Lauren Young’s 2024 Annual Conference Student Scholar Reflection

The 2024 PRIMA Conference was a valuable experience as a student scholar that allowed me to network with other professionals in the field and fine-tune my career goals. Being awarded the student scholarship not only provided me with an invaluable experience, but I was also able to learn alongside my father, a guest speaker at the conference.

My biggest takeaway from the conference was networking with others in the field and receiving valuable advice as I enter the risk management field as a recent graduate. I was able to meet and discuss risk management careers with PRIMA’s 2023 Public Risk Manager of the Year and many other professionals. Before the morning meetings in the conference hall, I had breakfast with someone new daily and discovered new career possibilities within the risk management field. Prior to the conference, I was unsure of my career plans after college, but after attending PRIMA 2024, I feel confident in my decision to pursue a career in risk management and work towards my ARM designation. Overall, the networking opportunities during PRIMA 2024 were endless, and I could make connections nearly everywhere I went.

My favorite part of PRIMA was attending breakout sessions that interested me. As a recent business/HR graduate, I found the following sessions most impactful: The Essential Elements for Effectively Improving Human Performance and Reducing Liability Through Wellness. These two sessions discussed many of the topics and issues I learned during my undergrad. I enjoyed being able to apply my past educational knowledge during the conference. One of the speakers made the point that in order to “move the needle” and see positive change in employee wellness, we need to focus more on the front end rather than the back end. Too often, many of those in HR positions are focusing on issues that employees are already aware of and are not taking a proactive and people-first approach to mitigate these long-standing issues. I was shocked to find out not only how bad the mental health crisis has gotten, but that many mental health survey results are severely underreported, signifying that it’s much worse than the numbers say. I learned just how important a front-end approach to employee wellness is because, without it, you have burnout and anger among workers. In terms of public safety personnel, this burnout and anger then translate to an increase in risk-taking behavior without the ability to foresee future consequences.

Overall, it was fascinating to hear about the speakers’ different experiences and the steps that led up to where they are today. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to attend the PRIMA 2024 conference. I plan to take the knowledge I gained with me and remain eager to learn as I step out into the risk management field.

*The views and opinions expressed in the Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA) blogs are those of each respective author. The views and opinions do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of PRIMA.*