Sep 243 min read

InsurTech Ohio Spotlight with Florida Rwejuna

Florida Rwejuna is an Honor Student at Ohio Dominican University and a member of the Insurance and Risk Management Academy (IRMA), providing students with hands-on experience to empower and equip them with the education, tools and skills they need to pursue opportunities in the insurance field. Florida was interviewed by Chris Luiz, Director of Solutions Architecture and Customer Success at Monitaur and Cleveland Founder at InsurTech Ohio.

Florida, why have you chosen a career in insurance?

“I came into it with no idea of what a career in insurance looked like. You hear how it’s bad and mandatory - everything but a career. I really didn't think that through. My school has a program called the Insurance Risk Management Academy (IRMA). Through our career center, they sent out emails offering internship opportunities. I went to have a conversation with the director. After our conversation, I expressed my interest but wasn’t sure how a computer science major would fit with the insurance industry. He told me not to be skeptical but to be open-minded and ready to learn because he has had folks who have come to him before in a similar position as I was.

Once I got into IRMA, I had the opportunity to learn from guest speakers from different companies, agencies and carriers. It gave me an overall view of how insurance works and how it helps people. Through IRMA, I’ve also had opportunities to volunteer, go on field trips to companies like Encova or Grange and shadow software engineers performing tasks that I could potentially do in the future.”

Can you tell me more about your experience with IRMA and how it is structured?

“IRMA has been wonderful. Our Director of the Program is Joe Njeru, who works hand-in-hand with an independent agent from Encova, Mike Manning. There’s typically a group of 12 students/members, depending on the semester. We have weekly meetings that can include field trips, guest speaker series, dissecting professional development books, analyzing different books of business or collaborative data projects.

One major project included a collaborative data project with 1000+ queries, which was aimed at increasing the marketing spectrum of new businesses for Secured Advantage by using effective policy management techniques, claims and insurance products. The team of 12 people came from different disciplines, which offered a diverse outlook of the project and was significant for progress and achieving the common objective.”

Can you tell me about your experience interning at an agency over the summer?

“I interned with Hall-Green Agency through IRMA, and I had to develop a multi-criteria benchmarking insurance product model where we had to compare and contrast different products offered by five different carriers. These products were mainly personal lines, but they ranged from auto to homeowners to personal umbrellas.

What are the discounts that they offer? What are the coverages and endorsements? What are the restrictions and exclusions that are involved? This is used to help agents make that decision quicker and see what favors each customer best. It was a big learning curve for myself. I came in not knowing how to build a benchmarking model. Through meetings with the Project Director, Ted Rusinoff, I got connected to designated carriers' sales personnel, and I received insightful feedback from them that helped me build the model.”

Can you tell me about your experience helping at Scout InsurTech this year?

“Going to Scout InsurTech was absolutely a blast. I got to meet the Scout InsurTech team as well as a lot of agencies and carriers. My highlight from that conference was from the people that I met and the connections I made. There were so many startups there, and each startup that you talked to had exciting endeavors. Some were working on telematics, leak proofs or even predictive models. My conversations with carriers like Nationwide and Westfield helped me become interested in machine learning.

It was inspiring to witness different people come in with different ideas to see how they could help the industry grow because the bar continues to rise day after day. I know disasters won't stop, so we need more predictive models to come through.”

How would you recommend other young people learn more about insurance?

“It requires open-mindedness, curiosity and a willingness to learn. At the end of the day, you just have to choose whether you like it or not. It's best to at least learn about it. Joining chapters like Gamma Iota Sigma or participating in webinars or volunteer opportunities can help you learn more about insurance. Another way is seeking mentorship through networking events. It can give you clarity on whether you're on the right path or not, and it will also ground you by allowing you to see yourself in the future and as an early professional.”