Free class offered by CU Denver Business School gives high school students preview of risk management and insurance field.
College is still two years away for Deanna Alter, who this fall will be a junior at Cherry Creek High School. Thanks to a free summer course offered by the CU Denver Business School, Alter is earning college credit and learning about an industry — risk management and insurance — that wasn’t on her career radar.
Alter is one of a dozen Denver-area high school students taking Careers in Risk Management, a one-credit course launched this year by the Business School’s Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) Program.
The course is open to recent high school graduates and incoming high school juniors and seniors. It is taught by lecturer Cindy Baroway, CPCU, M.Ed., AIC, who has more than 20 years experience in the field. In just the second meeting of the six-session class, Baroway took the students on a field trip to visit the chief marketing officer for HUB International Insurance Brokers & Consultants. Connections to the local business community abound at the CU Denver Business School, which maximizes student access to opportunity with its location in the heart of Colorado’s premier business district.
Alter made the most of that visit by setting up a follow-up meeting with the HUB executive. “The class has been amazing for me because I just had lunch with the insurance representative,” she said. “It’s great for making connections with people who are in the industry.”
Like Alter, other students enjoyed getting insight into RMI careers as well as an early glimpse of college life. Three students all recently graduated from Hinkley High School in Aurora: Jared Dolan, Juan Dedios Fernandez and Salvador Ramos. Dolan plans to major in finance or accounting and will start at CU Denver Business School this fall. So far, he also likes what he sees in the RMI program.
“I’m real eager,” Dolan said. “I just wanted to go (to college) as soon as I could.”
Ramos said he didn’t know much about the growing RMI field before the class. “But as I learned about all the jobs that go into the industry, I’m looking more into it (as a possible career).”
Sariah Jelks, who will be a senior this fall at the Denver School of Science and Technology, said the information she saw at school about the free college-credit course piqued her curiosity. “It sounded like something new to experience,” she said. “It’s kind of broadened my view of the world.”
Ajeyo Banerjee, PhD, director of the RMI Program, said the introductory class gets the high school students thinking about both risk management as a possible career as well as CU Denver as the university they’d like to attend. “The indirect payoff to us is they will already have one college credit, and that moves them toward CU Denver as a being a place to go to university,” he said.
Baroway said the students in the summer class have been “awesome.” “The questions they ask are intelligent and on point,” she said. “Clearly, they’re paying attention. Already, some of the guest speakers, who have spoken at other (CU Denver) classes, have said, ‘Wow, the questions they’re asking are great.’”
Baroway said exposure to college helps high school students get ideas about possible career paths. That in turn creates better focus when they start college, she said.
Baroway noted that local RMI business partners generously contributed to the class. “It’s a great way for them to give back to the community,” she said. “It’s allowed us to provide this class for free. That’s unique.”
