Arbor Caps Project Destined Season With New Scholarship Supporting Underrepresented CRE Students

Building on a commitment to developing young talent, Arbor has added another meaningful milestone to its tradition of excellence, launching the Arbor Scholarship Award Powered by Project Destined. It awards two students who embody high integrity, persistence, and a passion for a commercial real estate career with $1,000 and provides mentorship from Arbor executives.

“Arbor mentors and other employees who have volunteered with Project Destined have come away from the experience having learned something about themselves and carrying with them a new sense of gratitude,” said Leah Fisher, SVP, Special Projects, Governance, and Risk and Project Destined Team Lead. “With that in mind, we are excited to deepen our partnership with Project Destined through its scholarship program. Not only will participation in this program offer an opportunity to provide financial support to two talented and driven students on their journey in their CRE industry but will grant Arbor additional valuable mentorship time.” 

To learn more about the scholarship and apply, visit the application page.

Arbor Celebrates Another Impressive Project Destined Team

Founded in 2017, Project Destined aims to transform underrepresented young people into owners and stakeholders in their own communities. The organization has worked with over 8,000 students from over 1,300 colleges, universities, and high schools in more than 35 markets across the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Through its internship programs, Project Destined molds the next generation of real estate leaders by giving them an opportunity to interact directly with today’s leaders.

This spring, Arbor employees spent several hours a week working virtually with a group of Project Destined interns from across the country. Arbor’s team of mentors, which included Gianni Ottaviano, EVP, Structured Finance Production; Gillian Harrington, SVP, Portfolio Management and Loan Surveillance; Carl Koebler, SVP, Screening; Christy Cropanese, VP, Treasury; Ryan Kraynak, VP, Screening; and Carolina Conway, Senior Underwriter, worked directly with the aspiring real estate leaders from Project Destined as they prepared to compete against other teams in the program.

Over the course of eight weeks, Project Destined mentees received more than 45 hours of training in the fundamentals of commercial real estate through executive speaker series sessions and mentor office hours. They analyzed live local real estate deals and presented to industry executives in pitch competitions styled after the television show “Shark Tank.”

Harrington was impressed with the group’s knowledge and preparation before mentors began offering guidance. “How the students were able to obtain information on properties they didn’t actually own or invest in stood out to me,” she said. “And how they put together a package was impressive; the deals they worked on were pretty realistic in how they were taking on this project to present to the judges.”

Together, Team Arbor’s mentors and mentees collaborated on presentations that were ultimately pitched to a group of judges. During weekly sessions, the students in the program received hands-on instruction from Arbor executives in full-team Zoom sessions and more intimate break-out sessions.

“Joining the Arbor Realty Trust team meant learning from experts while making meaningful connections,” said Chauncy Lewis, a real estate and urban sustainability major at New York University.

Kristina Nasteva, a business economics major at Pace University who is studying at Sophia University in Tokyo this semester, said she knew a Project Destined internship with Arbor would help her acquire the technical skills needed to succeed in a commercial real estate career.

“I was easily able to connect with my mentors,” said Nasteva. “Under Arbor’s guidance, I honed my skills, expanded my network, and feel much more prepared for future endeavors in real estate.”

Investing in Early Career Professionals

For the last three years, Arbor employees have volunteered with Project Destined and received much more in return than they ever would have expected.

Interns’ presentations included property and market research and deal financing, showcasing a value-add program for real properties. The goal was to show how a property could achieve more income after they assumed ownership and, eventually, present on the bank loan needed and equity required from investors.

“The students are pitching to the panel, who are potential investors in the property,” said Kraynak. “In my role, on the lending side, we view transactions in a slightly different light, so it was a cool way to hear different perspectives. It was also impressive to watch how they took the mentors’ feedback and built on that.”

While mentoring is a time commitment in addition to many professionals’ demanding workloads, Harrington said there are always a few more hours to give. “We can all make time to give back by helping people in their careers,” she said. “It was a breath of fresh air to remember what it was like to be eager to learn, and it reminds you where you came from and to be grateful for that.”

As a motivator, Cropanese felt she could bring that energy to inspire the students to keep learning. “I also view my role as a mentor as potentially being a conduit to someone else to help them achieve their goals,” she said.

Thank You Team Arbor for a Terrific Season!

Once again, Team Arbor was fortunate to work with an outstanding group of young people eager to grow and learn. A special thank you to our wonderful group of mentees: Alan Frastai, Anna Liu, Chengbo Zhang, Chengling Zheng, Dena Zeitoun, Donald Jones, Hripsime Tumanyan, Kristina Nasteva, Lisbeth Hernandez, Raj Chauhan, Sha’Dawn Parker, Tirth Shah, and Chauncy Lewis.

We look forward to watching you all grow into your new roles as the next generation of real estate leaders!

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