The Iowa Realty Scholarship helped change the course of Allison Ries’ (Accounting, Real Estate and Finance ‘19) college path. She received the money in advance of her junior year, and because of the financial burden it eased, Ries added accounting as her third major.

“I was really excited,” Ries said. “This was the first scholarship I was awarded at UNI, and it was a huge help for my junior year. I was planning on graduating a year early, but when I got the scholarship, I added my additional major.”

That’s the intention Iowa Realty had in mind when it implemented two annual UNIBusiness scholarships in 2002, right about the time the real estate program launched in the school.

Current Iowa Realty CEO Kim Bakey (Accounting ‘84) was the chief financial officer at the time. She and Iowa Realty wanted to help students find their own passion in real estate. UNI is also a family affair for her — her grand-
mother, husband, daughter and son-in-law are graduates.

“We decided that we’d love to see young people, as they’re looking at what a career path might be, have a better understanding of what the real estate world offered, and not just from a commercial perspective but also a residential perspective,” Bakey said. “We thought it’d be awesome to offer a few scholarships to offset some of their costs and bring a little awareness to the residential side of things.”

The scholarship certainly helped offset some of the financial burden — and stress — for McKenna Anderson (Real Estate and Finance) in her junior year. She is planning to graduate in December and work in her hometown of Cedar Rapids.

“It was a grateful feeling,” she said. “I think college can be stressful for everyone, just because of the changes you go through growing up. But on top of it, another stressful part is the money and how you’re going to pay for college. This scholarship relieved a lot of stress for me and it was a nice feeling to see that someone donated money to help me get an education.”

UNIBusiness thanks Iowa Realty for its generous contributions to the College of Business Administration.