When Darius Livingston graduated from the University of California, Davis two years ago, he knew his football career was over. Like most of his former teammates, and most college athletes, he wasn’t going to turn pro.

Instead, Livingston turned to commercial real estate, thanks to the lessons he learned from a paid internship program that teaches young students of color the fundamentals of finance, with a particular focus on real estate investing.

The program, Project Destined, is a social impact platform founded by former Carlyle Group director Cedric Bobo.

Bobo made a name for himself in real estate investing and then decided to return the favor. He launched the finance program in 2016 primarily for high school students. He then expanded it to universities, seeing the opportunity for both internships and jobs before and after graduation.

Eager to diversify their workforce, some of the largest real estate development, finance and management firms have signed on to fund internships and mentor students. That includes names like boston propertiesGray Star, Brookfield, CBRE, Residential Equityfifth wall, JLLSkanska, Vornado, and Walker & Dunlop.

The program has trained more than 5,000 participants from more than 350 universities around the world and has partnered with more than 250 real estate firms.

And now, he’s targeting some of his efforts specifically toward black student-athletes.

After recently piloting UC Davis student-athletes, Bobo has announced a partnership with Black Student-Athlete Summit, a career and academic support organization, to offer paid virtual internships to 100 student-athletes from nine schools across the Division I… Includes 25 hours of training.

“Participants in the program will also join executives in evaluating real-time commercial real estate transactions in their community and will compete in pitching contests before top industry leaders,” according to a statement from the association. “The internship includes opportunities for scholarships and networking.”

Livingston went through the UC Davis pilot program his last semester of college, then earned internships at Eastdil and Eden Housing. He is now an acquisitions and development associate at Catalyst Housing Group, a California-based real estate development company and a financial sponsor of the new partnership.

“I think, for me, it was really realizing that I probably won’t be a first-round pick, and that’s okay,” Livingston explained. “It really is being exposed to other opportunities. That’s why I’m so blessed that Project Destined comes along and exposes me to the commercial real estate industry and the mindset that I deserve to own in the communities that I live in.”

That property right has long been Bobo’s mantra and was the crux of his speech when he announced his program’s new arm to hundreds of students at the Black Student-Athlete Summit at USC. He wants them to understand that they can create change in their own neighborhoods by owning and managing real estate. More importantly, he wants them to know that ownership is possible.

“Our show is not just about how we see everyone,” Bobo said of the real estate executives who were on hand for the announcement. “This is how they see themselves.”

While the graduation rate for black student-athletes is slowly improving, many students showered with resources in school find themselves struggling once they finish their athletic activities and enter the workforce.

“A lot of these kids may think they’re a first-round draft pick, and that’s a percentage of a percentage of a percentage of a percentage, so it’s really about being true to yourself and knowing that you deserve so much more than what you expect.” we’re just exposed, and that’s just sports,” Livingston said.

Financial support for the program comes from real estate firms such as BGO, Brookfield, Catalyst Housing Group, Dune Real Estate Partners, Jemcor Development Partners, Landspire Group, Marcus & Millichap, Virtu Investments, and The Vistria Group, among others.

“The expansion of this platform is a natural evolution of this collective effort and will provide tangible pathways for thousands of African-American student-athletes to pursue future careers in commercial real estate,” said Jordan Moss, who is also a former UC student-athlete. Davis and the founder and CEO of Catalyst.

Project Destined has also been working with the NBA and WNBA to give professional athletes more options after their sports careers are over.

Livingston said he believes that athletes make the best employees.

“We played to win,” he explained. “It’s the competitive nature. We want to take advantage of our opportunities.”