News & Media

Learning on the Cuyahoga

Chris Litzler is spending his summer working with a real-estate investment firm, while Duong Le is building a course schedule for a northeast Ohio-based community college.

Both Ohio Wesleyan University students are participating in Summer on the Cuyahoga, a prestigious internship program open to students at seven colleges and universities nationwide.

Litzler, a senior from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, is working at Beachwood-based DDR Corp., a retail real-estate investment trust. DDR owns and manages 445 shopping centers representing 116 million square feet in 39 states, Puerto Rico, and Brazil.

A finance economics major and accounting minor, Litzler is DDR’s “capital transactions intern” and says he’s focusing on the investment portion of the business.

“I hope to gain a better understanding of the financial side of the real-estate business and develop the hard skills that will make me a strong candidate for entry-level financial analyst positions in the real-estate space,” Litzler says.

Meanwhile, Le is interning at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), where she is building a course schedule for the campus.

Le, a senior from Vietnam majoring in economics management and mathematics with a statistics concentration, says she is learning to work independently and increasing the use of her analytical and problem-solving skills.

“The purpose is to have higher efficiency as well as higher completion rate for the campus in particular and the college in general,” Le says. “Aside from this project, I also work with other projects which focus on improving the education quality, as well as improving the community.”

Summer on the Cuyahoga (SOTC) has been available to Ohio Wesleyan for two years. SOTC invites 50 to 60 students from Case Western Reserve University, Colgate University, Cornell University, Smith College, University of Chicago, Yale University, and, of course, Ohio Wesleyan to participate in an eight- to 10-week paid internship program in the Cleveland area. The internships include public, private, and non-profit organizations.

Learn more about OWU’s Office of Career Services and student internship opportunities.