Team Arbor Mentees Gain Real-Life Real Estate Experience with Project Destined

This summer, five members of Arbor’s staff had the pleasure of participating in Project Destined, a real estate finance-focused internship program which gives minority college students the ability to develop technical, financial, and leadership skills.

 

Project Destined’s summer 2022 program, which recently concluded, featured training in real estate and digital marketing and provided an opportunity for students to collaborate with real estate professionals. All summer long, program participants had the opportunity to prepare presentations as a part of weekly team-based competitions. Each week, a new module was added to the presentation, as the mentees on Team Arbor worked together with Arbor executives to evaluate a live real estate deal in the community.

 

Team Arbor began the competition with a strong showing, placing first in the first round of competitions. Throughout the summer, Team Arbor continued to excel, placing in the top three every week. Project Destined culminated in a “Shark Tank”-style finale where each team of interns presented a digital marketing plan for a live multifamily real estate deal to leaders in the industry.

 

 

A huge congratulations to the Program Managers, Amina Cecunjanin and Alis Music, and the interns: Sevgila Sharipova, William Arbo, Hassan Kawi, Mushfiqur Rahman, Angela R., Lili Chang, Maggie Wang, Marvelous Ekeh, Jamiyah Hussain, Louis Zheng, and Peter Patino. Our mentors were consistently impressed with their dedication, determination, and unbelievable teamwork. We cannot wait to see where your professional journeys take each of you.

 

Arbor also would like to recognize the Arbor employees, our incredible mentors, who devoted their time and energy to the internship program from start to finish: Austin Walker, Tracy Dennis, Karen Sountas, Joyce Figueroa, and Jean-Laurent Pouliot. Additional thanks to Gianni Ottaviano, who joined as a guest mentor, as well as Arbor’s Team Lead for Project Destined, Leah Fisher. Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to Cedric Bobo and the whole Project Destined team.

 

For Arbor, participating in Project Destined was a fantastic experience all around. We believe the sessions we had together will make a considerable impact on the professional journeys of not only our mentees but our mentors as well. Since its founding in 2016, more than 500 scholars have received skills, confidence, positive experiences, and a valuable network of contacts to make them well-prepared to embark on a fruitful career in real estate finance.

 

After a wonderful summer of working with the future leaders of the real estate industry, Arbor thoroughly looks forward to the next opportunity to work with Project Destined.