The School of Business Carter Real Estate Center has selected a prestigious team of students to take on the Real Confidence University Challenge (RCUC), a national competition where participants are given $1 billion in “play money” to invest in commercial real estate properties. The students who gain the largest return on their investments win the top prize of $50,000.

RCUC team captain, Scott Nord ’18.

Senior Business Administration major Scott Nord has stepped up to the plate to lead the College of Charleston team to victory. As a student athlete on the sailing team, Nord is confident is his leadership abilities.

The RCUC leader is currently taking a class on Real Estate Valuation Analysis with assistant professor Kenneth Soyeh, Ph.D., who also happens to be the faculty advisor for the investment competition. Nord says he’s looking forward to working with Soyeh because of his valuation analysis background as well as his understanding of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Faculty advisor, Ken Soyeh, Ph.D.

Soyeh says he hopes the competition will give students a glimpse of what it’s like to apply lessons from the classroom in the real world, and believes their best chance at winning stems from how serious the students take the challenge.

“I want the team to treat the $1 billion dollar investment fund like actual money,” he says. “And I urge them to approach their investment strategy as the challenge calls for with confidence.” 

The team representing the College of Charleston will compete against individuals a majority whom are graduate students from 38 other schools. Nord, Soyeh and the rest of the CofC crew hope to leave with the $50,000 prize, which would be awarded to the university, and memories to last a lifetime.