Co-op jobs give students the opportunity to take the real world for a test drive before graduation.

By Melanie Bush

“I first signed up because people said co-op was a great thing to get on your résumé. Also, I wanted to take a breather from school and see the real world. You can get really sucked into what my friends and I call ‘Cornell World,’ and it’s important to get away for a little while, to use your knowledge and to see if you really want to do what you’re studying to do. It was only after starting my co-op that I realized just how great it is. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Tammy Freeman, a senior majoring in civil engineering, is talking about Cornell’s Engineering Cooperative Education Program, or “co-op” program, which offers students the opportunity to get as much as eight months of work experience in a corporate environment during their undergraduate degree program—and still graduate in four years. Freeman is currently completing the second of two co-op work terms at Turner Construction Management in Milford, Connecticut.

Cornell’s co-op program, established in 1946, is the only one of its kind among Ivy League schools and one of just a few nationwide in which student participation is strictly voluntary. In the early years, the number of students choosing to participate was fairly small, but annual participation gradually increased to record highs in the 1980s, with over 200 students taking co-op jobs. In all, more than 3,000 Cornell engineering students have participated in co-op.

The co-op program is grounded in the College of Engineering’s aim to prepare students for the lifelong creation of knowledge and solutions to complex real-world problems. It provides an opportunity for students to integrate their academic interests with paid work experience—to put theory into practice—as well as to gain knowledge and skills that will enhance future coursework.

As the program has grown, the number of companies and organizations hiring Cornell co-ops has risen from an initial handful to a solid base of over 80 organizations ranging in size from small entrepreneurial start-ups to large manufacturing firms employing 100,000-plus full-time employees. Although the majority of companies are located in the United States, employers overseas, such as Sanyo Electric in Osaka, Japan, have also hired Cornell co-ops.

The co-op experience begins in the sophomore year with the interview and offer process. “You basically apply to everything that looks interesting,” says Freeman, “then the companies pick out people to interview. It’s very intimidating—these are real firms! But the interviewers were great; they made you feel welcome. Cornell has found companies really geared toward helping students, not just getting cheap labor.”

Co-op interviews take place in February, and employment offers are made in March. Companies typically identify more than one student who could fill their needs, and if their primary offer is declined, then a student listed as an alternate is given an opportunity. All offers of co-op employment are coordinated through Engineering Cooperative Education and Career Services to keep the process on schedule and flowing smoothly for both companies and students as offers are made and accepted or declined. Freeman interviewed with six companies and received three offers, but she had determined early on that Turner Construction was her employer of choice.

Co-op is typically a two-part assignment, in which students work full-time off-campus for one semester and one summer. Most students take a semester’s worth of courses during the summer after sophomore year, work during the fall of their junior year, return to campus for spring semester, and rejoin their co-op employer the following summer, which completes the co-op commitment. Students are back on campus for their entire senior year and graduate on time with nearly eight months of paid work experience.

Going into the co-op process as a sophomore, Freeman was impressed by the strong foundation the co-op office provided for every student. “They really prepared us for what was coming. Even if I hadn’t gotten a job, I learned so many life skills. The co-op office put us through a series of trainings: In the fall we did mock networking and mock interviews and had résumé workshops. We met the real employers in February.”

The program is administered by Engineering Cooperative Education and Career Services; the co-op component has been headed for the past two years by Christa Downey, who came to Cornell with degrees in both education and business. “I love this job,” says Downey. “It’s a lot of fun working with co-op students, training them to get jobs, seeing how these jobs relate to their careers. Our office is one-stop shopping: We help students with both internships and full-time jobs, so we get to know the students very well. Going out to visit them at their job sites also helps us to understand what they’re doing, which makes us better able to help them with their future career planning.”

Participating in co-op “absolutely helps students get jobs after graduation,” says Downey. “To begin with, 60 to 80 percent of co-op students receive an offer of full-time work from their co-op employer. Most Cornell seniors have offers by winter break, but co-op students typically have offers by mid-October of senior year.”

Despite the obvious incentives, only about 20 percent of engineering undergraduates participate in the co-op program. “I think it’s because there’s just so much to choose from,” says Downey, listing the many opportunities for Cornell engineering students to enrich their academic experience beyond the classroom. “There are regular summer internships and the project teams, such as Formula SAE racing, and most of our students do research.”

One direction that Downey would like to grow the program is in global opportunities. “We are trying to set up more international internships,” says Downey, “but this can be a complicated process.” Where does she have in mind? “Anywhere the students want to go!”

Engineering students who participate in co-op assignments typically come back from their work experience as keen advocates of the program. “Current students are strong mentors,” continues Downey. “They make presentations and conduct mock job interviews. This year, Mu Sigma Tau, the co-op student organization, started a program to mentor new co-op students.”

According to Downey, co-op students generally make an easy transition from school to work. “Certainly some areas shock them,” she allows. “They already have the technical skills to work in a professional setting, but what they learn during co-op is how to work with other people. I think one thing a lot of them are amazed by is how much free time they have when they’re not in school. They say, ‘Wow—I have all these free evenings and weekends!’”

Freeman agrees. “Engineering at Cornell is very competitive. The co-op was really a break.” In fact, the hardest thing about co-op, says Freeman, was coming back to school. So school is actually harder than life? “Oh yes! In school, you focus on the worst-case scenario. When you finish a project, the professor may say, ‘By the way, I think your building is about to fall down,’ or ‘Don’t forget about that Category 5 hurricane coming.’”

With that kind of rigor in the classroom, students often find the pace more relaxed in the real world. Another welcome change is having cash flow in the opposite direction: during work periods, students typically earn more than $3,000 a month as starting salaries.

Originally from Chicago, Freeman began her education as an architect, choosing Cornell because of its number one ranking in architecture and because “I hate hot weather.” She later realized that her real interest lay in structural engineering. “I’m interested in both building and design,” Freeman says. Structural engineering, she explains, means infrastructure—what holds things together, what makes things stand up. Because of their responsibility for public safety, civil engineers require a license that takes several years of work under a professional engineer to obtain. Freeman plans to complete a master’s program in architecture first.

During semesters on campus, Freeman finds time to take advantage of the wealth of extracurricular activities available at Cornell. She’s a dancer and performs at Cornell with Uhura Kuumba, an African modern ballet troupe. She’s a member of the National Society for Black Engineers and works with Habitat for Humanity, with whom she helped build trusses this year for low-income houses in Rochester.

Her dream job? “Ideally I would like to work for an architecture/engineering design firm that builds in urban areas; specifically, taller nonresidential buildings, such as those on college campuses.” Freeman hopes to do high-quality construction, which she illustrates with examples from around the Cornell campus. “Take Balch Hall—what a gorgeous building, all the stone quarried from Ithaca, the incredible craftsmanship and woodworking.”

At Turner, Freeman worked on school renovations in Connecticut, part of a 10-year project to improve the state’s elementary and middle schools. “I was mainly out in the field, working with engineers and handling scheduling,” she says. She also worked on a condominium project in Westchester; during that project she was in the office, working with the purchasing department before construction began. This summer, Freeman will again be out in the field, at Yale, working on a renovation to a dorm with the project superintendent.

Freeman was pleasantly surprised by how easily she fit into the Turner environment. “It’s a big office, really big, but the people were so nice. When I got there, they said, ‘C’mon, let’s meet everybody,’ and they meant everybody—including the vice-president,” she reports. “I was never working just with other interns; I was never stuck in the copy room. People thought I was a new hire. People invited me to dinner at their homes and out to events. Even though I was by myself in a new place, I never felt alone.” Freeman met a lot of Cornellians there: Turner employed 57 Cornell alumni as of 2005 and hired four more in the past year.

Sarah Garner, senior cost engineer, was one of Freeman’s supervisors at Turner. The company specializes in construction management, Garner explains. “We do not physically do the construction; we manage the process. We are brought on by an owner, for example, to hire and supervise the concrete and steel tradesmen. We also do budgeting, estimating, all the preconstruction work.”

She has the highest praise for Freeman. “People were very impressed with what she was able to do as a co-op. She knew when to ask questions and when to forge ahead. She was able to manage quite a few tasks at the same time, which is what we do here. Most co-op students and interns come here book-smart, but a lot of it is performance. And Tammy wanted to be busy—she was always asking for work.”

“A student who will excel in co-op is a student who takes initiative,” Downey says, “someone who shows up with an open mind, who thinks, ‘I’m here to do everything I can for this organization,’ a student who is motivated to come up with ideas and implement them.” But, she points out, the right employer is also essential to a successful co-op experience. “We seek out employers who think of this as an educational experience, who really want to work with students, not just to meet the project needs of the company. We like them to advise the students on learning objectives, to be real mentors.”

“Tammy’s employers at Turner were blown away, not only by her technical knowledge but also by her professionalism,” says Sara Xayarath Hernández, assistant director of the college’s office of Diversity Programs in Engineering. Representatives from the college typically make a field visit to each co-op student to document how the assignment is working for both student and employer; Hernández visited Freeman at Turner last fall. “She’s clearly a role model to younger engineers and is very passionate about encouraging younger members to take advantage of the co-op program. I think Turner’s had great experiences overall with Cornell co-ops, but they just raved about Tammy.”

And Tammy raves about co-op. “I recommend it to all of the underclass students I know. You get a chance to work in a company in your field and gain life skills, while getting paid and graduating on time. The question they should ask themselves is, why not? No reason! It has been a wonderful experience.”