Justin Gelwicks

Katonah, New York
Integrated Business & Engineering Honors Program
Bachelor of Science, Real Estate Development Engineering: Civil Engineering, Finance, Real Estate, Architecture
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Justin joins MIT with several years of entrepreneurial experience. He pursued his undergraduate degree in the Lehigh University Integrated Business and Engieering Honors Program– to study architecture, civil engineering, finance, and real estate at once. Justin has won over 25 entrepreneurial scholarships or business pitch competitions for his startup work and was named one of the top 100 undergraduate entrepreneurs globally in 2022. 

His first venture, WoodGoods Trading Company, started after being mugged in his first year in college. Justin took up fine woodworking and other trades while suffering from brain damage, as he did not know if he would be able to attend school again– an experience that helped him find his love for design and scale his business significantly. 

Justin was able to grow his primary venture–WoodGoods Lacrosse– while working as an intern for CBRE and JLL doing both landlord and tenant-side commercial office brokerage, which he credits as an invaluable experience in sales. Justin used this experience to launch 3DC, a 3D virtual real estate tour service provider and proptech company, which won funding as well as a grant from the state which no undergraduate student had ever received at that time.

At MIT, he is the youngest student in his entire MSRED cohort, recipient of the MIT Thomas J. Watch Memorial Scholarship, the MIT/CRE Merit Scholarship, the PREA Graduate Real Estate Scholarship, and the MIT Blake Eagle Fellowship. He is also a walk-on member of the MIT varsity lacrosse team.

Justin’s additional academic interests lie in proptech, sustainable real estate development, adaptive reuse, and large-scale urban live-play-work development projects. In his free time, he travels to national parks and works from a converted sprinter van RV that he built using his knowledge of the woodworking, electrical, metalworking, and plumbing trades.