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I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that ten weeks has passed since I began my ten-week internship. This summer has flown by and in just three short weeks I will be starting my Senior year of college at Florida State University.
First off, I would like to formally thank The Safegard Group, Inc. for providing me with the opportunity to increase my knowledge in such a professional atmosphere while home for the summer from Florida State University. I have learned a great deal regarding the insurance industry in my time here, and the first-hand experiences could not have been taught in a classroom. I would especially like to thank Michael Hermansen, Director of Operations, and Jen Ackerman, Vice President, for mentoring me throughout the summer and bettering Safegard’s internship program. I also want to thank Joe Abbonizio, Risk Control, for allowing me to tag along with him for a full day and see some of our clients’ job sites in Philly.
As stated in my bi-weekly blog posts, I was able to spend time with the Commercial Lines, Personal Lines, and Benefits departments. A large majority of my tasks and projects came from the Commercial Lines department, however. Most of these tasks involved using AMS, the Commercial Line’s computer filing program, so I have become pretty well-versed with inputting and finding data. Specifically, within AMS, I updated customer contact lists and vehicle registration numbers, added and edited certificate holders, and ensured accuracy within policies. I spent two weeks alone renewing policies and scanning them into AMS. I had the opportunity to sit in on renewal meetings with two of Safegard’s largest Commercial Lines clients.
The Personal Lines department also assigned me three projects: packing up old t-files and shipping them off-site, writing a research article about the assignment of benefits, and finally updating the client information template on Microsoft Word. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the assignment of benefits and writing the article about it. I learned how conniving companies can be and how it is possible to take advantage of insurance companies.
I was able to spend a fraction of my time with Bob Donato, CEO and founder of The Safegard Group. Bob was kind enough to take me out to lunch in Media one day and he answered any questions that I had. He also allowed me to shadow a safety meeting that took place with another large client.
The most valuable lesson that I learned during my internship was that daily operations in an office setting run much smoother when co-workers are not afraid to ask each other for help. Nobody has all of the answers, and when dealing with clients it is important for insurance brokers to gather as much information as possible to be prepared. Discussions are almost required beforehand amongst the Safegard team in order to ensure that the client is fully aware of the situation. I must have asked Courtney Smith, Account Assistant and last year’s summer intern, for help twenty times and she was always more than happy to lend a hand.
I will always be grateful that I had the opportunity to live with my grandparents for a summer and work 35 hours a week while learning the business. Safegard is an incredibly well-run company with dedicated, selfless employees. I would be lucky to call myself one of those employees one day in the future. As I head back to Florida State University, I will appreciate all I learned at The Safegard Group and I have no doubt I will use what I learned in my careers in the future.