Eleven of Bermuda's brightest insurance and actuarial students were presented with scholarships from the Bermuda Foundation For Insurance Studies (BFIS) at a reception held on July 22 in the ACE Building, courtesy of The Ace Foundation.

Brian Hall, founder and chairman of BFIS, said: "This year we received our largest number of applicants for our Overseas Scholarships and the selection process was not easy.

"We are delighted to see the enthusiasm with which these young Bermudians are focused on succeeding in a very competitive world."

He went on to say that the support of the many corporate donors who have joined, and continue to join, BFIS has meant that they were able to increase the BFIS Scholarships this year to better meet the increasing costs of higher education.

He added that BFIS Overseas Scholarships were now $22,000 per year and BFIS Bermuda College Scholarships were $3,000 a year.

Mr. Hall said: "Our original concept was to ensure that Bermudians were able to enter what was even then a strong industry, and now with its rapid growth it is even more important to have in place resources, not only of scholarship funding, but methods to point those who want to enter the industry down the right path.

"The BFIS office has a strong network with insurance professionals who are more than willing to give advice to those who seek it and our Mentoring Programme for college students works very well in developing them professionally."

The Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies' purpose is to ensure that over time Bermuda's insurance companies have a pool of well-educated and prepared Bermudian staff to draw from. This is being achieved through a programme of scholarships, mentoring and internships.

Since 1996, 44 students, majoring in Insurance, Actuarial Science, Finance, Math and Economics, have received BFIS scholarships, 24 of whom are now working in the insurance sector and 15 still studying.