New student org brings real estate opportunities to Black students on campus
Schoenbaum Hall, where many on-campus students attend business classes. | Photo by Asia Atuah
By: Asia Atuah
For Sydni Brantley, what started as an surface-level interest in watching houses being bought and flipped on HGTV, blossomed into an interest in cultivating opportunities for black students at Ohio State about the real estate industry.
Black Students in Real Estate, a student organization founded by Brantley, a fourth-year in real estate and president of BSRE, will meet through bi-weekly Zoom meetings to educate and prepare blacks students on campus to make an impact within the real estate industry.
“A lot of people assume, you know, real estate is just selling houses or flipping houses, or whatever it is,” Brantley said. “There’s just so much more to it than that.”
Along with providing opportunities for participants to procure internships and jobs around the city with different developers, Brantley said the organization will host Black professional speakers to discuss their experiences, background in the industry and suggestions on becoming successful in the field.
“A lot of the times we’re finding a lot of people who want to help us, so we really rely on our network for that,” Abe McLaurin, a third-year in real estate and vice president of BSRE, said.
Inside Schoenbaum Hall, a quote on the wall inspires students to impact their communities. | Photo by Asia Atuah.
Brantley said initial meetings will discuss certain topics, job titles and general processes to inform people and avoid confusing members with technical terms, while providing the opportunity for members to discuss what aspects of real estate they are more interested in exploring.
Brantley said collaborations with different real estate focused orgs, such as the Fisher Real Estate Society, and companies like JP Morgan and PNC will allow for further discussions on opportunities for members.
Brantley said there are issues within the industry where commercial real estate and companies impact low-income neighborhoods and, primarily, black communities.
“I feel like, especially in a lot of black communities, people deal with gentrification, or they deal with companies coming in and changing their neighborhoods completely to a different thing they don’t recognize,” Brantley said.
McLaurin also said students with a business or finance background could apply their knowledge to real estate and find a tangible and rewarding experience pursuing a specific field with their degrees.
According to Brantley, it's important to her to leave an impact on the community, and help people understand how real estate can affect their lives.
“It goes beyond just, you know, real estate can make you a lot of money,” Brantley said. “Yeah, it’s a very lucrative business. But at the same time I think it has a lot more of an impact than people realize on just your everyday life or what your community or neighborhood might look like.”
More information on BSRE can be found on their Instagram account @bsreosu.