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A University of Alabama Center for Real Estate diversity, equity and inclusion initiative, Career Opportunities in Real Estate, has celebrated its first anniversary with 370 graduates.

UA Center for Real Estate Celebrates First Anniversary of Prepping Underrepresented Groups for CRE Careers

An initiative of The University of Alabama’s Alabama Center for Real Estate has celebrated its first anniversary with more than 1,000 application and 370 graduates.

The program, Career Opportunities in Real Estate (CORE) seeks to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within the real estate industry by empowering students and young professionals from underrepresented groups to make the real estate industry more accessible to them.

The CORE program achieves its objective via an online scholarship driven credentialing program consisting of eight modules featuring self-paced commercial real estate career content, as well as professional development resources, soft skills training and access to life coaching.

The 370 CORE graduates to date have been awarded the CORE Ready Certification and now consider real estate a “career of choice, not chance.”

The CORE program fills a defined gap within the real estate industry. Dr. James King, the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Culverhouse College of Business and a professor of management, said, “We know the need is great, as is the opportunity, and CORE and efforts like it present a momentous and historic effort to diversify the real estate industry.”

The program in its first year received 1,138 applicants from 40 states and 307 different schools, including many from those attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACUs), junior colleges and high schools.

Enrollment into the program is free for accepted students, which made possible by the contributions founding partners who bring the CORE vision to life through their commitment to fund scholarships for qualified applicants, as well as educational content and mentoring. The CCIM Institute, the SIOR Foundation and Corporate Office Properties Trust recently joined the directory foundation partners, which represents the highest level of CORE support, the equivalent of fifty or more sponsored scholarships.

The three CORE cohorts in 2023 will start on February 20th, June 12th, and September 25th; applications for each cohort are open for submission.

ACRE is housed within UA’s Culverhouse College of Business.

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Career Opportunities in Real Estate

About Lisa McDuffie

Lisa McDuffie arrives at ConnectCRE via REALTOR® world, where she served for nearly two decades as communications director for one of the nation’s largest REALTOR® organizations. She supported two membership-elected presidents who were commercial real estate practitioners, and managed the communications initiatives of the organization’s commercial special interest group. When not following the latest commercial real estate news, Lisa is zeroed in on her charismatic off-the-track thoroughbred as she makes the transition from an utterly failed racehorse to a lovely show hunter.

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