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UNIVERSITY
OF CINCINNATI CO-OP FACTS
Origins
- 1906: World’s first program is created by UC engineering college dean Herman Schneider. Students alternate classroom study with quarters of paid, discipline-related work.
- First program group consists of 27 male engineering students and 13 participating employers.
Growth
- Co-op expands to include female students (1920) and other UC colleges. Around the U.S., universities start organizing co-op programs patterned after the UC model
- Impressed by UC’s program and its students, businesses take the initiative, asking to be considered as co-op employers.
- Co-op extends its reach: Students seek work experiences from coast to coast. International co-op is formally organized, sending students into the global community in 1993.
21st century
- UC’s program becomes one of the largest in the world: 4,000 students and 1,400 employers.
- Approximately one-third of all colleges in the U.S. now have co-op, but not all regard it as integral to their overall educational mission, as UC does.
- Gross annual earnings by UC’s co-ops reach $26 million.
Academic Year ’02-03
- 2,626 UC students work in 32 states, the District of Columbia and 10 countries: Belgium, Chile, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Lebanon, Palestine and Thailand.
- Participating colleges: Engineering; Arts and Sciences; Business; Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.
- Majors: 29 academic programs. The largest number, 362, are graduate and undergrad architecture students.
- States employing more than 100 co-ops: Ohio, 1,694; Kentucky, 172; New York, 152; California, 105.
- Countries hosting the most UC co-ops: Japan, 11, and Chile, 10. Only one co-op each in Belgium, India, Lebanon, Palestine and Thailand.
- Co-op working at the greatest distance from UC: architecture student Logan Allen. He’s at Auroville Building Centre in Auroville, India, where researchers are developing ways to use compressed-earth building materials in modern construction. In this, his first co-op job, Allen has done conceptual design work for an earth-based discotheque and met friends from all over the Indian subcontinent.
- Close to home: 1,100
individual jobs in Cincinnati alone, including 57 at the University
of Cincinnati.
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| photo/Andrew Higley |
Fashion design in London
Tailor-made for an up-and-coming fashion designer, senior Maren
Hartman’s early co-op jobs gave her a chance to shine in
three New York design houses. Now she is co-oping in London for
designer Stella McCartney (Paul’s daughter) part of the
Gucci Group, working 12- to 15-hour days on styles we’ll
see next spring.
“Sometimes it’s hard to keep calm at work every day,” Hartman
admits, recalling fabulous clothes, high-energy designers and last-minute
fittings for celebrities such as Britney Spears, Puff Daddy and
the “Sex and the City” cast.
See South America grow
Immersed in Chilean culture, business co-op Julie Gast witnessed
an improving economic climate in the South American country that
signed a free-trade agreement with the U.S. in June. Weekdays,
she worked a 10-hour schedule at a Santiago investment firm.
Living with her host family in an upscale suburb with shopping
malls and
multiscreen theaters, Gast saved weekends for Chile’s natural
beauty: climbing an active volcano, dipping into thermal pools
and skiing.
A stretch in time
Despite his ethnic link and understanding of casual Japanese,
co-op Yoshitaka Inoue was required to learn formal business Japanese
before being accepted for a chemical engineering post at Toyobo
Research Center in Shiga. The cultural immersion was well worth
the effort, expanding his appreciation for “new ideas and
wider perspectives.”
Wise entrepreneurs
UC co-ops have been an essential resource for young, multi-million-dollar
high-tech businesses like the Modal Shop. In fact, when the fledgling
vibration-analysis company moved to Cincinnati from Buffalo a
dozen years ago it was specifically to connect with UC’s
Structural Dynamics Research Lab and talented co-op students.
The strategy worked beautifully, but owner Mike Lally takes no
chances. He’s still employing UC co-ops for product development
work. He even sent one of them to the parent company’s
site in Germany a few years ago for an international co-op assignment.
Oh, the places
they go!
To fashions at Hot Kiss
(Designed in L.A.)
And graphics for Wal-Mart
Dot-com in CA,
UC sends the co-ops
To work and to learn
And earn some good paychecks
Before they return.
At Pratt and at Whitney
Aerospacers soar.
Accountants help Johnson
With numbers galore.
For co-ops in finance,
American’s smart,
But digi-designers
Love Hasbro Games’ heart.
At Maui Tomorrow,
Urb-planners declare
That cool space is crucial
For neighborhoods fair.
Managers industr’l
To Florida trek
So lush Gecko Gardens
Won’t turn out a wreck.
The marketing co-ops
To Nielsen parade;
Their temple of ratings
Is nobly arrayed.
Engineers industr’l
Work hard to ensure
Genteel Batesville Caskets
Forever endure.
To Claiborne and OshKosh,
Vic’s Secret, the Gap,
Wild Flavors and Dow Chem,
They criss-cross the map.
For earning and learning,
Co-ops from UC
Leap oceans and mountains,
Shout “Ya” and “Mai oui!”
Their wonderful bosses,
Too many to tell,
All share in the brainwork
Of co-ops so swell.
Their talent and spirit
Expand what they learn,
Plus earn some good paychecks
Before they return.
— M. Niehaus
