Kajuan Madden-McAfee initially planned to take his degree in applied mathematics to the classroom to pursue a career as a math teacher. But as he approached the end of his undergraduate years at Ferrum College, he started to consider other fields where he could use his penchant for numbers, like becoming an actuary.
His summer internship experience with Arch only reinforced his desire to pursue a career in the insurance industry.
“If I become an actuary or not, I still see myself working in the insurance industry, whether that has something to do with analytics, something to do with business strategy,” Kajuan said, listing a few career possibilities. “I know there’s a lot of opportunity out there.”
An Eye-Opening Internship
Kajuan was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Agents of Transformation (AoT) internship program in, which was designed to expose young, diverse, professional talent to the array of career opportunities within the insurance industry. Based out of the Operations organization, the seven AoT interns learned not only about the industry, but also the numerous mid- and back-office operations required to transform and propel forward a multi-billion dollar, global insurance company.
In turn, Arch received valuable insights from the students’ fresh, diverse perspectives in order to continue to attract top talent into the business.
“The Agents of Transformation internship program is an investment to attract and develop top performing insurance professionals of the future,” said Pauline Dowling, the internship Program Manager.
“This program embodies Arch’s commitment both to education and to increasing diversity of talent in the organization.”
“Our inaugural class of Agents leveraged each other’s unique strengths to succeed in each challenge, and they impressed all who worked with them by collectively demonstrating an insatiable curiosity and passion for learning.
“I can also think of no better example of Arch’s core Value of Teamwork, for the success of this program was the direct result of over 75 Arch team members from multiple departments. We had representation from all segments of the business contribute to the learning experience of the interns. We are filled with gratitude to all who made AoT not only a possibility, but a priority.”
Grow, Team!
The inaugural cohort included seven upperclassmen or recent college graduates — many from historically Black colleges or universities (HBCUs) such as Johnson C. Smith University, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University and Fisk University — with diverse majors representing business, finance, arts and sciences.
Students rotated weekly through the six operations of The Arch Management System (AMS), Information Technology, Legal, Facilities and Real Estate, Global Services Organization, and Branding and Communications learning firsthand from the leaders of each department though the form of micro-lectures, e-learning, exercises and team-based problem solving. Each week interns prepared and presented a creative summative presentation to leadership on their key learnings from the field.
What We Learned
The summer program rounded out with the interns selecting one operation of choice to delve into more deeply, spending two weeks embedded with that department learning on-the-job and gaining hands-on experience. The 10-week internship culminated with a capstone project in which the cohort creatively presented their thoughts and suggestions of how Arch could attract young, diverse talent into the organization.
They also individually presented their top learnings from the Agents of Transformation experience, how they saw their skills fitting into the insurance industry and closed with 60 seconds of “advice to the CEO” — which they were able to deliver to Marc Grandisson in person.
Many of the interns said the overall experience opened their eyes to the possibilities for a career in insurance and offered them invaluable networking and learning opportunities.
“This internship has given me so much knowledge into the corporate world and where I can go with my career as well as confidence in myself,” said Simon Fahr, another AoT intern. “It’s invaluable, and compared to the internships I hear my peers are in, this one definitely takes the cake.”
Front row (left to right): Kamari Bell, Pauline Dowling, Aleena Oakley, Cana Pinchback
Back Row (left to right): Turiq Bruce, Simon Fahr, Kajuan Madden-McAfee, Tyler John
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