Renowned Northwestern Business Programs Partner to Offer Undergraduate Real Estate Curriculum, Fellowships
October 6, 2021
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management will expand the reach of its real estate program to include Northwestern undergraduate students beginning in fall 2022. In collaboration with Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Kellogg will create new courses and professional development opportunities – including a fellowship program – designed to shape sophisticated real estate professionals with strong analytical skills and broad perspectives on macro and urban economics.
The catalyst for the new undergraduate programming is a $2 million gift to Kellogg and Weinberg College from Ian Sanders ’91. In addition to supporting new courses taught by Kellogg faculty, Sanders’ gift will establish the Fifteen Group Real Estate Fellows Program. Each year, 15 undergraduate students will be selected for the fellowship, which will offer professional development with emphasis on the real estate industry.
“Kellogg has a long history of leadership in real estate education and in training MBA students to secure jobs at top real estate firms. We are eager to expand those benefits to Northwestern students,” said Efraim Benmelech, the Henry Bullock Professor of Finance and Real Estate, Director of the Guthrie Center for Real Estate Research at Kellogg and leader of the new programming.
“I am eager to see Northwestern incorporate real estate into its undergraduate curriculum,” said Sanders, who graduated from Weinberg College and is Founder & Principal of Fifteen Group, a real estate-focused private investment firm that he started with his brother Mark in 1992. “I hope this gift will provide students with the tools and resources they need to excel in high-level professional and managerial careers in the industry.”
The new curriculum will be offered in two capacities to attract a broad range of interested students. Courses in real estate finance and investment will be added to the curriculum of the minor in business institutions offered by Weinberg College’s Harvey Kapnick Center for Business Institutions as well as to Kellogg’s Financial Economics Certificate available to undergraduates. The courses will provide exposure to the fundamental concepts, principles, analytical methods and tools for making investment and financing decisions in real estate.
“Real estate is a fast-growing area of interest among undergraduate students at Weinberg College and throughout Northwestern, and we in the Kapnick Center for Business Institutions look forward to partnering with Kellogg to bring this new dimension to our business education offerings,” said Bill Rogerson, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Economics and director of Northwestern’s Harvey Kapnick Center for Business Institutions.
The new courses will be offered in the 2022–2023 academic year, and the first class of fellows will be announced in spring 2023.