PRE Students Complete Winter Internships
A number of PRE students recently completed rewarding winter internships. Hugo Medina (PRE ’12), Randolph Zhao (PRE ’12), Disheng Lin (PRE ’12), Syed Hyat (PRE ’13) and Jason Patch (PRE/CRP ’14) all spent their winter break further developing their professional skills by working with real estate companies in various corners of the world.
Hugo spent six weeks with Eastdil Secured, LLC. in Manhattan, working with the Debt Placement Team. The team is responsible for hand-crafting solutions to successfully execute acquisition financing, recapitalization, and other structured financing alternatives for commercial real estate investments. He also completed a summer internship with the Real Estate Capital Markets Group (RECM) at Eastdil’s parent company, Wells Fargo Bank. Regarding his experience at Eastdil, Hugo noted, “It was a great opportunity – fast-paced, challenging, and growth-promoting – everything that an internship should be.”
Randolph spent his time in Hong Kong with Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI). Randolph’s job scope included Pan-Asian fund strategy and Greater China acquisitions. His internship furthered his experience with PREI in China, having worked with the firm in Beijing last summer.
Disheng also worked in Hong Kong for six weeks with Baring Private Equity Asia, one of the largest private equity firms in Asia, with $7.5 billion under management. As the first junior staff in the real estate team, Disheng established underwriting models for different investment types, drafted investment memorandum templates and conducted market research for various topics.
Syed spent his time in Boston, working with Berkshire Property Advisors where he had the opportunity to work under Cornell alumnus Dan Stravinski. He conducted statistical modeling, analyzed portfolio data and prepared reports for Berkshire’s executive management. Syed mentioned, “Although winter break only affords a short amount of time to work with a company, the learning opportunity is immense. Just like the PRE experience, you learn more than you ever imagined you could in a very condensed period of time. Being able to bring these new skills back to Cornell, and then into the real estate industry is a huge advantage.”
Jason returned to his native Ohio and worked with the City of Oberlin and the local utility company, Oberlin Municipal Light and Energy, where he drafted the Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Ordinance for the City. As part of an initiative to reach the City of Oberlin's Climate Action Plan Goals the City, Oberlin College and the staff of the Oberlin Project are working to create a more sustainable city and reduce their carbon footprint.Jason has played a crucial role towards the accomplishment of those objectives.
Winter internships (sometimes referred to as “externships”) are becoming more commonplace for PRE students as they witness the high quality experiences that their classmates have had during their winter breaks. Winter internships often turn into summer internships, which in turn often translate into permanent job opportunities for graduating students.
First-year PRE students are now actively searching for summer internships. The spring semester will bring a wealth of opportunities for students to meet with professionals and make contacts in the real estate industry including career fairs, career treks and a number of other PRE-initiated programs.
For more information regarding the Program in Real Estate and how it assists students in exploring their career interests, please visit http://realestate.cornell.edu/.