internships

Who did you meet with today?

Today we met with the Colliers team

Where do they work? What does the company do?

Colliers works in Harrison Street and are commercial real estate brokers. Colliers help clients in buying, selling and leasing properties. They advise business clients on investments and developing opportunities

What did you learn today? What were some highlights?

I learned how brokers build strong relationships with clients to be able to negotiate deals soothingly. I also learned how their backgrounds and their skills that they learned contribute to their fields.

What insights did you gain into the field of real estate development?

I learned that brokers play a crucial role in development by connecting investors with properties. They need strong communication skills and the ability to take and manage risks.

What did you find the most interesting about the field after today?

What I found most interesting is how brokers use negotiation strategies to make deals go smoothing and how much trusts clients put in them.

Photos: Jose Burgos Arroyo

Who did you meet with today?

Today, we met with Mary Grace Houlihan, Jennifer Afdahl Rice, and Michele Wray Khateri.

Where do they work? What does the company do?

Mary Grace, Jennifer, and Michele work for Blueprint. Mary Grace is the Northern California Project Director, Jennifer is the Executive Director for Northern California, and Michele is the Director of Fundraising and Strategic Initiatives. Blueprint is a real estate development firm, managing all aspects of facilities projects—site search, design, construction, and financing. Working alongside charter school partners, it has created 55,800 charter school seats and helped improve students’ education.

What did you learn today? What were some highlights?

Today, we learned about the field of real estate development, learning about all the different factors that go into making a single project. We learned about factors like social, economic, and environmental.

What insights did you gain into the field of real estate development?

I gained insight into the field of real estate development by learning that planning can require buildings to look similar and have a theme, thanks to zoning. I know why now. I would also say that I received more insight into how sites are selected and what factors decide whether they meet the standard or not, for example, the approval of neighbors or the soil (if it has chemicals or if it is not stable enough). Overall, I got to learn many factors involved in deciding if a site is acceptable enough.

What did you find the most interesting about the field in the field after today?

After today, what I found most interesting was learning about the background of Blueprint and learning about their impact, learning about how much they have helped communities and allowed students at charter schools to receive an education.

Photos: Chris Bautista, Spring Intern

 

Who did you meet with today?

Today we met with Scott Thomas, who works in financing. Thomas works as a project finance coordinator.

Where do they work? What does the company do?

Thomas works in Blueprint. Blueprint is a development firm that helps schools with most aspects of their projects.

What did you learn today? What were some highlights?

Today I learned what a contingency is, which is a safety valve just incase anything unexpected comes up in the project. A highlight was when we got to see the spreadsheet of the budget; it was nice getting to see a real project’s budget and the process. Another highlight I would like to mention was when my peers and I asked Thomas questions; it was really insightful and even let us get a preview into who we would meet next.

What are you looking forward to most during the internship?

During the internship I am now looking most forward to meeting with Blueprint’s lawyer and the other lawyer we will get to meet with.

What insights did you gain into the field of real estate development?

In the field of real estate development, I gained insights such as what struggles the project finance coordinator faces while communicating with the school. I also received insight into how the finance project coordinator tracks the budget and the different factors that allow the school to stay within their budget affordably.

What did you find the most interesting about the field after today?

After today, what I find most interesting about the field is how the project finance coordinator ultimately works as the middleman between the loaners and the school and how they play a key role in allowing the school to meet their financial goal to finish their project.

Photos: Jose Burgos Arroyo, Spring Intern

Who did you meet with today?

Today I met with Cyrus Amani-Taleshi, who is an architect that does planning and designing. I also met with Keivan Abidi, who is a project director and makes sure everything is going well.

Where do they work? What does the company do?

Keivan Abidi works for Blueprint. He is a project director at Blueprint. The company helps schools improve their learning environment.

Cyrus Amani-Taleshi works at LCA. He is an architect who helps do all of the planning for what to build or how to improve things and make sure that things are how they should be.

What did you learn today? What were some highlights?

Something that I learned today that was very interesting was how they usually run into problems when having to rehab a building. Because you never know what can be on the other side of the wall. Some highlights that I took from today were simply going and walking around the building and seeing what they built, and how the plan looked before it was built.

What insights did you gain into the field of real estate development?

An insight that I took away from today was that there are a lot of little things that you need in order to build something, and it can go wrong. That’s why they plan everything so that it can go as smoothly as possible. They also need to be approved by the state or local municipality to build before starting construction.

What did you find the most interesting about the field after today?

What I found most interesting about the field was all of the planning and how it needs to be planned in order to come out as what they want it to be. I found this interesting because the designing is very specific on what a school needs.

Who did you meet with today?

Today I met with Mera Baker Ramos, who graduated from college and became a teacher but then realized she wanted to be a lawyer and became a lawyer.  I Also met with Sarah Kollman which is also a lawyer and they both work in the charter school field

Where do they work?

Mera Bake works as an in-house lawyer for Blueprint. She makes sure all of the things go smoothly and good how they should and if there’s a problem with some type of budgeting, she helps. And Sarah works as a lawyer she helps charter schools with contracts and real estate transactions.

What did you learn today?

Today I learned what they look for as a lawyer, what they do and how it’s not something that is just easy to do. They explained to us how it was that they had to do a test that took 8hrs a day and it was not easy at all

What insights did you gain into the field of real estate development?

Some insights i had were related to all of the things that they do as lawyers. And how it’s not simple at all. Most of the time it’s a lot of going back and forth till they get what they want right.

What did you find the most interesting about the field after today?

I found it interesting that there are people that are actually there for Blueprints when they need a lawyer.

 

Who did you meet with today?

Today we met Mary Grace who is registered as a Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor in the State of California. She enjoys working at Blueprint and creating positive learning environments that improve education. We also ended up meeting with the Swinerton team, which included Aaron, Garrett, and Kristina who gave us a tour and talked to us about themselves and how they got into this career.

Where do they work? What does the company do?

Mary Grace works for Blueprint as a Project Director. Blueprint is a full-service nonprofit real estate development firm. Aaron, Garett, and Kristina all work for Swinerton, which is a construction company. Swinerton is a 100% employee-owned, $5 billion, national construction firm providing industry-leading commercial construction, construction management, design-build, and self-perform services.

What did you learn today? What were some highlights?

I learned today about the process of construction and how long it takes to complete a building. Another thing that I learned today was that when they hold a meeting with all key stakeholders, they don’t always agree.  Some highlights of this day were getting a tour of an active construction site while wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

What insights did you gain into the field of real estate development?

Some insights that I gained into the field of real estate development were how closely the employees manage the budget and the timeline because if they don’t it can impact the project. Also, visiting the active site helped me realize how much teamwork, planning, and problem-solving are involved in real estate development.

What did you find the most interesting about the field in the field after today?

The thing that I found most interesting about the field today was the size of the blueprints they use. It was so big just to fit the renovation of the building and that it was drawn and checked by many people.