awareness and readiness for their students to enter the
workforce. Many students are choosing this versus a four-
year college degree now.”
“Board members serving are agents, company personnel
and industry service companies - talk about a group of
talented people who dedicate time, financial resources and
their talents. InVEST also has an amazing dedicated staff
to execute programs and a personal voice and face of the
organization on a day-to-day basis.”
While the InVEST program has steadily gained awareness
and support among Kansas companies and schools, Hower
said she’d like to see more.
Hower d efines her role as chairperson as a supportive one.
Among her tasks are making sure the program staff and the
board’s strategic plan align as well as presiding over three
board meetings each year. Hower also currently serves on
the program’s finance subcommittee.
“Overall, we discuss how to best promote InVEST, and
create awareness of how the program can help other
organizations and grow,” she said. “There are lots of
moving parts to InVEST right now. We are expanding
more and more into community colleges and career
development-type centers that are focusing on career
“Participation in the InVEST program by schools can
be as much as having an insurance mentor from the
community teach insurance classes in the high school
for one or two classes, to a teacher actually teaching the
InVEST curriculum for a whole semester,” she said. “This
can include setting up a mock insurance agency in the
school, and students learning the functions of all aspects
of running an insurance agency. This model has been very
effective in many states. We haven’t gotten there yet in
Kansas, but that is one goal past serving on the board that
I’d like to see happen.”
InVEST by the Numbers
10 Schools
792 Students
Interested in getting involved with InVEST?
www.investprogram.org
| March - April 2017 | KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER
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