Nine Students Awarded Big 'I' Invest Scholarships

Nine New York state high school students recently received national recognition and monetary awards through the InVEST scholarship program.

InVEST is the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s education program for students interested in careers in the financial services industry. Scholarships help prepare students for insurance-related jobs through high school and college hands-on classes.

The New York state winners are as follows:

The student awarded the $2,000 amount is Molly Parker, Dryden High School in Dryden. Recipient of the $1,500 scholarship is Robinson LeViere, Dryden High School. Those awarded the $1,000 scholarships are Amy LaLonde and Britney White, both students from Dryden High School and Deryk Carr, Groton High School, Groton. Students recognized with $500 scholarships include Lynne Foley, West Genesee High School in Camillus; Daniel Gray, Groton High School; Ethan Phelps, McGraw High School in McGraw and Ann Messinger, Charles O. Dickerson High School, Trumansburg.

Scholarship candidacy includes writing an essay between 500 words and 600 words in length that allows the student to describe themselves, their intended benefit from InVEST participation and their education plans and InVEST’s influence on those plans.

InVEST will award $60,000 to high school and community college students throughout its nationwide scholarship program. New York’s 2008 awardees received a total of $8,500 and the Dryden InVEST program winners were bestowed with $5,500—nearly 10 percent of the scholarship funds.

Dryden Mutual Insurance Company is one of the reasons for its local high school’s success. The commitment to the InVEST program reflects in the Dryden Mutual staff—25 percent of them are former InVEST students. During the past 15 years, Dryden Mutual formed a partnership with the Dryden, McGraw and Groton High Schools by providing InVEST classes.

One original purpose of the program was to establish a “community education effort for young consumers,” recalled Robert Baxter, Dryden Mutual CEO and general manager. The program soon evolved into internships and employment. “We offered some of them jobs and paid their college tuition,” said Baxter.

Dee Macheda, curriculum development, design & instruction specialist for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York Inc., is the state’s coordinator for InVEST. She feels both the insurance industry and student benefits from the InVEST program. “Adults as well as students unfamiliar with the insurance industry tend to find it boring; a career of shuffling papers. That misconception is soon corrected when these young people realize that many aspects of their lives are affected by insurance—such as music, sports and entertainment.”