ULI was honored to partner with the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC) this month to incorporate UrbanPlan into REEC’s summer 2020 Real Estate Exchange (REEX) summer program.  REEX provides a 12-day immersion experience for minority high school students to learn about the intersection of the commercial real estate (CRE) industry, business fundamentals, engineering, technology and entrepreneurship.

The 141 student scholars engaged with top faculty and professionals at four university programs around the country:  The Baker Program for Real Estate at Cornell University, the Center for Real Estate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Herbert Business School at the University of Miami and the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate at Roosevelt University.  Through a combination of hands-on instruction, case studies, site visits and competitive presentations, the students honed their academic and professional skills while learning how to apply what they learned about CRE to make meaningful change in the world.

This year’s program began with a two-day UrbanPlan exercise.  Over twenty ULI Washington UrbanPlan volunteers supported the exercise by joining their peers from across the country as team advisors, facilitators and city council members.  We are grateful for their insights and inspiration as they challenged the students to use thoughtful design of the built environment to generate social, economic and environmental benefits for an urban community.