie School's commitment to diversity or if you have interest in organizing future campus visits, please contact Jim Jones at jrjone2@ilstu.edu.
Partnering with the Katie School
The Katie School partners with the Insurance Education Institute to offer an annual program for high school guidance counselors and career advisors on the many different career paths for students in the insurance and risk management industry.
A mentorship program established in cooperation with the local chapter of CPCU helps students prepare for careers in the industry.
Continuing education seminars and management development programs are offered to assist the industry.
