Entering its third year of operation, the Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action at Boston College provides students with an innovative real estate curriculum, internship program, and speaking events to better prepare each individual for work in the real estate sector.

The center’s work hinges on a philosophy that imagines real estate as not only a profit-generating pursuit but also as a means of empowering a community. The Corcoran Center’s summer internship program is focused on community revitalization with an emphasis on community actions. The BC students are paired off with neighborhood organizations throughout the Greater Boston Area.

Mattapan has become a favored destination.

Aaron Horn, 22, a member of the Carroll School of Management ’17 at BC, worked in Mattapan last summer as a research assistant for the Corcoran Center, after serving as an intern in the summer of 2015. Horn worked with Mattapan United, a non-profit run by Mattapan residents attempting to address the issues in the community they identified as the most pressing.

“In my work, they were very concerned about housing and issues regarding gentrification, and if it were happening to their community,” said Horn. “I looked at the demographic changes, and tried to give the community an objective understanding of where it’s at right now.”

Horn presented his findings at the end of the summer in a public meeting with Mattapan residents. His report offered Mattapan United a clear picture about current economic and demographic indicators —like homeownership rates— in the neighborhood.

“People tend to talk very emotionally about their neighborhood, and rightfully so,” said Neil McCullagh, 48, the director of the Center, in an interview. “But with the work Aaron did, now there were more facts, more objectivity, and the possibility for community development.”

McCullagh stressed that the Center was still in its nascent stage, and will continue expanding to encompass more groups on the BC campus, like the PULSE program and the Volunteer and Service Learning Center. Due to the interactions that students like Horn have had with communities such as Mattapan, thereis the opportunity for more organizations to pair with the Corcoran Center. The center will also attempt to expand the course offerings for students.

“You want to create something that is viable and can last in real estate,” Horn said, “But you have to make sure that it is feasible.” He has accepted a position with Trinity Financial, Inc. that will start after graduation this spring. Horn credits the opportunity to his exposure to companies and an understanding of real estate concepts that the Corcoran Center facilitated.

The BC center is named for Joseph E. Corcoran, the altruistic founder and chairman of the Dorchester-based Corcoran Jennison Companies. He is widely considered a national pioneer in transforming failed public housing projects into successful mixed-income neighborhoods that offer community services to low-income residents.

In addition to the Boston College center, Corcoran, a native of Dorchester, also created a nonprofit, The American City Coalition.