On Thursday evening, 6 October 2022, the market dinner of the Vereniging Nederlandse Assurantie Beurs (VNAB) took place, bringing together many professionals from the business insurance market. The 2021 and 2022 Student of the Year Awards were presented during this market dinner. Levi Boor, Julie Mol and Barbara Rozema, all alumni of Erasmus School of Law, were among the winners. The three winners give an insight into the evening and the winning of the prestigious award.
Student of the Year Award
The Student of the Year Award is an initiative of the Amsterdam Assurantiebeurs Foundation (SSA). This foundation aims to promote the interests of the Dutch insurance industry. By presenting the Student of the Year Award annually, SAA hopes to attract more new talents within the insurance industry. Previously, SAA presented one award per year for one thesis. This year, there were no less than four: the 2021 year had yet to be awarded and “apparently, there were too many great pieces to stick to just one award”, argues Mop van Tiggele-van der Velde, Professor of Insurance Law at Erasmus School of Law. Van Tiggele-van der Velde supervised one of the winning theses and attended the special gala evening. “It is wonderful to know that the final paper of our academic training is appreciated within the practice”, she states.
A big surprise
Three of the four winners are alumni of Erasmus School of Law. Without knowing they would receive the Student of the Year Award, Levi Boor, Julie Mol and Barbara Rozema were invited to the market dinner of VNAB. “I did not know my thesis was even nominated for an award, so it was a big surprise”, Julie says. Barbara agrees: “It is an honour! And it feels a bit like extra recognition for the hard work. Although, next to the hard work, I really enjoyed writing this thesis!”
Winning theses
Levi won the award for 2021 with his thesis about the compensation for forfeited undeclared income. His thesis was recently awarded the national Beer impuls thesis award. “It feels unreal that my thesis is such a high profile at the moment”, Levi says. “If you are in the middle of writing your thesis, you do not expect such a thing.”
Julie’s thesis concerned ‘The improvement of the insurability of flood risk’. Now, she works at Lauxtermann Advocaten, focusing on Liability and Insurance law. Nevertheless, she still carries her thesis subject with her. “Since winning the award, I have been in contact with various parties from the insurance world to join consultations on the subject. So outside of my work, I am still busy with the subject.”
Barbara also went home with one of the 2022 awards. She wrote her thesis about the standardisation of damages, in particular following the example of the English Guidelines. According to Barbara, “It remains a fascinating and current topic. On 13 October, I also had the opportunity to talk about the English Guidelines during the law practice theme day; I think it would be nice to keep doing that kind of thing”.
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