Walker College of Business insurance and risk management students will compete in the upcoming PriSim Agency Management Competition, an online business simulation through which they will manage an insurance agency as a team.
The team from Appalachian State University will compete against teams from other nationally recognized colleges with insurance programs. Planned competitors include Florida State University, the University of Georgia, Illinois State University, Eastern Kentucky University and Olivet College.
The five-week simulation kicks off the first week of February and is scheduled to conclude February 27.
The competition is an initiative of InVEST, a school-to-work insurance program that works with high school and college educators to create insurance curriculum for their students. InVEST is a non-profit arm of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Inc. and is dedicated to improving insurance literacy in students and attracting new talent to the industry.
“InVEST gets students interested in insurance careers and gets them educated about the terminology and dynamics of the industry,” said David Semb, a partner at PriSim Business War Games Inc. and an adjunct professor in the MEM program at Northwestern University. “Teams from each college will compete in a head-to-head battle for market share and profit. They’ll work on their insurance business acumen and they’ll get a super-immersive experience of what it’s like to run an insurance agency. We’ll be running our Agency Challenge computerized business simulation.”
Strategic thinking is critical to the decisions made in the competition. Students will conduct an analysis of the business environment and then articulate the mission of their company. Each firm will begin the simulation at the same point, on a level playing field, and then will decide how to improve their performance and whether they want to design and develop products to enter new market segments.
Appalachian's team is coordinated by the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center and coached by faculty advisors as well as representatives from the Brantley Center's founding strategic partner, the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina. Learn more about the Brantley Center and insurance students at Appalachian on the Brantley Center website.
Appalachian business students to compete in national insurance simulation
