Tanya Little
Recently I had the pleasure of working with some wonderful girls from the Irma Rangler School in Fair Park. Actually, I never even knew the school was there; as a leader, I should have been paying more attention.
The Irma Rangler School is the first all-girls public school in Texas. It opened in 2004 under the leadership of Principal Vivian Taylor-Samudio, with 125 girls in the seventh and eighth grades. The school supports a global education that emphasizes mathematics, science, and technology in a rigorous academic environment. All students in the class of 2011 graduated and were accepted to college—as were all students in the classes of 2009 and 2010.
CREW Dallas hosted a day-long event for the senior class, which introduced this talented group of girls to the idea of pursuing a career in real estate. After a full day of introducing a “new building” concept, where the girls had to review a current building in Dallas and look at possible new uses, I was excited and reflective about where our current real estate professionals are today.
Every day we are looking at the current environment and where the next opportunity might be—who’s lending, the “hot” multifamily category, and where the next trends might be. Maybe those of us who are veterans in this real estate environment might want to take a step back and look at what we might want to teach the next generation about where we are today, and what they might look forward to in the future.
I’m a true believer in mentoring—supporting the next generation and helping them to succeed in an economic environment that is unknown to the majority of real estate professionals today. Those of us who are Baby Boomers are still looking at the next 10-15 years of our careers; what we should be thinking about is how to leverage the next generation to grow our future.
So, reach out to the young professionals in your organization, tell them what you know, and how you achieved success. Don’t turn down those introductory meetings that someone new to the industry might ask for, and remember, we are all setting the example for the future, dark or bright. The challenges of today are the successes of tomorrow.
I hope you are there … I am.
Tanya Little is CEO of Hart Advisors Group LLC, which specializes in loan restructures, asset management, and assumptions of commercial assets/loans. Contact her at tlittle@hartadvisorsgroup.com.
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Thanks for writing such a wonderful blog. I too am a result of schooling in an all girls program. Granted, ours was a private school, but it really gave everyone the opportunity to grow, shine and eventually get to know who we really were. I think a mixed environment has a positive role as well, because not everyone turned out as well as I feel I did. But I think that at some point, it is a good idea to incorporate a system where girls can get separated, for a little while, in order to be able to not feel the complications of competition with the more demonstrative male students.