About Us
ULodging is a one-stop online marketplace where universities, academic institutions and non-profits engaged in the provision of international education, student exchange programs, internships and related activities can directly communicate with each other to either post or search for housing or classroom space.
The accommodation is owned or controlled by either educational institutions or accredited student housing providers.The portal provides the ability to search, communicate, reserve and execute a lease. There is no cost to search or post properties on the portal.
The vision of our founders was to create a forum which would support a plural and collaborative effort by universities, student housing owners, experiential education providers and student related organizations to communicate openly with each other. This would provide a risk adverse, cost minimizing and quality enhancing academic experience where housing neither inhibited nor complicated studying abroad.
The Founders
Crispin Etherington
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Crispin Etherington has a background of over thirty-five years in commercial, residential and educational real estate development in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. He received his B.Sc. in Real Estate Management from Liverpool John Moores University and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Prior to forming ULodging Inc in 2019 with Eugene Alpert Ph.D. , he spent the previous eleven years in the provision of student housing to students who were undertaking internships or participating in global studies programs in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
Housing was always the variable in global studies programs and Etherington and Dr. Alpert foresaw the opportunity to address this need in the creation of ULodging, a platform that would connect university and student to housing providers where housing neither inhibited nor complicated the quest to studying abroad.
Etherington has considerable experience in many facets of education including past Board member with the Edward St. John Real Estate Program, Johns Hopkins University, Vice Chairman with Phillips Programs, a non-profit, private organization serving the needs of children with emotional and behavioral problems, Board member with ACE Mentoring Program, a national program that helps mentor high school students and inspires them to pursue careers in design and construction.
He is Chairman of the Annapolis Trust, a non-profit that provides financial support to “first in family” students pursuing post-secondary education as well as a teacher in the Anne Arundel Public School System, Maryland.
Eugene J. Alpert Ph.D.
Co-founder
The late Dr. Eugene Alpert was a visionary leader and dedicated advocate for student experiential learning. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and was on the faculty at Texas Christian University for 17 years and directed its Washington Internship Program and graduate programs.
As Senior Vice President for The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars for 20 years, Dr. Alpert oversaw The Washington Center’s academic programming, working with faculty, campus directors, and partners to expand its high-impact offerings. Over 2,500 students and faculty participated in the signature national party convention program he developed during his tenure. He was an early-adopter of online learning methods student access that included the provision of distance learning opportunities.
In recent years, he brought together internship program directors from 145 institutions and other higher education-focused groups to develop best practices for student experiential learning in the nation’s capital. One of his most important legacies was developing the talents of younger professionals and preparing them for the next generation of leadership.
His last initiative involved the development of an experiential learning center under one roof for HBCU students. Regrettably Dr. Alpert did not live to see the fruits of his vision in the establishment of such a center in Washington D.C. in October 2021.
(Dr Alpert passed away in October 2020 after a short illness).