Why major commercial real estate firms are joining resources to recruit Black student-athletes
Cedric Bobo discusses a new program for Black student-athletes to transition into the commercial real estate market.

When Darius Livingston graduated from the University of California, Davis, two years ago, he knew his football career was over. Like most of his former teammates — and the majority of college athletes — he wasn't going pro.

Instead, Livingston went into commercial real estate, thanks to lessons he learned from a paid internship program that teaches young students of color the fundamentals of finance, with a particular focus on real estate investing.

The program, Project Destined, is a social impact platform founded by former Carlyle Group principal Cedric Bobo.

Bobo made a name for himself in real estate investing and then decided to pay it forward. He launched the finance program in 2016 primarily for high school students. Then he broadened it to colleges, seeing the opportunity for both internships and jobs before and after graduation.

Eager to diversify their workforces, some of the largest real estate development, finance and management firms have signed on to fund the internships and mentor the students. That includes names like Boston Properties , Greystar, Brookfield, CBRE , Equity Residential , Fifth Wall, JLL , Skanska, Vornado and Walker & Dunlop.

The program has trained more than 5,000 participants from over 350 universities worldwide and has partnered with over 250 real estate firms.

And now, it's gearing some of its efforts specifically toward Black student-athletes.

After doing a pilot program recently with student-athletes from UC Davis, Bobo has announced a partnership with the Black Student-Athlete Summit, a professional and academic support organization, to offer paid, virtual internships to 100 student-athletes from nine Division I schools. It includes 25 hours of training.

"Program participants will also join executives to evaluate real-time commercial real estate transactions in their community and compete in pitch competitions to senior industry leaders," according to a release announcing the partnership. "The internship includes opportunities for scholarships and networking."

Livingston went through the UC Davis pilot in his last semester of college, then got internships with Eastdil and Eden Housing. He is now an acquisitions and development associate at Catalyst Housing Group, a California-based real estate development firm and a financial backer of the new partnership.