In 1990, without leaving Ohio, UC aerospace co-op Damian Olivieri, found himself in the middle of the Persian Gulf War. His co-op work ranged from vulnerability tests of "Warthog" A-10 aircraft to accelerating production of fuses for the "Hellfire" anti-tank missiles. His analysis of foreign military aircraft was so important that Olivieri found himself on the phone talking to military personnel on the ground in Europe and the Middle East.
Although the purists would say we've always had international co-op, in 1990 the University of Cincinnati created a program to continuously and deliberately prepare students to live and work abroad. That program originally started in the College of Engineering through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Students undergo 300 hours of intensive language and cultural preparation. Now that program is open to all co-op students, and through the International Co-op Program about 1,200 UC
co-op students have worked abroad, mainly in Japan, Germany, Chili and Mexico.
Have you ever noticed the X in the Federal Express logo? Take a look between the capital "E" and the "x" of FedEx. See the arrow created by the negative space? UC graphic design co-op student John Lutz created that logo concept in 1994 and it was adopted but the company later that year.
1996 - Olympic diver Becky Ruehl dove into her graphic design co-op experience even though she didn't have to. With all the pressures of Olympic traininng bearing down on Becky, the graphic design faculty gave her the option of deferring participation in the co-op program, but she declined once she saw what co-op meant to her education. Said Ruehl, "When we [students] came back together after co-ops, it was like having a bunch of people over and enjoying a big central pot of food. Co-op is that big bowl of food in the middle. When we came back together after co-op, it was a feast of information about resources, computer programs, and ways to do projects."
The countdown to the Centennial of Cooperative Education probably began on some level in the 1996-1997 academic year. On May 27, 1997, the University of Cincinnati hosted a reception celebrating 90 successful years of cooperative education. After a welcome from UC President Joseph A. Steger and greetings from the People's Republic of China by Xu Menghong, the Vice President of the China Association for Cooperative Education, Professional Achievement Recognition Awards were handed out to outstanding co-op graduates from the class of 1997.
U.S. News and World Report started taking notice of cooperative education in 2002 when it started looking into programs that lead to success in college. Co-op and internship programs were spotlighted and the top 10 programs in the nation based upon peer rankings were unveiled. The University of Cincinnati was among the top 10 in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. In fact, the University of Cincinnati has been in the top 10 every time co-op and internship programs have been ranked in U.S. News and World Report's College Edition.
The Centennial Celebration for Cooperative Education takes place in the 2005-2006 Academic Year at the University of Cincinnati. The celebration focuses on all three partners in the co-op triad - students, employers, and the university. A '100 Cool Jobs' student competition encourages co-ops to upload photos and stories about their job assignments to the '100 Cool Jobs' website. The best jobs will be recognized by 100 gifts donated by UC employers and students will be showcased on the UC website and recognized at a campus-wide event. The annual Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) Conference will be held in Cincinnati in April of 2006 bringing approximately 500 educators from around the world together to celebrate the founding of Cooperative Education at the University of Cincinnati. The conference will serve as a forum for focused communication with the academic world and centennial festivities, including the dedication of the Herman Schneider Memorial Garden and Induction of the Co-op Hall of Honor, will take place in conjunction with this event. Recognizing the third partner in the co-op triad, the University of Cincinnati and the National Commission for Cooperative Education will host a Corporate Symposium on June 20, 2006, bringing over 200 employers to campus for the final co-op centennial event dedicated to recognizing our industrial partners.
