Mission
The Real Estate Awareness and Discovery Initiative (READI) program promotes real estate as a career path for high school students in underserved communities of San Diego County. Most high school students, and likely their parents, would not think of real estate as a career path. In addition, these parents and students in our underserved communities are unlikely to have any connection to career opportunities. Our mission is to provide these students with an understanding of the variety of career opportunities that exist within real estate through access to local companies specializing in all areas of real estate.
These opportunities include:
Development
Finance/Banking
Property Management/Asset Management
Architecture
Construction
Program Details
The READI program is a partnership program between the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate and non-profit organizations in San Diego that serve junior high and high school students from underserved communities.
The first cohort of the READI program, in 2022, included 14 students from the Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI) who visited four commercial real estate companies in successive weeks in San Diego. Company representatives provided an overview of their respective companies and described the various career opportunities within their real estate sector. Students then rotate through five or six stations to hear about specific duties of the real estate career professions. Afterwards, students participate in a group dinner with all of the company employees.
READI student participants receive a $200 grant to fund necessary items like technology and professional attire for the program. The success of the READI program has demonstrated a need for additional programming in other parts of San Diego. As a result, the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate expanded the program to include a total of six cohorts from organizations including the Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI), Junior Achievement, Project Next and Nativity Prep.
View a collection of videos from READI student/company tours from Spring 2026:
BLCI Company Visits
Gensler
US Bank
Whiting Turner
Project Next Company Visits
Guardian Capital
Lusardi Construction
Pacific Coast Commercial
Nativity Prep
CBRE
Fuscoe Engineering
Meissner Real Estate
Junior Achievement
Carrier Johnson
KPFF Engineering
View a collection of videos from READI student/company tours from 2025:
BLCI Company Visits
Intersection CRE
US Bank
Lowe
CBRE
To learn more, or if your company would like to participate in the READI program, contact Joe Bertocchini '01 at joebertocchini@sandiego.edu.