EAST VILLAGE — Joseph Jackson and Elijah Morgan are both high school freshmen, but they can discuss insurance industry terminology as easily as popular music, cool clothes, and sports.
The two 14-year-olds from Far Rockaway, Queens, are students at Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School, where they spend one day each week interning at Vantage Risk Companies’ Manhattan offices.
“I like coming into the workspace,” Elijah said. “We learned a lot from our supervisors. (Assistant Vice President) Chris Hall taught us about underwriting, claims, and financial statements — stuff like that.”
More Cristo Rey students will experience similar insurance industry opportunities with a new workforce-development initiative unveiled on Oct. 29. It was created in partnership between Cristo Rey Brooklyn, St. John’s University (SJU), and Student Sponsor Partners (SSP).
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The announcement — attended by Joseph, Elijah, and eight classmates — was held at SJU’s Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science. The location is an SJU satellite campus on Astor Place in the East Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.
The new initiative, called “InsureFutures,” will provide 20 Cristo Rey students like Joseph and Elijah with paid work-study opportunities at leading insurance companies throughout New York City.
Vantage Risk is one of the nine companies joining the partnership. The others are AEGIS Insurance Services, Inc.; AXA XL; Chubb; Everest Group, Ltd.; Marsh; Starr; The Hartford; and The Travelers Companies, Inc.
The program will also encourage students to continue their insurance education at the Maurice R. Greenberg School.
Providing that educational path to St. John’s was a motivating reason for creating InsureFutures, said Bill Janetschek, a philanthropist and chair of St. John’s Board of Trustees.
Janetschek is a retired partner and chief financial officer for the global investment firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., and a longtime supporter of SJU, his alma mater (Class of 1984).
He has also supported SSP, which, for 40 years, has provided mentorships to help New York City youth in underserved communities escape the cycles of poverty. To that end, SSP has connected thousands of students in all five boroughs with sponsors who fund scholarships and education programs, mentors, and tutors.
During the program’s unveiling on Oct. 29, Janetschek described meetings with Debra De Jesus-Vizzi, SSP’s executive director, trying to figure out how to get more SSP students interested in insurance-industry education and careers.
“The pieces that we were missing were the internships and to get insurance companies or professional organizations on board over an eight-year journey (of high school and college),” Janetschek said.
About a year ago, he learned about Cristo Rey Brooklyn, one of 41 high schools in a nationwide network that helps provide Catholic educations for students from families of limited economic means. Baked into the Cristo Rey strategy are the one-day-a-week internships for students at local businesses. “Once I heard about them and their program,” Janetschek said, “I thought, ‘This is the missing link.’ ”
Janetschek and De Jesus-Vizzi next worked to create InsureFutures with SJU officials in the Peter J. Tobin College of Business and its Greenberg School of Risk Management, as well as Alan Garcia, a vice president at Cristo Rey Brooklyn who coordinates the school’s corporate work-study program.
The nine participating insurance companies subsequently joined the initiative.
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Now, Janetschek said, all the partners must keep the faith because it will take that eight-year journey through high school and college to gauge the program’s success.
“It’s tough to tell a 16- and 17-year-old that insurance is exciting,” Janetschek said. “But if they work in an insurance company and they see it’s a pretty dynamic industry … you can’t even put a price tag on that.”
Joseph and Elijah are already sold on the program.
“It’s a great way to get experience,” Joseph said. “When you actually step into work, you’re not going to be completely clueless.”