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Brook­lyn Navy Yard and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Launch Real Estate Path­ways Fel­low­ship Pro­gram for CUNY Students

Sep 27, 2021 9:22 am

The Brook­lyn Navy Yard Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (Navy Yard) and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island (the Trust) announced a new fel­low­ship pro­gram ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing CUNY stu­dents from diverse back­grounds gain the pro­fes­sion­al skills need­ed for suc­cess­ful careers in the real estate indus­try and relat­ed fields. Togeth­er, the Navy Yard and the Trust will host 8 – 10 CUNY under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents dur­ing the 2021 – 2022 school year to help them gain direct work expe­ri­ence while advanc­ing their pro­fes­sion­al and inter­per­son­al skills.

Upon com­plet­ing the pro­gram, fel­lows will be helped to secure and suc­ceed in inter­views that will allow them to obtain qual­i­ty employ­ment in a real estate or relat­ed field.

The Navy Yard and the Trust have launched a pilot of the fel­low­ship pro­gram for the 2021 – 2022 aca­d­e­m­ic year, and plan to bring on addi­tion­al pub­lic and pri­vate real estate devel­op­ment part­ners to host fel­lows for sub­se­quent years. The pro­gram is designed to tar­get stu­dents from diverse back­grounds, includ­ing those who are Pell-eli­gi­ble, stu­dents of col­or, and first-gen­er­a­tion col­lege stu­dents. Appli­ca­tions were accept­ed ear­li­er this year and the inau­gur­al pilot pro­gram will serve 10 fel­lows across the two organizations.

“Cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for New York­ers at all skill lev­els to secure good, high qual­i­ty jobs is our guid­ing mis­sion, and we are proud to intro­duce a pipeline ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing under­served CUNY stu­dents land suc­cess­ful careers in the his­tor­i­cal­ly tough-to-break-into real estate indus­try,” said David Ehren­berg, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Brook­lyn Navy Yard Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion. ​“Start­ing this fel­low­ship pro­gram in tan­dem with New York City’s eco­nom­ic and real estate rebound cre­ates an unpar­al­leled oppor­tu­ni­ty for our future lead­ers to gain the expe­ri­ence and skills they need to excel in our dynam­ic indus­try. By work­ing with the Trust, we can ensure our fel­lows receive robust train­ing and we look for­ward to see­ing all that they accom­plish through this program.”

“We’re thrilled to offer this new fel­low­ship pro­gram to sup­port the devel­op­ment of career path­ways for CUNY stu­dents from across the five bor­oughs,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Gov­er­nors Island offers a unique plat­form for train­ing the next cohort of urban place­mak­ing pro­fes­sion­als, with oppor­tu­ni­ties to devel­op skills in open space man­age­ment, real estate and plan­ning, adap­tive reuse and more and it is our goal to pro­vide fel­lows with the real-world skills they need to suc­ceed in any real estate-relat­ed sec­tor. We are grate­ful for our part­ners at the Navy Yard for help­ing us make the future of real estate more rep­re­sen­ta­tive and accessible.”

In the spring before the final year of their aca­d­e­m­ic pro­gram, eli­gi­ble stu­dents can apply to one of the fol­low­ing areas: Con­struc­tion Man­age­ment or Engi­neer­ing, Real Estate, Busi­ness Man­age­ment, Prop­er­ty Man­age­ment or Hor­ti­cul­ture. The Navy Yard and Trust have part­nered with CUNY cam­pus­es offer­ing rel­e­vant degree options, includ­ing New York City Col­lege of Tech­nol­o­gy, Bronx Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, City Col­lege, Lehman Col­lege and Baruch Col­lege to recruit stu­dents for the program.

The one-year pro­gram will progress through the fol­low­ing phases:

• PHASE I: Fel­lows will par­tic­i­pate in a 36-week pro­gram, which will pay them to work 25 – 30 hours per week onsite at their place­ment orga­ni­za­tion, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly com­plet­ing course­work toward their aca­d­e­m­ic degree.
• PHASE II: At the con­clu­sion of their aca­d­e­m­ic pro­gram and fel­low­ship, stu­dents will receive sup­port to apply to full-time real estate posi­tions with­in the pub­lic or pri­vate sec­tor, includ­ing resume assis­tance, inter­view sup­port and direct intro­duc­tions. The Navy Yard and the Trust will launch the next round of appli­ca­tions for the pro­gram in the com­ing months.

The Real Estate Path­ways Pro­gram is made pos­si­ble through the gen­er­ous sup­port of CUNY, Dock72 Team (Boston Prop­er­ties and Rudin Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny), Hud­son Builders Group, The Liro Group, L+M Devel­op­ment Part­ners, Plaza Con­struc­tion and Two Trees Management.