Major / Program: Risk Management/MIS

 

Derek DeKoning spent a lot of his free time this summer—10–15 hours a week, he estimates—helping to establish Butler’s new MJ Student-Run Insurance Company. The payback: By the time DeKoning graduates, he will have made four Butler-paid trips to Bermuda, where the company is licensed.

“You can’t complain about that,” he said with a smile.

DeKoning came to Butler from Atlanta, Georgia, as an Exploratory Business major. As he took classes, he began to select majors, starting with Management Information Systems. He knew something about risk management—his father is in reinsurance—so he had exposure to the industry. But it wasn’t until taking Professor Zach Finn’s class creating the “captive” insurance company, which insures University-owned properties such as the live mascot Trip and the Holcomb Observatory telescope, that he found his place.

“Insurance is a great industry to be in, and my experience at Butler has given me so much real-world experience, both through my internships and my experience with the captive, that it should be a big advantage for me,” he said.

Since coming to Butler, DeKoning interned at a suburban Atlanta software company called Concurrent and the cyber-insurance company INSUREtrust. In fall 2017, he interned at M.J. Schuetz Insurance Services Inc. in downtown Indianapolis. He also is an active member in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and works a part-time job at Woodstock Country Club.

DeKoning said he’s still deciding what he wants to do after graduation—perhaps work for a brokerage or independent insurance agency, or maybe do something in captive management. “Within risk management and insurance there’s so many different career paths that you can take,” he said.

But overall, he said, “I’ve just been thrilled with the environment Butler has provided and the class sizes. The professors I’ve had have been really dedicated to what they’re doing. Butler was my top choice on my list of schools and I’m glad to have been able to come here and end up in the Program I’m in.”