FIRE’s Church Properties Initiative (CPI) welcomed four undergraduate students as interns and research assistants for the summer of 2023. Representing a range of majors, minors, and career aspirations, the team advanced CPI’s research on the intersection of church property with neighborhood vitality, adaptive reuse, and housing affordability, while honing skills in financial modeling, coding and data visualization, and stakeholder engagement.
Student Profiles
Johnny Blote
Hometown: Rapid City, South Dakota
Major/minor: Marketing, Real Estate, Catholic Social Tradition
Hobbies: National Parks, Basketball, Movies
Position: Frassati Intern
Why CPI? “I was excited to find something unique that combined the interests of both of my minors into one project.”
Career aspirations: Stand-Up Comedian
Project snapshot: “I am researching rental rates in different areas of the U.S. to see if they have an effect on Catholic school teacher retention.”
Monica Latek
Hometown: Orland Park, Illinois
Major/minor: Business Analytics, Real Estate, Business Technology
Hobbies: Volleyball, Golf, Cooking/Baking, Reading, Taking Walks
Position: CPI Research Assistant
Why CPI? “While I've always wanted to explore real estate as a career option, coding and data have also grown to be huge interests of mine. Having the opportunity to integrate all of these interests in my work, along with my faith, has been very inspiring for my future. I am also grateful to be able to contribute to meaningful work through searching for solutions that maximize benefit for society, specifically for those in need.”
Career aspirations: “I hope to pursue a career involving both data and real estate.”
Project snapshot: “In one project, we are working with an Archdiocese to better understand the context around Church property consolidations, closures and sales. This involves using coding to create maps and visualizations. In another project, we are working to understand unique adaptive reuse models for Church property. It's been super interesting to learn about all the creative processes and transformations that go into reusing and renovating property!”
Madeleine Viz
Hometown: Orland Park, Illinois
Major/minor: Political Science, Business Economics, Real Estate
Hobbies: Playing the trumpet in the Notre Dame Band, live music, catching a sunset, fashion/thrifting, photography
Position: CPI Research Assistant
Why CPI? “I have always been interested in the intersection between real estate, faith, and human equity. I want to use my gift of a Notre Dame education, my understanding of the social environment, and problem solving skills to resolve complex urban, social, and community issues.”
Career aspirations: “I want to pursue a career in real estate private equity, commercial real estate, real estate investing, appraisal, development, or real estate law.”
Project snapshot: “I am working on one project that tracks which Catholic dioceses, out of the largest in the U.S., are undergoing or have recently undergone major pastoral planning or restructuring efforts. From there, we have created maps to show these trends and have begun to pose questions and answers as to why certain dioceses in different parts of the country are either expanding parishes or merging/closing parishes.”
Livie Zimbler
Hometown: South Bend, Indiana
Major/minor: Computer Science, Sociology (Xavier University)
Hobbies: Swimming, Photography, Nature
Position: CPI Research Assistant
Why CPI? “The project goals lined up with my majors and I am interested in data and how different pieces of data that seemingly don't go together, intersect.”
Career aspirations: TBD
Project snapshot: “This summer I helped facilitate a community engagement session with local clergy as part of CPI’s Downtown South Bend Houses of Worship project. I am intrigued to see how it pans out now that we have a better sense of how different congregations are using their spaces.”