FromLegos
toengine blocks

“When I was younger, I liked building with Legos,” she said. “I grew up taking things apart, building things and doing puzzles. During preschool and kindergarten, I was always in the block area during free time.”

In high school, she joined the robotics club to pursue her interest in electronics.

“In my senior year of high school, I decided I would study mechanical engineering in college. There’s so much you can do with it. It’s one of the broadest engineering fields there is.”

The University of Cincinnati undergraduate still likes figuring out how to make things work better. She finished two co-op rotations for American Honda Motor Co., where she applied her skills to the manufacturing floor and its research and development center.

“I have always known subconsciously that I wanted to go into engineering. I think my parents and others around me knew before I could comprehend what engineering was,” she said. 

Honda is just one of many corporate partners for UC’s co-op program, a system UC pioneered in which students divide their year between full-time classroom instruction and full-time employment at a company in their chosen field.

It’s a program that has been duplicated by many universities, but UC still does it better than most anyone. U.S. News & World Report ranks UC as a top five co-op university in its latest rankings.

UC’s colleges have connections with both Fortune 500 companies and newer startups around the country. And students who want an international experience can even work in co-op positions abroad.

“Honda has had a long and successful relationship with the University of Cincinnati, a school we utilize to recruit engineering and business students for our co-op/internship program and entry-level full-time positions,” said Daniela Evans, unit lead for college relations at American Honda.

Honda has been hiring co-ops for more than 30 years. During that time, more than 600 co-op graduates have been hired into full-time positions.

“UC students are a good choice for our co-op positions because the students’ coursework and programs directly align with the knowledge and skills our positions require,” she said.

Evans said Honda provides networking opportunities for co-ops to meet each other and build a career network.

“We see our co-ops as a critical talent pipeline for positions,” she said. “Additionally, co-ops can get real-world, hands-on experience by working on projects that are directly tied to their area of study and give them a sense of what they may be able to do as a full-time associate.”

Honda offers internship and co-op opportunities to students pursuing a variety of majors, from business management to information technology and accounting to marketing.

And, of course, there are engineers like Vail, who grew up in an engineering household.

“My dad was a sales engineer who worked on the customer side of projects,” she said. 

From her childhood interest in Legos, she worked with robotics in high school. She also played lots of sports growing up: gymnastics, tee-ball, soccer, lacrosse.

“If I was interested in something new, I would always try to do it and never cared that I may not be the best at it since I'd never done it before,” she said.

And she helped her dad with projects around the house.

“These ranged from building a raised garden to helping to repair the sailboat,” she said.

Innovation is a big driver at Honda, Evans said. The company partners with UC and other research institutions on a range of engineering and transportation projects.

UC Professor Munir Nazzal recently began working with Honda and the Ohio Department of Transportation on a pilot project to demonstrate how autonomous vehicles can collect and share valuable information about infrastructure such as potholes, faded lane markings and other road hazards.

“Honda has always believed in the power of dreams which directly ties to innovation,” Evans said. “We are introducing new products and technology at a faster rate than ever before and look to our co-ops and new hires to bring new and fresh ideas that will help us be a leader in our industry.”

Vail took advantage of some of the in-house classes that Honda offered employees. One welding class was a particularly useful skill to Vail as a member of Bearcat Motorsports. The student group designs, builds and tests Formula One style vehicles in competition with other colleges.

Students build the cars from the wheels up from a bare steel frame they design and assemble themselves. On a recent tour, Vail showed off one frame that she warned was still hot to the touch from recent welds. Around the corner was last year’s completed Formula One car painted in UC black and red with team stickers.

Next, Vail said she might pursue her next co-op in aerospace engineering.

“I think it's the mentality to always do your best no matter the situation,” she said. “Things aren't always going to work out perfectly, but as long as you give it your all — that's what matters.”

Photos: Andrew Higley, unless otherwise noted
Digital design: Kerry Overstake
UC Marketing + Communications