The Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management has paired scores of students with industry professionals—many of whom are alumni
This is the fourth in a series of articles commemorating National Mentoring Month. Each Friday in January, the Daniels Newsroom will share the stories of students, faculty and alumni benefitting from mentorship.
Jacob Langner
What Jacob Langner has learned at the Daniels College of Business has been critical to his pre-graduation success. But it’s the people who Langner has met through the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management that have him feeling confident about his immediate career prospects.
“Real estate is more a people business than it is anything else,” said Langner, a senior. “I try to take every opportunity to meet people and talk to them and grow my understanding of the market and the industry.”
Already, that interpersonal approach has paid dividends. A chain of introductions and conversations led Langner to a summer internship in San Francisco at Mitsui Fudosan America. There, he underwrote a $1.1 billion multifamily and for-sale housing project and then presented his findings to senior leadership.
The invaluable, influential experience is due in large part to the Burns School’s revamped mentorship program, now in its second year.
“The program provides a great opportunity for our students to learn about the industry, specific functions within that and further explore their interests,” said Vivek Sah, director of the Burns School. “It also provides us a medium to engage our alumni who want to give back and connect.”
That’s the perfect way to describe Kristian Lichtenfels’ (MS 2010) experience, now managing director in the Denver office of JLL Capital Markets, Americas. The network Lichtenfels grew during his time on campus has been one of his most critical professional assets. That’s why Lichtenfels became the program chair of the Burns School mentorship program, which matched 42 students with mentors, most of whom are alumni.
“I’ve found numerous people who have been willing to spend their time to mentor me through specific aspects of my individual line of business in the real estate industry,” he said. “[Those relationships] help foster a deeper fabric and community of highly qualified people within our business, which is important to our city and important to our broader real estate community.”
To create the pairings in the program, student applicants rank their specific interests in the real estate and construction industries. In most cases, Lichtenfels was able to introduce students to an industry professional who fit their first choice.
Once paired, mentors and mentees schedule meetings on their own time and connect as often as they like. They are asked to meet a minimum of 3-4 times during the school year and are encouraged to connect more as their schedules allow.
Kristian Lichtenfels
This year, Lichtenfels paired himself with Langner, who he met through the student’s first mentor.
“When you see a student focused and energized about our our industry and looking to take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it in the real world—it excites me for the future of our business,” Lichtenfels said.
In Langner, Lichtenfels sees the model of what a mentee should be. He’s not just present in the relationship—he’s also curious and well prepared.
“That sort of preparation and intrigue makes it really easy for me to invite a mentee like Jacob to accompany me to meetings, property tours and exclusive industry events,” Lichtenfels said.
Those invitations have been one of the most beneficial pieces of the mentor-mentee relationship, Langner said. Tagging along to events has provided ample opportunity to expand his network.
They are the perfect complement to the regular conversations the two share—about school, about the industry and, simply, about life.
“He’s genuinely a really nice guy. He wants to help,” Langner said. “Even though he’s busy and has a lot going on, he still makes time and carves out a chunk of his day to contribute and to give back and meet with me and help, even though it doesn’t benefit him in any way.”
Lichtenfels would dispute the latter. Relationships with mentees give him valuable insight into young consumers, he said. Plus, he cherishes the chance to share the elements of business he understands.
Above all, the duo agrees: Students need to take advantage of the opportunities available to them at the University of Denver. Burns and Daniels both host numerous networking events—low-risk, high-reward ways to practice the skills that will prove invaluable in the “real world.”