Aaryaa’s Marketing Internship with Site Centers

A senior at Solon High School, seventeen-year-old Aaryaa spent her summer as a marketing intern with Site Centers, a retail real estate company in Beachwood.

“This is what I want to do when I'm older. So it's been a great introduction to what it is like to work at a standard entry level job in marketing,” Aaryaa said.

Previously, Aaryaa had interned at On Station — a civil engineering company in Cleveland — where she rotated through various departments as an “introduction to business in the corporate environment.”

“I went into that internship knowing that I wanted to do something in the business area — whether that meant finance, marketing, or even sales,” Aaryaa recalled. “But frankly, I had no idea what specifically I was interested in.”

At On Station, she found the marketing department to be fun and was able to work on some marketing campaigns. She then realized she was very interested in marketing and its collaborative aspects. So when she interviewed for the 2025 PEEKE Internship Program, she mentioned her career interests and the Y.O.U. Internship Specialists were able to match her to a more hands-on marketing internship with Site Centers.

Her internship at Site Centers began with a lot of training on topics such as customer relationship management and social media and programs like Hootsuite or Meta, working with her mentor, Morgan Blank, Director of Shopping Center Marketing.

Morgan says their interns get to experience “every type of marketing you can think of” by working on website development, social media, content management, events and community management.

“It’s super rewarding to be able to show different generations of interns coming through the program that marketing isn't just social media, it's not just events. It's not just writing,” Morgan said. “It can be kind of a whole host of things, and they can make it what they want.”

As her internship progressed, Aaryaa was able to venture off more on her own with various projects such as managing GoDaddy websites, creating directories, or even doing user generated content, where she interacted with a variety of people on different social media platforms. Working within the Shopping Center Marketing department, she would repost many different stores with their offers.

Aaryaa said the biggest skill she’s learned is critical thinking, as working with lots of technology can be complicated.

“Although I am from a generation that is no stranger to websites, social media, and even AI, I found I would sometimes hit certain roadblocks that even I couldn't think how to overcome them on the first thought,” she said. So rather than immediately going to her mentor for questions, she would think about what information and experiences she already had to overcome the challenge.

“In terms of other skills that I gained, I became not afraid to ask questions as well. I think a big part of being an intern — especially at the age of sixteen, seventeen — you need to be able to learn and be confident in asking for help,” Aaryaa added. “And I know that sometimes being a younger person in an environment full of adults, it can be hard, but being confident is what gets you forward and what actually helps you learn the most.”

Aaryaa’s favorite part of the internship was being given so much more freedom verses her first internship at age fifteen.

“Here, I have a little bit of experience under my belt, and now I'm given more freedom to use my creativity more, collaborate with people and pitch in more confidently,” she said. “I think that freedom is probably my most favorite part of the internship, because I feel like I'm actually an employee, right? And they treat me as so.”

Aaryaa adds how she feels respected by the employees even if she is a teenager. “They understand that I'm here to learn so I really appreciate that.”

Morgan notes that working with high school interns is different than college interns because they’re not required to do an internship, so “these are students that have a drive, and are kind of going above and beyond where everyone else is,” she said. “So typically these are people that are really ambitious, really hard working. I can absolutely say that about my intern now.”

“The mentorship experience has been great with the Y.O.U. program,” Morgan added. “The interns that we have are so prepared, it's hard for me to remember that they're high school students.”

Aaryaa would “100 percent” recommend a Y.O.U. internship to others as “doing an internship is vastly different from what you're learning at school.” She noted the importance of taking higher level courses as well, but that internships provide a real-world experience.

“Another thing that I would recommend about Y.O.U. Internships is the additional training they offer you,” adding how she has made so many connections and enjoyed trainings such as resumes or 16 personality types.

“I think it's a great program and I wish I did this earlier. It helped me understand exactly what I want to do
in the future.”

“So there's just so many little things that Y.O.U. offers to young students that are preparing them for the real world, guiding them in the direction that they want to go. And that's not always offered everywhere.”

“They're just so specialized. Each staff member cares specifically about your own interests,” Aaryaa said. “I think it's a great program and I wish I did this earlier. It helped me understand exactly what I want to do in the future.”

Aaryaa recalled how Internship Specialist Eric Graham told her there are two outcomes to an internship — understanding this is what you want to do or learning it is not what you want to do.

“And he very much emphasized that both outcomes are fine,” she said. “You're learning either way. And being someone that's below the age of 18, that's probably our only responsibility, to learn as much as possible.”

“I think the main thing overall that this internship did for my future is that it almost secured what I want to major in.” Aaryaa plans on majoring in marketing, so she knows she will need to get more internships during college as well. So now she has more experience on how an internship works.

“Having done two internships now before I even go to college, I think that knowledge is essential,” she said. “It's so irreplaceable going forward because I understand, not only how to behave, how to adopt this learning mindset, but to also help other people along the way as well. And as someone who loves to talk, collaborate and converse with other people, this is just another great thing to talk about with other professionals in this marketing industry.”

“If I were to say one piece of advice, be absolutely fearless when it comes to talking and making connections with other people,” Aaryaa advised. “Always ask questions and know that everything's a learning process.”