Although real estate remains a challenge-filled industry, almost 100 Florida International University (FIU) students are now aware of the many opportunities afforded by the field, thanks to an interactive seminar hosted by the College of Business Administration.
FIU’s Real Estate Student Association (RESA), in conjunction with Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Miami and Bank of America, presented “uCREW at FIU,” which took place on January 26, 2010.
“This was our first event this semester, and it was a smashing success,” said Dan Berkovitz, a management major, president of RESA and one of the coordinators of the program.
Berkovitz, along with William Hardin, director of real estate programs in FIU’s business school and RESA’s faculty advisor, developed the idea of hosting such events to provide FIU students with insight into the real estate field, including career options. CREW Miami was an ideal group for the first of these programs thanks to their organizational mission and leaders like Julie Williamson of Akerman Senterfitt and Ellen Blasi of The Green Companies, whose firms sponsored the gathering.
Real estate professionals armed with knowledge approach students.
In a format aimed at catering to the students, 13 CREW Miami professionals traveled from table to table every 20 minutes, giving expert advice about specific fields of real estate to the 93 attendees.
“We had a good amount of diversity of areas within real estate,” Berkovitz said. “It ranged from law, to brokerage, to interior design.”
Other subcategories of real estate careers discussed included marketing, architecture, finance, construction and appraisal.
The evening received positive feedback from students. Among them was real estate and international business major Kirenia Balan, who said that the “opportunity to interact with so many professional women in the field of real estate was amazing.”
“Getting firsthand knowledge from a successful industry leader is essential in making better career choices,” Hardin said. “These programs allow students to meet industry professionals who typically are not available for career discussions.”
According to Berkovitz, RESA hopes to use the success of “uCREW at FIU” as a “staple example for future ones.”
Group photo by Danet Linares, former and most recent president of CREW Miami and executive vice president, Blanca Commercial Real Estate
