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Planning students earn top honors at UM/ULI Real Estate Forum

Planning students earn top honors at UM/ULI Real Estate Forum

The 27th edition of the UM/ULI Real Estate Forum, Placemaking for Growth, produced a strong showing from Taubman College as students from the Master of Urban Planning program earned four of the five available Blau Scholarships and took first place in the Student Case Competition.

The Blau Scholarship competition was open to University of Michigan graduate students studying business, architecture, urban planning, public policy, kinesiology, law, natural resources, real estate development certificate, or engineering. Participants were asked to write a brief essay addressing why downtown Lansing and East Lansing are appealing and what specific actions the cities could take to make themselves even more attractive. Danielle Thoe (M.U.P.’14), Samantha Farr (M.U.P.’15), James Carpenter (M.U.P.’14), and Paige Shesterkin (M.U.P.’14) each received a $1,000 scholarship for their submissions.

Planning students earn top honors at UM/ULI Real Estate Forum

Left to right: Brian Wackerman (Civil Engineering) Danielle Thoe (M.U.P.’14), Samantha Farr (M.U.P.’15), Peter Allen, James Carpenter (M.U.P.’14), and Paige Shesterkin (M.U.P.’14)

This year’s Student Case Competition focused on urban restoration and saw submissions from teams of students from midwestern real estate, architecture and business programs. Teams were required to submit a business case for a redevelopment scenario for an actual Brownfield in downtown Lansing sourced from a developer/advocacy group. A team of Master of Urban Planning students which included (pictured left to right) Allison Roland (M.U.P.’15), Christopher Herlich (M.U.P.’15), Dana Wall (M.U.P.’15), and Seul Lee (M.U.P.’15) took first the $4,000 first place prize.

Planning students earn top honors at UM/ULI Real Estate Forum

The winners were announced at the November 20th awards ceremony which took place at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing, Michigan.