VCU news

By Vincent Simone

As academic disciplines go, musical theater and real estate may seem, at first blush, to be very far apart. But for Kara Nickerson, a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, both involve an element of performance that is deeply appealing. 

“No matter what you do in real estate,” Nickerson said, “there’s always some type of sales or pitch aspect to your project.”

Since transferring to VCU in 2014, Nickerson has performed so well that last year she became the first recipient of the Virginia Housing Development Authority scholarship and internship, created in memory of Sam Kornblau, a legendary friend and benefactor of the VCU School of Business who served eight years on the VHDA board — including several as chairman. 

“Kara is very engaging,” said Robert Taylor, executive director of VCU’s Kornblau Real Estate Program. “She has that drive, that desire and thirst for knowledge.”

Taylor oversees the program’s various forms of outreach, including the Real Estate Trends Conference in October, which typically attracts around 1,400 attendees. He also organizes student enrichment activities such as the Real Estate Circle of Excellence Executive Lecture Series and the recently completed Villanova Real Estate Challenge, where Nickerson helped VCU’s team place fifth among 14 contestants.

Born and raised in Newport News, Nickerson began her academic career at Christopher Newport University where she’d planned to study musical theater. But after only one semester, she changed her tune.

“I kind of realized I really liked musical theater, but maybe it wasn’t a career,” Nickerson said.

With a taste for writing and positive memories of great high school English teachers, Nickerson switched to English. And thinking that a degree in English essentially meant that she, too, would become a teacher, she also took some education courses. But these only persuaded her that teaching wasn’t what she wanted to do, either. 

Working full time to be in school without feeling committed to a career goal, Nickerson decided to take some time off from academics. 

Then, as manager of a Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurant for four years and a chain of tanning salons for one, Nickerson discovered an enduring interest. 

“That experience is what really got me into management and business,” she said, “looking at small businesses and thinking, ‘I want to fix this; I want to make this better.’” 

With her academic ambitions reignited, Nickerson transferred to VCU to attend the School of Business. During her first semester, she opted to take Principles of Real Estate as an elective, and that changed everything.

“I was pretty much sold,” she said.

Before the course, Nickerson didn’t even know that real estate was a major at VCU — as it turns out, it is one of only about two dozen undergraduate real estate programs in the United States accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. But after only a few weeks studying under the tutelage of David Downs, Ph.D, professor, Alfred L. Blake Chair and director of The Kornblau Institute in the Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate, she found her home.

When she arrived at VCU, Nickerson expected to be anonymous in large classes. Instead, she was delighted to discover that real estate is “a small program within a big school,” as she put it, with class sizes averaging about 15 students.

“Every teacher knows you by name,” she said, “They know what you’re doing outside [of school], they know your work, they know everything.”

Encouraged by a degree of attention and familiarity she’d associated only with much smaller schools, Nickerson engaged VCU’s real estate major right away and hasn’t looked back, taking full advantage of her program’s wealth of opportunities since her second semester. 

Nickerson’s VHDA award includes a $10,000 scholarship coupled with a two-year internship at the VHDA, where she works 12-20 hours per week in the Multifamily Division, which specializes in providing the right type of financing for rental properties and mixed-use developments all over Virginia.

In addition to her internship, Nickerson carries a full, 15-hour course load, including real estate investment analysis, real estate law and the “CEO Class,” a unique opportunity for 15 selected seniors to learn about the challenges of leading a company directly from CEOs and senior executives. 

Somehow, Nickerson also finds time to serve as treasurer of Rho Epsilon, the professional real estate fraternity, and vice president of alumni relations in Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society. Fortunately for her schedule, Nickerson’s term as president of Alpha Kappa Psi, the professional business fraternity she helped to colonize on the VCU campus in January 2014, has just ended. She’s also an inductee of Tau Sigma, the transfer honor society. 

After Nickerson graduates in December, she hopes to work in asset or property management for a large firm, possibly continuing at the VHDA where she has already learned so much. 

Susan Dewey, executive director of the VHDA, immediate past president of the VCU Real Estate Circle of Excellence and a member of the VCU Real Estate Conference Committee, said Nickerson has been performing very well on a number of projects. 

“In fact,” Dewey said, “she has made significant contributions toward assessing the viability of additional multifamily units in the Manchester area” and “has completed a rent study in the Shockoe Bottom sub-market which resulted in rent adjustments to a project that resulted in a loan resizing.” 

As the VHDA Sam Kornblau Scholarship Fund approaches the end of its inaugural year, Dewey believes the program has “proven to be effective for both VHDA and VCU,” part of her organization’s “strong and mutually beneficial relationship with VCU’s Kornblau Institute.” 

For Bryan Kornblau, Sam’s son, chairman and founder of Eagle Construction and president and principal of Markel|Eagle Partners, the scholarship honors his father’s love for the VHDA and his “lifelong quest to provide housing to all.”

Although Nickerson never met Sam Kornblau before his death last May, she expresses sincere gratitude for his legacy and the opportunities it has afforded her. 

“Everybody who tells me about him says he was just one of a kind,” she said. “He was a hard worker and a feisty person.”

Like Nickerson herself.

“I like that real estate is different every day,” she said. “I’m not confined to sitting in an office and analyzing data all day. I want to be out in the field doing site work, being able to look at a physical asset and say, ‘Oh, I helped with that.’”