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Centers for Leadership Excellence (CLE), a new initiative from the Ferguson Charitable Foundation, seeks to introduce ethnically diverse college students to career opportunities available in real estate, with the long-term goal of helping to change the racial and ethnic composition of the sector.

\\u201cWe want to get these students into the boardroom and into the c-suite because as leaders they can effectuate change,\\u201d Bill Ferguson, chairman of Ferguson Partners and president of the Ferguson Charitable Foundation, told the Nareit REIT Report.

Ebony Mitchell, director of strategic initiatives at Ferguson and student liaison for CLE, noted that with the lack of ethnic diversity in commercial real estate, \\u201cthere's been a limited number of role models and mentors of color to attract young collegiate talent on and off campus.\\u201d She added that many of Ferguson\\u2019s clients have also struggled with attracting diverse talent, especially at the entry level due to traditional campus recruiting efforts.

Ferguson explained that students selected into the CLE Program are required to take a certain number of courses in real estate in order to graduate with a minor in real estate. Given Ferguson\\u2019s vast network of corporate relationships across 12 sectors in the real estate industry, \\u201cwe are connecting them with clear opportunities,\\u201d he said.