Co-Ops: Are they really beneficial to students?

As seniors, students have the opportunity to complete a co-op or “Cooperative Education Program”. The primary goal of a co-op is to introduce and benefit students with real work experience in their chosen field. By combining education with work experience, co-ops offer students hands-on work experience in a professional workplace. With all of their courses completed and credits earned, students can work anywhere from at local schools, hospitals, companies, or businesses.

I completed co-ops as both a junior and a senior. Through these experiences, I was able to discover a career and engage in actual working experience. As a junior, I worked at Bloomsburg Area Middle School and as a senior, I am working with Memorial Elementary School. These co-ops offered me many connections and opportunities. For example, my junior year BAMS worked collaboratively with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program to create a new work of art decorating our hallway. I love that I am impacting children’s lives. In today’s school system art education is commonly thought of as insignificant. I think it’s important to teach children that art is a form of expression. Through art, we can communicate in a way that we can not with words, math, or science. Despite my love of art education and the rewarding experience I have gained from teaching, I have discovered that teaching is not for me. I want to create art instead of teaching it and I would rather find that our now, my senior year of high school, than during my senior year of college.

Mackenzie Feese (a senior pictured below) enjoys her co-op as a nursing assistant in the Geisinger labor and delivery department. I major benefit of this experience is that her co-op is a paid internship. She states, “I have a lot of responsibilities. I do one o’clock checks on patients and babies, I aid in feeding and holding babies, and I take vitals on patients and chart them. After her co-op, Mackenzie states that she wants to pursue a career as a pediatric nurse, but she wasn't always so sure. She said, “entering my co-op, becoming a pediatric nurse was just a possibility and I figured if I hate nursing then I could just change co-op and completely changed careers.” Because of success in her program, not only has Mackenzie ensured her passion for a future career, but he has made many connections. She claims, “I have a lot of connections with people I would have never met if I didn’t do co-op, like nurses and managers. Anytime I need a letter of recommendation for graduate school I can just go there, and I’ll have a job during college now.”

As a co-op student, there is so much to learn, but most importantly you have an amazing opportunity to “test out” a career before entering a college program. ​If you are interested in doing a co-op I recommend choosing a co-op based on your interest in a career, it’s not just to skip school at the end of the day or make money. This is an immersive experience in a career field​ and offers students working experience which can benefit them as a future college student or employee.