Katz & Associates is celebrating National Mentoring Day and shared some of its wins with Commerce + Communities Today. The holiday is more prominent in the U.K. than in the U.S., but it’s one worth celebrating, as pairing ICSC members with students to help create the next generation of industry talent is a key part of the ICSC Foundation’s mission.

At its booth at ICSC@FLORIDA in August, the company hosted undergrad and grad students referred by ICSC director of university partners and student engagement James Dulin. The mentees, hosted at the Katz booth by Katz president Marty Hennessy, senior director Jennifer Houston and team, met developers, landlords and tenant executives and learned about the tenant broker role, third-party leasing and sales, what to expect in the job and tips to succeed.

The students also saw dealmaking up close. “We also had the chance to sit with a developer who explained how he obtained a new site and developed it into a center that Katz put in a Five Below and Ulta,” Hennessy said. “They were also part of a LOI negotiation regarding some remaining issues we had going into the ICSC and were able to resolve at that meeting.”

After ICSC@FLORIDA, University of Central Florida grad student Jessica Satfield toured Orlando commercial properties with Katz’s Vanesa Rodriguez, getting a professional’s perspective on the local market.

And at ICSC@SOUTHEAST in Atlanta last week, Katz’s Julie Gardner and team spoke with University of Alabama real estate interns who visited the Katz booth with Grayson Glaze, executive director of the university’s Alabama Center for Real Estate.

Katz also provides mentorships, internships and job opportunities, as well as scholarships through Florida Retail Scholarships.