As an undergraduate at Cal State Fullerton’s College of Business and Economics, Steve Haddadin ’18 used to walk past the donor wall and picture his own name on it someday. It wasn’t a passing thought. It became a personal goal, one he carried with him long before he had the means to make it happen.

In 2018, as president of the Real Estate Association, Haddadin made plans to attend ICSC Las Vegas, one of the industry’s major gatherings. With a background in retail real estate, he understood the value of being in the room: meeting professionals, learning from industry leaders and seeing firsthand where a career in real estate could lead. He wanted his fellow students to have that same experience. But several Business Titans could not afford to make the trip.

Haddadin stepped in to help support their attendance at the conference. What began as a one-time gesture became the foundation for a commitment that has continued for years and the first step toward the goal he’d set for himself as a student.

Turning a Goal Into a Legacy

Since 2018, CSUF students have attended every ICSC convention. In 2023, Haddadin established the Steve Haddadin Student Travel Endowment Fund to provide consistent financial assistance for real estate students attending the conference. In recognition of his generosity, Haddadin’s name was added to the first-floor donor wall he once admired as a student. The next year, a team of Titans competed in the Retail Case Competition at ICSC and earned third place during the university’s first-ever participation. For Haddadin, the moment carried extra weight. “It was a competition I wish CSUF could have participated in when I was a student,” he says.

His involvement today extends beyond supporting student travel. As a board member of the CSUF Center for Real Estate, Haddadin works to build relationships with organizations throughout the industry and help develop the program. He remains active with the Real Estate Association, continuing the kind of engagement that shaped his own time at CSUF.

Leadership, in fact, became an unexpected part of Haddadin’s education when he became president of the Real Estate Association. The role put him in a position to rebuild a student organization, establish an annual industry trip, rename the center, propose courses that contributed to the development of a real estate concentration, and connect the center with the CCIM Institute.

Those experiences proved formative. In the eight years since graduation, Haddadin has become a real estate broker, attorney and professor. Fulfilling the goals he once had as a student, including the one he set for himself walking past that donor wall. “I am proud that I can look back at my days as a student and say that what I wanted to accomplish after graduation became reality, all of it,” he says. His experience also shaped his philosophy of leadership: “While you may possess traits that make a good leader, circumstances shape a person.”

Today, he encourages students to recognize those circumstances when they arise and to pursue leadership opportunities on campus. It’s a message rooted in his own story: Giving back doesn’t require decades of career success first, it requires deciding, early and deliberately, that you’ll do it.

He sees the same potential in CSUF’s real estate program, which offers students opportunities to focus on acquisitions, development, management, market analysis and appraisal. In addition, the center has accelerated pathways toward the CCIM and CPM designations, offers IREM certification courses, and ARGUS training to students. He hopes to see the Center for Real Estate keep building on that momentum, with continued connections between students and industry professionals and more chances for students to lead.

One such manifestation is the first-ever Residential Real Estate Forum coming this November. What began as a vision during Haddadin’s time as a student at Cal State Fullerton to connect the center to residential real estate has now come full circle, reflecting his continued commitment to supporting the university and creating opportunities for future generations of students. For more on the inaugural November Residential Real Estate Forum, read our recent article on this upcoming event.

“At the end of the day, passing things to the next generation keeps things going,” Haddadin says.

For more on the Center for Real Estate at Cal State Fullerton, read more of our articles on real estate education.