ISU Insurance Program Lands Scholarship, Research Money

A gift of more than $85,000 from State Farm Insurance Co. will help fund research and scholarships at Indiana State University’s insurance and risk management program.

Nearly $61,000 of that money will fund the research of ISU professor Mary Ann Boose, who will study best practices in risk management and insurance education. The rest will go to scholarships for students majoring or minoring in the program. The check was presented on ISU’s Terre Haute, Ind., campus Friday.

Boose began studying “best practices” at institutions that teach insurance and risk management during a sabbatical last semester. She surveyed institutions on everything from curriculum to their involvement within the industry; from their scholarship programs to their internship programs.

The scholarship money was not included in Boose’s original proposal to State Farm. But State Farm’s Jack Watts, who also sits on ISU’s Insurance Advisory Council, knew there was a need for scholarship money and suggested the proposal be amended.