Originally from Arlington, Virginia, Mena Brook is a rising junior at Notre Dame who is studying Strategic Management with a minor in Real Estate through the Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate (FIRE). She chose to pursue a career in real estate due to her fascination with the tangible impact that real estate has on communities by transforming neighborhoods, creating jobs, and enhancing the local economy. Due to strategic aspects of real estate which include market analysis, investment strategies, and property development, Mena realized that a Real Estate minor would complement her major in Strategic Management.
Mena’s favorite real estate class to date at Notre Dame has been Real Estate Fundamentals where she learned the basics of real estate such as market analysis, property valuation, and lease agreements. The hands-on residential valuation projects were particularly engaging, giving her a practical insight into the industry. Outside of the classroom, Mena has found the vast network of professionals and alumni that comprise the FIRE community to be incredibly supportive and always willing
to help and guide her. It has provided her with an incredible platform to grow, learn, and improve her networking skills.
One person that Mena specifically highlighted as being integral in her development as a real estate professional is Ross Higginbotham, the Career Director at the Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate. Mena credits Ross for his open-door policy and always welcoming students who are seeking guidance. Thanks in large part to the mentorship and encouragement he provided, Mena set a goal in her sophomore year to apply to at least 50 different summer internship opportunities (which she reached by filing 51 applications). This persistence paid off when she was accepted to the Advancing Black Pathways Fellowship Program through JP Morgan Chase, an accomplishment that she and her family are very proud of.
Mena began the summer working in Los Angeles on a four-week internship as a sales and marketing intern at Glenair, a manufacturing company for high reliability connects and cables for mission-critical land, sea, air, and space applications, before starting her fellowship at JP Morgan Chase. She then began her training with JP Morgan in their New York City office before settling in their Chicago office. Her responsibilities included working on various projects, attending program-related meetings, and networking with others in the firm. The aspect she enjoyed most was working on the Community Development Financial Institutions project, which involved analyzing financial statements and creating a relationship history and opportunity section for the firm.
Her training in the classroom allowed Mena to settle into the role seamlessly, having already developed a familiarity with real estate terminology and the concepts that she would be exposed to on a daily basis. Mena noted one of the biggested challenges she faced was being pushed out of her comfort zone to present multiple times and speak in front of a group. With every presentation, she managed to overcome this challenge, significantly improving her presentation skills. From this role, she learned about the vast array of careers within commercial real estate and plans to apply this to her career by staying open to various roles and developing skills in all aspects of real estate such as brokerage, development, and investment. She is excited to be returning back to school this Fall, where she will be studying abroad in London, ready to apply everything she learned from this experience to the classroom and continue to further her education as a real estate student.