About thirty high school students from College Friendship Academy and Friendship Technical Preparation Academy in Washington, DC, complete Intended project, a 10-week course that teaches them about opportunities in commercial and residential real estate developments.
The social impact platform was co-founded by Cedric Bobo, former director of The Carlyle Group, and uses an online education program to teach students the fundamentals of financing and sourcing, market research, and actual acquisition of real estate properties.
BroCAR Properties is one of the sponsors of the Project Destined initiative in DC, and has helped organize the partnership with the schools. The co-founders of BroCAR, Ckori Jones and Ashref Elshazli, are former teachers who know the educational landscape well.
“The current education system lacks a real estate component and focusing on real estate is something tangible that young people can run around with, either by getting a bachelor’s degree, by experiencing an area they might want. continue in the future, or, at a minimum, being exposed to terms like equity, funding and appreciation, “Jones told Commercial Observer.” The main areas where investing takes place are in their backyard We believe they should be the beneficiaries of the tremendous growth that is underway.
Project Destined presents students with real opportunities and teaches them how to acquire real estate and generate profits, in part based on the use of real local properties that students visit and study. Students use Minnesota Commons Apartments and Alexandria Gardens in Southeast Washington as role models in their studies.
“Students learn to assess the value of a property, understand comparables, do market valuations, learn about the structuring of deal financing, as well as improve public speaking and collaboration. team, ”Jones said.
Part of the program is a “Shark Tank” type pitch competition, where students make investment presentations to the judges.
“Project Destined has transformed our students in many ways, including changing their mindset about property and real estate,” Michael robinson, Director of Extended Learning Programs for Friendship charter public school, of which the program’s two high schools are part, said. “They experience construction activities in DC, but previously they didn’t see themselves as part of the industry. Now they do, with many expressing a desire to pursue a career in real estate. It has changed life in so many ways. “
Project Destined is currently in 15 cities across the country, and the next DC session will begin this summer.
“Our hope is that this exhibition will broaden their perspective as to what they want to be in life,” Jones said. “The real estate industry is full of many aspects. This introduction gives them some degree of clarity about this vast world of possibilities for the future.
