BASIC TRAINING The University of Maryland launches a first-of-its-kind master’s degree in federal real estate privatization.
Thirty years ago, Jo Ingalsbe wasn’t thinking of a real estate career. Just 5 years old, she was fleeing communist Vietnam in a boat, in hopes of reaching U.S. soil. Not only did Ingalsbe arrive safely, but this January, she headed off to the University of Maryland, College Park with a $32,000 scholarship from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Ingalsbe—now a Department of Defense (DoD) employee working on Navy housing—is an inaugural student in the country’s first master’s degree program in real estate development for federal privatizations. She joins fellow OSD scholarship-winner Rachel Watson and some 85 other students taking advantage of the one-year/full-time and two-year/part-time programs that focus on the key issues of importance to federal agencies exploring real estate privatization.
OSD senior analyst Patricia Coury says the program was largely the brainchild of the University of Maryland, which has long offered ongoing training and advanced education programs to military personnel. “I wish we could say it was our idea, but the university really took the lead,” Coury says. Still, the program offers military and nonmilitary real estate professionals alike the most advanced boot camp available in federal real estate privatization. The demand for such skills will only increase, Coury says, as will the dispersal of OSD scholarships. “These are just the first of some 15 scholarships that we plan to award over the next several academic years,” she says.
Classes on topics such as land development economics, legal documentation and ethics, asset and portfolio management, and construction management will be based in the context of federal privatization. “All of the students will return to their respective employers with enhanced skills to oversee and implement privatized and innovative federal property transactions,” Coury says. “It is a real opportunity for the military to gain additional expertise in the area of privatization and how it relates to ongoing real estate development.”
Although the master’s program is open to members of the public, only service members or employees of the DoD qualify for the free ride. The next round of OSD scholarships will be awarded for the academic year beginning September 2008; applications are due May 15. For more information on the program, email Patricia Coury at patricia.coury@osd.mil.
