Students

ASU real estate students learn by doing

Real estate students gain experience that goes beyond traditional coursework and case studies. This hands-on approach is at the heart of the W. P. Carey Center for Real Estate and Finance’s Experiential Learning Lab.

Sharon Liu

2026-11-02

Real estate students at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business gain experience that goes beyond traditional coursework and case studies. Through engaging applied projects with corporate partners and cutting-edge in-house tools, they navigate real business challenges, work alongside industry professionals, and graduate with a career advantage.

This hands-on approach is at the heart of the W. P. Carey Center for Real Estate and Finance’s Experiential Learning Lab. Established in 2024 through a historic gift from the W. P. Carey Foundation, the lab supports the new undergraduate real estate and applied finance degree program while expanding opportunities for real estate students across programs to learn by doing.

Tricia Hilbun leads outreach as the lab's partnership and portfolio manager, and Mark Stapp, as director, helps shape the lab’s vision and future. Drawing on industry knowledge relationships, they bring together industry leaders to explore ways that W. P. Carey can better prepare students for the realities of the field, strengthening their real estate education.

Tricia Hilbun, partnership and portfolio manager at the Real Estate Experiential Learning Lab

"Mark and I brought together an incredible group of industry leaders who helped us build our initial focus. Their support and belief in real estate education helped build the momentum that led to the transformational gift from the W. P. Carey Foundation," Hilbun says. "It’s incredibly rewarding to see how far this idea has come, and we’re just getting started."

She adds, "We want to change how the next generation of real estate leaders learn the business of real estate by providing opportunities to practice it, make decisions, solve real problems, and learn directly from the people doing the work every day."

Inside the learning lab

The lab develops hands-on projects and learning tools to make real estate education more accessible. Its work serves undergraduate students in the real estate and applied finance degree program and real estate minor, as well as graduate students in the W. P. Carey School’s Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program and Full-time MBA concentration in real estate.

Although the lab supports students across several programs, its primary focus is undergraduate education. "The specialized master’s program was designed and built around the idea of learning by doing, so it continues as designed,” Stapp says. “Most of the lab’s work is focused on the undergraduate program, where the applied projects have the greatest impact both in terms of experience and number of students."

For example, an applied project class co-created with energy-efficient homebuilder Meritage Homes challenged undergraduates to replicate the land acquisition and corporate approval investment process. The lab is organizing a day-long innovation collab-a-thon with Craig DeMarco, founder of Postino, inviting students to refine a growth and positioning strategy for his newest concept, Air Guitar. Another partnership in the works is with the Arizona division of Howard Hughes, a developer of large-scale communities, to enable students to participate in strategic planning for Teravalis, the state's largest master-planned community.

Noah Bowden, undergraduate real estate and applied finance student

For students like Noah Bowden (BS Real Estate and Applied Finance '27), the benefits of these learning experiences are tremendous. "Working directly with industry professionals such as the folks at Meritage Homes has given me unique insight into what it's like to succeed in the real world," he says.

"We are treated like real analysts,” adds fellow student James Cole (BS Finance '27). “Instead of working toward a test or case study with a predetermined answer, we're working on a live project from a national homebuilder, using current market data and industry platforms to form our own analysis, and presenting our work to industry professionals for feedback.”

“The data we examine is open to interpretation, so we have to defend our conclusions and understand the reasoning behind them,” he says.

The lab is developing a robust portfolio of learning tools. These tools are integrated throughout the real estate curriculum to deliver skills and perspectives that normally take years of experience to develop — acting as a significant career accelerator for undergraduates.

This portfolio currently includes an interactive application to help students improve their presentation skills and a mobile card-sorting tool to teach the real estate development process and project management skills. Additionally, the lab is designing a tool that empowers students to explore digital twins of existing buildings and learn due diligence, with the design of many other projects underway.

Interactive tool developed by the lab helps students practice for presentations

Card-sorting tool developed by the lab helps students learn the real estate development process

Engaging students, impacting careers

The lab's work is positively impacting student engagement and career paths. "The students' questions, comments, and how quickly they understand the learning objectives and apply them show their engagement," Stapp notes.

One of the first students in the school’s undergraduate real estate degree program, Bowden intends to launch his career in commercial real estate. "The breadth of information I've received in the program has exposed me to enough career options to narrow my plans to a specific path," he says. "I have since enjoyed clarity in my internship and job searches, which has helped me land an internship that I love and build lasting connections that will assist me in my career."

James Cole, undergraduate finance student minoring in real estate

Cole paired his finance degree with a real estate minor, calling this an ideal combination of knowledge. "Finance gave me the analytical foundation. Real estate showed me where to put that knowledge to work because it is one of the few areas where finance becomes physical, and the numbers ultimately determine whether a project gets built," he says.

He credits applied projects and mentorship from faculty like Stapp for providing him with the confidence, tools, experience, and relationships to pursue his career goal of becoming a developer. "That foundation has allowed me to step into real estate development and investment internships while still in school," Cole says. "It is a major reason I intend to continue into the Master of Real Estate Development program after completing my bachelor's degree."

Building the future

Eighteen months since launching, Hilbun and Stapp have continually built on the lab's progress and vision to prepare students to be leaders in real estate and finance. Their strategic objectives for the future include helping academic and industry partners elevate real estate education to better serve communities.

"Now, we have the opportunity to turn that vision into something truly innovative — and hopefully game-changing for both our students and the industry," says Hilbun. "We want to create experiential learning tools and models that can be shared more broadly, generate resources to sustain future innovation, and help set a new standard for how the business of real estate is taught."

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