In FY21, ULI Learning developed programing to support lifelong learning—from initial exposure to the real estate industry to leadership training. We were delighted that ULI has committed itself to educating the next generation of diverse professionals as a mission priority for FY22 and beyond.
- ULI’s signature educational program developed a one-day workshop in Detroit, as well as a place-based version piloted in Los Angeles. UrbanPlan is a project-based learning game guided by experienced ULI member volunteers. In June, we partnered with Everfi Comm Partners, with whom the program first partnered in the United Kingdom, to allow us to offer one-day UrbanPlan workshops in schools across the United States. The program will be working with district councils and targeting schools with diverse student bodies (in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and New York City) to roll out these workshops for spring.
- University Connections. This year, UrbanPlan launched a program aimed at better connecting ULI to universities, especially minority-serving institutions. We intend to (a) expose diverse students to ULI; (b) build stronger relationships with faculty, administrators, and programs for our mutual benefit; and (c) grow membership long term by attaching people to ULI during their formative years as students. We know that our most engaged leaders first learned about ULI as students. In the coming year, we will (a) create opportunities for students to connect to ULI more easily through programming designed for them and (b) build a cohort of University Partners. As with the corporate partners program, we want to recognize universities that have multiple points of connection with us. We want to create mutually beneficial sustaining relationships that are more than the sum of their parts.
- Courses and certificates. With the help of highly sought-after diverse faculty and practitioners around the country, ULI Learning has been busy building interdisciplinary courses and certificates. The courses provide high-quality practical training for students, and early career professionals. ULI is uniquely capable of creating these courses and certificates because of our excellent reputation within academia and our industry. We are able to build out our courses with ULI’s vast repository of knowledge, including ULI reports, case studies, articles, and books.
- In addition to UrbanPlan in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom, ULI Asia Pacific has launched executive education sessions and a course on Asian cities.
- Working with partners and district councils, the program is focused on diversity in all it does. Working with Project REAP (Real Estate Associate Program), we launched the ULI/REAP Virtual Academy in fall 2020, and after having great success, continued with spring 2021. Working with the Real Estate Executive Council, ULI launched another summer of the Real Estate Exchange summer academy featuring UrbanPlan as the kickoff activity. We also partnered with the NAACP’s ACT SO achievement program to provide guidance on the creation and execution of a development competition. Finally, working with ULI Colorado, we piloted a scalable version of the Real Estate Development Initiative (REDI) in Colorado. This effort will be improved on and will be coming soon to St. Louis with the aim of standardizing the REDI curriculum and making REDI more accessible to all district councils. At the end of the fiscal year, we partnered with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and the Fannie Mae’s Future Housing Leaders program to establish a paid internship program in FY22 that will feature ULI’s signature certificate, Foundations of Real Estate. As we grow and diversify our offerings, we also diversify our faculty and participants.
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