WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Kislak Family Foundation has pledged $1 million in scholarships and $100,000 in academic programming support for Monmouth University students studying real estate. The seven-figure scholarship donation will support a need-based Kislak Family Scholarship for undergraduates pursuing a business degree with a real estate concentration, while the $100,000 pledge will continue to support the University’s Kislak Real Estate Institute Academic Challenge, an annual intercollegiate real estate competition which will include an affordable housing component.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Kislak family for its ongoing support of our students and their dedication to Monmouth University,” said Monmouth University President Patrick F. Leahy. “It is the kind of philanthropic support that will have a long-term impact, providing extraordinary opportunities for deserving students for years to come,” he said. “I am also thrilled that the Kislak Real Estate Institute Academic Challenge will be on solid footing for the future. Our students have proven they have the skills to compete against their peers at internationally recognized colleges and universities.”
To commemorate the legacy of the late Jay I. Kislak, eligible undergraduate students applying for the Kislak Family Scholarship will be invited to submit an essay on the topic of how their lives and careers will serve as models for their personal or professional goals. A prominent philanthropist and real estate icon, Jay Kislak served as chairman of the Kislak Organization, which has an over 100-year history in New Jersey and includes the commercial real estate brokerage firm, The Kislak Company, Inc. He was also the 2011 recipient of the University’s Leadership Excellence Award, which is awarded annually in recognition of distinctive contributions to New Jersey and the nation through a distinguished career in real estate.
“My father was deeply passionate about education, business, and giving back,” said Paula Kislak, chair of the Kislak Family Foundation and daughter of Jay Kislak. “These contributions to Monmouth University are an enduring tribute to him, as he understood and valued the importance of education and investing in the future of real estate professionals. We are proud to support the Kislak Real Estate Institute and its mission to prepare the next generation of principled industry leaders.”
Don Moliver, Ph.D., dean of the Leon Hess Business School and Pozycki Professor of Real Estate, also saluted the impact of Jay Kislak and the Kislak Family Foundation at Monmouth University. “Over the past 10-plus years, our real estate program has thrived, and we owe much of that success to the Kislak family’s continued commitment to our students. We look forward to building on the Kislak Real Estate Institute’s upward trajectory as evidenced by the hundreds of successful graduates working in the industry today.”
The Kislak family’s philanthropic support and connection to Monmouth University dates back to 2006, when a generous and transformational gift from the family enabled the University to start an academic, credit-bearing program in real estate, which at the time was the first in New Jersey and one of just 65 in the nation. In recognition of that donation and in honor of the late Julius Kislak, a well-known figure in the New Jersey and national real estate industries and father of Jay Kislak, the university’s real estate institute was renamed to bear the Kislak name.
Monmouth University is home to New Jersey’s longest-running university real estate academic program and boasts one of approximately 100 real estate degree programs offered out of about 2,000 business schools in the country. The number of students studying real estate at Monmouth continues to grow, and Kislak Real Estate Institute students have excelled, coming in first place at the second annual intercollegiate real estate competition hosted by the University in 2019.
For more information, visit monmouth.edu/kislak.
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About The Kislak Family Foundation
The Kislak Family Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation established in 1992 to support leadership and innovation in the fields of education, arts and humanities, animal welfare, environmental preservation, and other charitable endeavors in the U.S. and abroad. Based in Miami Lakes, Florida, the foundation provides grant funding to a wide range of nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher learning.