HOUSTON—Most commercial real estate service companies and brokerage networks have next-gen initiatives, task forces or committees to address an indisputable industry challenge–replacing the industry's workforce with a younger set as CRE professionals' age out. The situation is particularly acute for the brokerage services industry.

The Society of Industrial & Office Realtors/SIOR, along with the SIOR Foundation, have created a matching grants program to provide scholarship grant money to students. Those matches are often complemented by accredited colleges or universities to effectively double the scholarship funds.

Last week, SIOR Foundation president Bill Ginder announced that SIOR's Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter and the Foundation have structured a new educational partnership with Mays Business School at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. The master of real estate program at Mays Business School is ranked as the fifth best US real estate program and recently celebrated its 40th year as a graduate program.

The 16-month program features three semesters of classroom work and one semester of internship experience. The total cost of the master program is $25,000 and about 45 students graduate annually. Mays is particularly known for its strong job placement record with master of real estate graduates, and many of them choose commercial real estate brokerage careers.

In this exclusive, Travis Land, president of the SIOR Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter, and Texas A&M professor Cydney Donnell talked about the new sponsorship program. Donnell is an Aggie class of 1981 graduate, Mays director of real estate programs and teaches the course, Real Estate Capital Markets.

GlobeSt.com: Please explain how the matching grant program works.

Land: SIOR's Houston chapter, along with matching funds from Washington, DC-based SIOR Foundation, is sponsoring three graduate students enrolled in the master of real estate program in the Mays Business School of Business at Texas A&M and providing $24,000 in scholarship grants. The chapter provided $6,000, the foundation matched that with $6,000 and the Mays master of real estate advisory board provided the $12,000 in matching funds. Three $8,000 scholarships will be granted to deserving students using a merit-based criteria and selection process.

GlobeSt.com: Why is this so important to the commercial real estate industry?

Land: Our industry provides a lot of opportunities for college graduates to establish and build great careers. Supporting students to help them get advanced degrees will benefit these students once they enter the commercial real estate business, yet it also benefits our industry as a whole by raising the standards of excellence. It's a win-win.

GlobeSt.com: Please describe some of the program's goals.

Donnell: We're providing the skills required by contemporary real estate professionals to thrive in the commercial real estate industry once they graduate. We try to instill in our students a culture of leadership and want them to be the spokespeople for our industry once they develop successful careers. We want them to be the ones to recruit the next generation of real estate professionals.

GlobeSt.com: Why is the new partnership with SIOR and the SIOR Foundation important to the Mays School of Business?

Donnell: The SIOR matching funds program is a tremendous gift to the Mays Business School and master of real estate program. Up to $8,000 per student is a truly meaningful amount and covers a substantial portion of tuition. We're excited to have established this co-venture with SIOR and I am grateful that our program's advisory board embraced the concept and supported this scholarship with their generosity.

Ginder is a veteran industrial broker in Houston with Caldwell Companies. Land is a partner and industrial specialist with NAI Partners in Houston.