One of New York City's largest professional organizations for women in commercial real estate, CREW New York, hosted its latest CREW Careers: Building Opportunities session in partnership with the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute, Inc. (BALI), an organization which mentors and trains young women in high school and college to be leaders of tomorrow. The program took place at BALI's headquarters at Hunter College on July 23 and featured a real estate development design exercise with 16 mentors from CREW New York with careers in commercial real estate.
"The mission of CREW Careers is to educate young women on the career options available to them in the commercial real estate industry by using local real estate developments as the basis of our exercises," said Christine Chipurnoi, co-president of CREW New York and senior vice president of Wells Fargo Insurance Services. "It was a wonderful and rewarding experience to see the young ladies develop and present their creative ideas. We look forward to participating in similar programs in the future."
The BALI participants developed strategies on how to best utilize a 10,000 square foot vacant space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The groups presented their ideas and strategies to the BAM with support from CREW New York members who served as team advisors.
During the event, CREW New York donated $3,500 toward the BALI summer program which will support the organization's important mission of helping young women build the confidence and techniques necessary to be effective and visionary leaders in a wide variety of fields and active participants in civic, corporate, political and community life.
Beth Zafonte, CREW Network Foundation chapter champion and director of economic development services at Akerman LLP, recognized the similar missions shared by the two organizations.
"CREW New York is inspired by the work BALI is doing to help mold future women leaders and welcomed the opportunity to work with BALI for the second year in a row," said Zafonte. "It aligns with our mission of providing education and networking opportunities that support the advancement and success of women in our industry. We are thrilled to support these young ladies and hope that our program encourages them to explore the variety of careers in commercial real estate, something they may not have considered before they met the women of CREW New York."
CREW Careers is a hands-on classroom program designed by CREW Network Foundation to introduce teenage girls to the many career opportunities available to them in the commercial real estate industry. The program is hosted annually by nearly 30 CREW Network chapters in across the United States and Canada.

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