The Schools Outreach Committee has done an amazing job in the past year. Though it was impossible to actually visit any of the schools with continuing COVID concerns, members of the Committee managed to do some excellent virtual presentations last semester on Careers in Insurance to all senior high school students. With two professionals ‘linked’ to each school, the presentations that they make are interesting and very informative, so a lot of students are keen to learn more about careers in insurance thereafter.

As previously reported, surveys are taken both before

BFIS regularly communicates with all its scholars during the academic year. We like to meet with them over the Christmas break and again once the Spring semester has finished as this gives us an opportunity to check on their grades, talk about how things have gone for them and ensure that all is well.

In the last couple of years the meetings have necessarily had to be virtual and we miss actually being able to meet and chat with the scholars, in-person meetings generally tending to build better relationships.

Evidently the students

The BFIS Mentoring programme has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Not only do we provide mentors for all our scholars, but mentoring is offered to any student interested in a career in the insurance industry who approaches us.

Following an initial meeting to find out a bit more about them, relevant information is then passed on to professionals on our Mentoring list who select a student to mentor. 

Keen interest was shown from a number of professionals who learned about our Mentoring programme through a new Mentoring booklet recently

BFIS Internships provide students with an amazing opportunity to learn much about the insurance industry in a very short space of time. They are intensive (2-3 week) structured sessions with students visiting a range of companies for a morning or afternoon so they get a broad overview of the industry from the broking and underwriting perspective to the legal side of things. It provides a real learning curve and students who have absolutely no knowledge of insurance gain a much greater understanding.

After 2 years of not being able to offer

BFIS has maintained close ties with a number of universities over the years, including UGA who organise a student visit every year and who kindly extend the invitation to one or two Bermudian scholars to join them.

As it happens, Shane White, a BFIS Argo scholar studying Business at Aston University in the UK, was available as he is doing a Co-op programme and has been working at Markel this year. Markel kindly agreed that he could participate and he has now provided a summary of his experience.

“BELCO, Ed Broking,

BFIS was first founded in 1996 by Brian Hall who, along with Brian O’Hara and other industry leaders, realised that there were insufficient Bermudians in the workforce to meet burgeoning insurance company staffing requirements. They decided to create a Foundation which would provide funding to ensure that young Bermudians gained the further education and qualifications necessary to enter the industry.

Through their efforts, a large number of companies pledged their support of this initiative and an Endowment Fund was created. Some of those original donors still support BFIS to this day

Please join us for a night of fun prizes and friendly competition at the BFIS Quiz Night being hosted by Robin Hood on March 17, 2022.

This event is open to ALL and serves as a fundraiser for our annual BFIS Alumni Scholarship. We look forward to reconnecting with many of you and welcome any new persons looking to engage with the BFIS family. 

With that said, select your team mates wisely and we’ll see you soon!

Orbis Investments announces the opening of applications for their 2022 Summer Internships!” Any student with an interest in the  investment industry or are seeking a placement for summer 2022 are encouraged to apply. Deadline for applications is December 31, 2021. Please see all internship and application details here .

We are justly proud of the BFIS Mentoring programme which has been in existence since BFIS was first incorporated back in 1996.  In the 25 years since then we have provided mentors to literally thousands of students who have benefitted from being matched with some of the brightest and best professionals in the industry who have happily shared their knowledge and given guidance and advice to their mentees, steering them into careers in the industry. 

The continuation of Covid restrictions has meant that our in-person Networking events over the summer break

Despite continuing COVID issues, the scholarship application process went ahead as usual earlier this year. There was initial concern among award providers about low application numbers, and it seemed some students had changed their plans, but evidently many tended to wait until shortly before deadlines to apply and in the end most award providers reported receiving reasonable levels of applications. BFIS ended up being approximately 25% shy of usual levels. Out of 70 applications, 48 were shortlisted for the Scholarship Committee’s consideration, with 26 then selected for interview and 18

We are very pleased to report that members of the Schools Outreach Committee are doing a great job of going out to all the schools to talk to students about careers in insurance. Two professionals are ‘linked’ to each school and the group is currently in the process of organising presentations.

The presentation itself has been updated to ensure students are engaged and Committee members will also be helping students with other tasks such as essay writing, personal statements, etc.

The Committee is comprised mainly of BFIS Alumni and some new

We salute our 11 graduating scholars and wish them the very best of luck as they either move from full-time education into the corporate world or on to further post-graduate education. 

We are delighted that many of our alumni like to remain in close touch with BFIS, with a good number giving back by serving on our committees or becoming mentors themselves. What is even more notable is that several of them, as they move up the corporate ladder, serve on our Finance Committee and our Board.  It is an exciting

BFIS maintains close ties with its students and usually we meet them several times during the course of the year.  With restrictions in place, this has not been possible in the last year but we have nevertheless stayed in regular touch. Despite the various obstacles that they have encountered in 2020/21, most of our Scholars are doing well, managing to keep up their grades, whether doing in-person, hybrid classes or remote learning, and have learned to adjust to non-traditional methods of teaching. 

BFIS has 26 current scholars, 11 of who will

Thanks to all our donors (see below link), we were able to award scholarships to 13 students last year, despite COVID. Sadly, we were unable to hold an Awards Reception, always a highlight of the BFIS calendar. The reception provides a great opportunity for Donors, Advisory Trustees, Member Representatives, Board members and many other professionals to meet and chat with new and continuing BFIS scholars. We did manage to hold a very short open-air ceremony last August where we welcomed the new scholars into the BFIS Family.

Though 2020 was

Restrictions also put a halt during the past year to all our Networking events which are so popular with both high school and college students.  The sessions give students an amazing opportunity to meet in an informal atmosphere with professionals from different areas of the industry, with some strong connections being formed.

We were, however, able to host a successful virtual workshop for over 30 BFIS alumni in March on the topic of ‘Zoom to Success – How to Network in a Virtual World’. The event was hosted by Lorene

When COVID first appeared early last year, many were optimistic that it would be gone within a few months. It is unfortunate that some BFIS programmes had to be curtailed, including our Internships.  These are eagerly sought after by college students who benefit enormously from this short, intensive immersion into the industry, coming away with a far greater understanding of it all. Though greatly regretting having to cancel, we were sure that we could offer them this year but sadly, that was not to be.

Every year, thanks to AXA XL

Click here to see this excellent, seven minute video by VaShon Williams, a graduate of the Bermuda Institute and the recipient of the RenaissanceRe Undergraduate Scholarship, giving a step-by-step guide, with tips, on how to apply for a scholarship.