Matthew Trow, junior financial management major at Abilene Christian University from The Woodlands, is gaining real estate and sales experience as an intern for SHOP Companies this summer in their Houston office.

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Last summer, Trow was a summer associate at the Howard Hughes Corporation, a real estate company selling to businesses and other large corporations. He learned about the financial side of real estate and developed financial models as a part of the 10-week associate program. This summer, Trow will work with SHOP Companies, a multi-faceted real estate firm built and run by market leaders specializing in retail brokerage services, development and acquisition.

“I’m super excited,” Trow said. “I was especially excited because I was in Oxford during the fall semester studying abroad, so I didn’t get a crazy head start on applying for internships. I was really hoping for a specific experience, so I am relieved that I am going to a specific industry for a specific experience.”

For SHOP Companies this summer, Trow will work in brokerage and investment sales. He’ll meet with companies who are looking to move locations and work with the clients to meet their needs and assist SHOP in selling spaces to clients and representing them as tenants. As a part of investment sales, he will work with SHOP to look at different properties the company would like to invest in for clients.

“This advances my career exponentially,” Trow said. “I think my best opportunity right now out of college will be working in a sales-type position for five years. So having some sales experience before I even graduate is going to help tenfold just because I’ll be a lot more attractive to different employers.”

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Once Trow returned from Oxford in the fall, he had an idea to create the Real Estate and Banking Society within the College of Business Administration. He and Hayden Poorman, junior finance and information systems major from Abilene, meet weekly with the club to discuss and inform students about the opportunities within the real estate and banking industries. Speakers, workshops, networking events and other supplemental materials are provided to members of the club.

The idea came from fellow interns who worked with Trow at Howard Hughes last summer. Many of the interns were real estate majors or part of a real estate society at their university, and Trow believed this was a huge advantage for the growth of their careers. Within a month of returning to campus from Oxford, Trow had REBS officially chartered and supported by COBA as well as the Student Life office.

“As soon as I got back from Oxford, I started brainstorming and creating a rough outline,” Trow said. “I reached out to one of the guys that I interned with at the University of Houston, and they have this program there called Undergraduate Real Estate Society Scholars, and I asked him to tell me about what they do. So he gave me a very rough outline of what it is they do for their club meetings and what the members do and what that looks like. Through that conversation, I was able to create REBS more or less into what it is today.”

As a result of the club, Trow will be able to utilize his experiences at ACU at SHOP Companies this summer. Learn more about the College of Business Administration.

— Connor Mullins

June 6, 2023