Milos Pavlovic

Milos Pavlovic, ’12, GR ’15, thought he would continue the acting and voiceover work he did in his native Belgrade, Serbia when he decided to pursue his undergraduate study in theater at Indiana State University.

“My interests in business grew and I decided to switch my major to insurance and risk management during my sophomore year after I took the intro class and realized the opportunities the program has to offer,” he said.

Pavlovic joined Sycamore Ambassadors, Gamma Iota Sigma, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Finance Club and worked in the Meis Center, where he taught lectures about business etiquette and diversity while earning his Master of Business Administration with a focus in finance and operations and supply chain management.

“Back in my home country, I did acting and voiceovers for cartoons as a hobby so I thought I’d give it a shot as an acting major. However, my sophomore year I gained more interest toward business and ultimately decided to go with insurance and risk management because of the opportunities offered by the department and the great advisors that went out of their way to help student find scholarships and internships.”

Pavlovic managed to get his foot in the door with an internship with Aon in Serbia. He also worked for a local State Farm office, did a project for Northwestern Mutual, went to London to visit Lloyds and other insurers as part of an insurance class and traveled on a student business trip to Paris, France.

Following his MBA program, Pavlovic began work with FirstBank as a fraud analyst in Colorado. Pavlovic decided to move back to the Midwest and took a position as a senior financial analyst at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in Chicago.

“ISU prepared me for real life work experiences by offering my numerous internship opportunities, and the professors were enthusiastic very student-oriented and passionate about (student) development,” Pavlovic said. “Without Dr. (Kuntal) Bhattacharyya, I wouldn’t have understood the importance of some very basic tools, like Excel and PowerPivot, which I use almost religiously now. And without my advisor, Rebecca Wray, I wouldn’t have had so many insurance opportunities over the years.”

For Pavlovic, Indiana State and Terre Haute represent some of his most formative years.

“This is where I learned to speak English, befriended some of the best people I know today and completed both my undergraduate and graduate degrees,” he said. “ISU is the foundation of my early success that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”