Risk Management Student Earns Prestigious Internship

MONROE, La., March 15 -- The University of Louisiana at Monroe issued the following news release:

Lynden Lyles of Alexandria, a junior in Risk Management and Insurance at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, has been selected for the prestigious National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices summer internship program.

The NAPSLO Internship Program annually awards paid summer internships to college students interested in an insurance career.

Candidates are college juniors or seniors majoring in Insurance, Risk Management and Actuarial Science.

Lyles is one of only 13 students in the U.S. to receive the internship this year.

Interns spend nine weeks with NAPSLO member firms learning all aspects of the surplus lines insurance industry.

Lyles will intern for a NAPSLO member insurance company, James River Insurance in Richmond, Virginia for five weeks, and with a NAPSLO member wholesale broker, Hull & Company, in Tampa, Florida for four weeks.

She will gain experience in all areas of the surplus lines industry, including: underwriting, claims, accounting, marketing, and regulatory compliance.

Lyles will receive a competitive salary from her host firms and NAPSLO will provide a stipend, cover travel, housing, and various other related expenses.

At the end of the summer, based on evaluations and recommendations from the host firms, selected interns are invited to attend the NAPSLO Annual Convention in the fall.

The interns are interviewed at the convention and one is selected as the Joseph H. Blades Memorial Scholar, and will receive an additional three-week internship in London the following summer.

A second intern will receive an additional three-week internship in Bermuda the following summer.

According to Dr. Christine Berry, Director of the Risk Management and Insurance Studies Program, approximately half of the graduates from ULM's Risk Management and Insurance program now work in the surplus lines industry.

"Lynden is a talented and extremely hard-working student who has already developed a passion for the surplus lines insurance industry," said Berry.

"The NAPSLO internship will likely launch a phenomenal career for Lynden in the excess and surplus lines marketplace."

NAPSLO established the internship program in 1981 to interest students in the Surplus Lines Industry, which handles unique, unusual, or hard to place risks.

Since its inception, over 150 students have participated in the program and over half of the former interns are currently working in the insurance industry.

NAPSLO is a national trade association representing the surplus lines industry and the wholesale insurance marketing system. The surplus lines market plays an important role in providing insurance for hard to place risks.

Examples of such risks include aviation, product liability, inland marine, ocean marine, oil and gas exposures, coastal property, earthquake, and professional liability.

ULM's Risk Management and Insurance Program, which is one of only three programs in the world that requires a course on surplus lines, has a long history of NAPSLO interns with more than a dozen students having earned the honor of NAPSLO internship over the last 20 years.

TNS JB47120316 gv-3807601 61GemaViana