Case study
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
My
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 seriesCommunity 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 thenjoined 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 feedbackinto 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 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;
mortgageend and realestateend. 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."
"I am a student who is very passionate about entrepreneurship, so this series was very exciting for me. It provided me with a lot of new knowledge on how to begin a business, and tips that I will be using later down the line."
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
togetherin 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."
"This series was very expansive, which is whyl
liked it so much. It went very much into detail, and
the videos were very explicit about how much
danger we are in.
Overall, it taught me something new with every
episode."
Jarvis Smith
Co-Founder @ My Green Pod
Expertise: Sustainability
"Ifeel that this revelation, while simple, was very
profound. In order to solve present problems, we
can not 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 fromlandlords and real estate conglomerates for much toolong. Raised in New York City,l have witnessed firsthand how tenants are denied their rights, or areuneducated about them, leading to a cycle ofimpoverished conditions.
Now, I hope to end this cyclehere in Buffalo, in order to ensure that sustainablehousing 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 theBuffalo 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
Utilizing all the information acquired, Mohammed created a project to bring change to his community.
Project Mission:
To provide everyone with the financial literacy needed to enter the real state 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 sustainavle housing to low-income neighborhoods in Buffalo
Ensure reasonable rent prices for impoverished areas
Educate the community on tenement rights
Offer resources for tenements ro embark into real estate
Research
The landlord-tenant relationship is anunbalanced power dynamic that often results in tenant abuse and injustice.This is an ongoing and crucial socialissue that impacts millions acrossAmerica, 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. ErieCounty 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, Mohammedbegan sharing his mission with his local community, connecting and learning with and fromnumerous organizations including:
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, |was hoping to bring about a change in my community by raising awareness of anotherwise 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 ataste of how it would be working in the real estate industry, and also taught me how to set up andexecute a civic engagement project. I gained a lot of leadership skills and was able to understandhow the world works around me."
