Belouga Case Study

Student Learning Journey

I’m Mohammed, a High School Senior from Buffalo, NY. I am passionate about business and finance, and hoping to delve deep into real estate after college.

I used Belouga because they are an organization that offers students opportunities in the world of business through engaging learning experiences and networking connections, specifically relating to real estate and sustainable cities.

Goals

Content Exploration

To utilize Belouga's content library to explore various learning services connected to academic interests, sustainability, and career pathways, while creating digital assets within each service.

Community Learning

To select core focus areas based on interests and community involvement. Experts and community members provide industry insight and feedback on learning experiences.

Community Project

To select local focus area from experiences and create a project that can positively impact a community while educating and inspiring others.

Learning Foundation

Prior to exploring Belouga's content library, Mohammed identified four pillars for his project that would act as the foundation for his learning journey.

  • Subject Area: Business
  • Concentration: Real Estate
  • Sustainable Development Goal: Sustainable Cities & Communities (11)
  • Location: Buffalo, NY

Content Exploration

Here are a few examples of Belouga series Mohammed used in his learning journey:

The Opportunity Gap
"This was another series on inequality that I really enjoyed, as it went into depth on the systemic aspect of how minorities tend to be much more impoverished. The discussion of how this discrimination is tied to financial freedom was also intriguing to me as a finance student."
View series

The Billionaire funded Space Race
View series

The History, Science, And Business Of Money
View series

Owned: A Tale Of Two Americas
View series

The Earthshot Prize
View series

Community Learning

Owned: A Tale Of Two Americas

Teen CEO: Business Tips

The Earthshot Prize

Focus Area
Following the content exploration phase, Mohammed selected three series in which he determined to be the most influential as his focus areas.

These series connected his personal interests and professional outlook, while aligning to core subject.

Community Learning
Utilizing Belouga's social learning tools, Mohammed was then joined by global experts and community members within each series, all specializing in industries relating to his focus areas.

These individuals provided him with insight and feedback into each topic connected to his learning.

Community Insight

After speaking with the community members and experts, Mohammed reflected on the overall learning experiences and how this knowledge can be applied in his own community.

"I chose this series as my favorite because I felt it spoke to me the most. The message of inequality, history, and systemic racism spoke volumes when combined with the videos of real-life experiences of such issues. Furthermore, how housing is related to racism was interesting to me."

Muhammad Rashid
General Manager @ Properly
Expertise: Real Estate

"What I took away the most from my meeting with Muhammad was the two different spheres of the industry; mortgage end and real estate end. While interconnected, they each have their own separate differences. The real estate end requires much more emphasis on networking and building connections. I found this opposite end to be quite interesting, as my view was limited to merely the real estate end."

Marie Chevrier
CEO/Founder @ Sampler
Expertise: Entrepreneurship

"Marie showed me that a business requires numerous amounts of people. Being an entrepreneur is not just about starting a business with yourself, but rather networking and meeting others to work together in bringing a service to the world. You must be willing to reach out to others and also find people who share your passions in the field you are trying to spearhead."

Jarvis Smith
Co-Founder @ My Green Pod
Expertise: Sustainability

"I feel that this revelation, while simple, was very profound. In order to solve present problems, we cannot have a mindset from the past. Those mindsets, as Jarvis said, were how we got into our current mess in the first place. This is why it is so important to foster the younger generations, as it is their new and innovative mindsets that can fix our current problems."

Community Project

Project Why?
"Low-income minority tenants have faced abuse from landlords and real estate conglomerates for much too long. Raised in New York City, I have witnessed firsthand how tenants are denied their rights, or are uneducated about them, leading to a cycle of impoverished conditions. Now, I hope to end this cycle here in Buffalo, in order to ensure that sustainable housing is accessible to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic or racial status."

Project How?
"We will work together with local nonprofits in order to establish a tenant Bill of Rights. Working with the Buffalo community, along with administrators, teachers, and students from other districts; we will send this Bill of Rights to legislatures in order to make them laws."

Project Mission:
To provide everyone with the financial literacy needed to enter the real estate market.

Project Goals

Identifying the Mission, Why and How, Mohammed set four goals he would like to achieve with the project that will truly create sustainable housing changes in Buffalo.

  • Bring sustainable housing to low-income neighborhoods in Buffalo

  • Ensure reasonable rent prices for impoverished areas

  • Educate the community on tenement rights

  • Offer resources for tenements to embark into real estate

Research

The landlord-tenant relationship is an unbalanced power dynamic that often results in tenant abuse and injustice. This is an ongoing and crucial social issue that impacts millions across America, and thousands in our very own backyard of Buffalo.

Community Action

Without everyone on board, this fight can never become something big enough to hold landlords accountable. We are asking for support in spreading awareness of how severe the landlord issue has become in Buffalo, and also bringing resources to tenants who have suffered from such mistreatment.

  • 39,000+ eviction warrants in Erie County in 2022, the second highest of all counties in New York State.
  • 70% of income in Census Tract 166 is spent on rent. The median household income in this neighborhood is $13,000.
  • Almost 56% of renters in Buffalo's Masten Park neighborhoods are rent burdened.
  • More than 55% of East Side renters spend 30% or more of their income on rent and housing.
  • Since 2009 New York State has allowed counties to apply for shelter supplemental programs. Erie County has refused to do so, arguing that such programs are too expensive and would derail other programs such as food stamps.

Action

Mohammed's project kicked off in September 2022 and ran throughout the 22-23 school year. Following his initial deep-dive into the content areas and connections with experts, Mohammed began sharing his mission with his local community, connecting and learning with and from numerous organizations including:

  • University at Buffalo Real Estate Development Deans and Professors
  • University at Buffalo Law Clinic
  • University at Buffalo Department of Urban and Regional Planning
  • WEDI Buffalo
  • PUSH Buffalo
  • Third Estate Ventures

Mohammed was also interviewed by his local ABC News affiliate, WKBW, to share his story and passion for creating change within the community.

Reflection

"With this project, I was hoping to bring about a change in my community by raising awareness of another wise forgotten issue. I met a lot of talented leaders in this industry and got to have a lot of open and profound discussions surrounding tenant rights and real estate.

I was able to create a large network of like-minded people who came together to fix a common issue. This project gave me a taste of how it would be working in the real estate industry, and also taught me how to set up and execute a civic engagement project. I gained a lot of leadership skills and was able to understand how the world works around me."