Inside the Classroom of a Certificate Program

Peterson: “My students get the benefit of an industry professional teaching actual, real-time case studies in the business.”

SAN DIEGO—Recently, GlobeSt.com highlighted the value for real estate professionals of the University of San Diego‘s Real Estate Finance, Investments and Development Certificate–offered through the school’s professional and continuing-education department—which partners with the Burnham-Moores Center at USD’s School of Business. Later, we spoke with Scott Peterson, SVP at CBRE, who teach the “Real Estate Finance and Capital Markets” course, and Nathan Moeder, a principal with London Moeder Advisors and instructor of the “Real Estate Investment and Income Analysis” course—both part of USD’s real estate certificate program. Here’s what you can learn from their courses that you might not learn elsewhere.

Moeder: “The class helps the students not only understand finance, but also the financial perspective as it relates to their own projects or investments on which they are working.”

GlobeSt.com: What made you decide to teach the class as part of the certificate program? Peterson: As a real estate industry professional, I quickly recognized that the University of San Diego produces some of the best and brightest young commercial real estate talent coming into the field for more than the past decade. The undergraduate and graduate real estate programs prepare students to enter into the field with both the technical land practical skillsets as well as the social confidence to be successful. The certificate program, now with more than a decade track record, expands this high-quality, successful platform of the Burnham-Moores Center to the continuing-education program. The certificate program allows active professionals, in and outside of real estate, to supplement their understanding of specific commercial real estate subjects such as finance, development feasibility, legal aspects of real estate and much more.