The first annual Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Miami scholarship event was a day to remember for Shirley Baruk, a real estate and marketing major in the College of Business at Florida International University (FIU); Latosha Miller (BBA ’12), a student in the college’s Corporate MBA; and Suzanne Hollander, who teaches real estate law classes in the Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate and is a member of the CREW Miami Scholarship Committee. That was the day on which Baruk and Miller were each awarded $1,000 scholarships from CREW and Hollander received the New Member of the Year award, presented to her by the organization’s president.
Scholarship recipients’ career goals span the real estate industry.
Baruk plans to get her sales license, undertake graduate work and likely pursue a career in property management, with both a financial and socially conscious orientation.
“I like the idea of investing in properties to rent, and am interested in the tenant-landlord relationship,” she said. “By renting, the owner is helping others, and is generating income, which helps him or her.”
Miller, who holds a degree in finance from FIU and who worked for an engineering firm for 12 years, has family members who can “build a house from scratch.”
She now has her Florida real estate license, and plans to obtain a general contractor’s license and launch a real estate construction and property preservation company
“My education, an internship I have with MCO Construction and my licenses will enable me to have a career in an area that has always been an interest for me,” she said.
Hollander promotes FIU’s strengths.
In accepting the New Member of the Year award, Hollander “encouraged all the CREW members to reach out to me and FIU to fill their needs for smart new employees and interns.”
The awards were presented on December 12, 2012 at a luncheon at the Four Seasons that drew more than 100 real estate attorneys, brokers, owners and lenders. A third FIU student, Francine Rozental, studying for a master’s in interior architecture, also was awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
