Co-op: It’s at the heart of the Drexel experience for many. Short for cooperative education, co-op has been central to a Drexel education for more than 100 years, providing students with the opportunity for meaningful, hands-on work experience before they graduate.
Drexel co-op truly is a continuum of professional development and job training that connects students, alumni and organizations across industries and generations. This past academic year, 89% of undergraduate students were enrolled in co-op, and many alumni talk about how their co-op experiences gave them a head start in their career. For prospective students, too, co-op is key. “For 86% of students, co-op was the most influential reason why they chose to attend Drexel,” says Lynne Hickle, executive director of cooperative education in the Steinbright Career Development Center, which manages co-op experiences at Drexel.
First Jobs, Big Leaps
We spoke to three Drexel students who are living the co-op experience right now — Maria-Louisa Ching, user experience and interactive design ’27; Hannah Pittenturf, psychology ’27; and Milind Sangani, biology ’27.
Underscoring the program’s reputation, Sangani says, “Co-op is the whole reason I came to Drexel. You get six months in a job getting as much experience as you can.” From fostering practical job skills to building professional networks, co-op helps students cultivate pride in the real impact they make within a company and confidence as their academic and career plans move forward.
Ching is currently on co-op with the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) as a digital marketing analyst. Tasked with making their webpages more accessible, she’s turning her passion for digital equity into real change. “NBME needed someone to remediate everything on their webpages, with accessibility in mind, for customers and stakeholders,” she says. “I’m proud of my work making sure content is accessible to all users, like those with a visual disability or who use a keyboard instead of a mouse.”
Ching is also building a strong foundation of technical skills in UX, coding and design. “With every co-op I get more confident about my communication skills, and one of the big values is the network I have built. Looking at my résumé, I’m proud of how far I’ve come.”
Like Ching, Pittenturf provided essential work during her co-op at the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), a position she pursued to enhance her minor in climate change. Supporting PEC’s Upstream Suburban Philadelphia Cluster, which works to mitigate excess stormwater runoff, Pittenturf took the lead in creating an interactive StoryMap, highlighting successful projects within the initiative.
“No one in the office knew how to use the ArcGIS software platform necessary for the project, so I oversaw creating the StoryMap, mapping all the local partners that were involved,” says Pittenturf. “It was challenging, but the whole project was a big contribution to PEC and one I felt really proud of.”
Biology major Sangani, on the pre-med track, used his co-op at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to gain firsthand experience with patients.
“Part of my co-op as a clinical research assistant…was recruiting patients to clinical trials and collecting data for the studies,” he says. “Working directly with patients was a big deal for me because one thing I wanted to get from that co-op was patient interaction skills.”
Sangani also sharpened essential soft skills. “I learned professionalism, communication skills and how to conduct myself in front of members of the team: doctors, nurses, medical assistants,” he says. “Teamwork is such a valuable skill, and it was something I really developed.”
Once a Co-op, Now a Boss
Businesses and organizations that partner with Drexel — both large and small — benefit from co-op, too. It’s a symbiotic relationship that not only provides students with learning opportunities but also offers employers a network of motivated students who are ready to make real contributions to a workplace and fills the talent pipeline.
While many students benefit from co-op, some alumni have come full circle — now serving as mentors and employers themselves. Among them are Timothy Vernile, animation and visual effects ’10, associate art director of motion graphics of MJH Life Sciences, and Dylan Steinberg, media arts and design ’09, founder-director of Dream Machine Creative, along with Kyrie Fisher, volunteer engagement manager at Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Philadelphia Region. For these employers, Drexel students are making a lasting impact and are becoming coworkers, too.
Vernile and his colleague Tatiana Holt need co-op students who can hit the ground running for the work they do at MJH Life Sciences, a multimedia communications company in the health care industry. “Our team creates short animations that show biological processes at the molecular level,” says Holt. “Our co-ops help us move through projects much quicker. We teach them how to do something, they pick it up right away, and then we can rely on them to complete the work.”
Remarking on how essential co-op students become, Vernile adds, “One co-op had such a great work ethic that when she returned to Drexel, we hired her to work part-time while she completed her senior project. Because she was so talented, the minute she graduated from Drexel, we hired her full-time.”
Fisher recounts how a Drexel co-op student added value to the volunteer management team at Ronald McDonald House, which relies heavily on volunteers to support families of children going through medical treatments. “Our co-op has been a huge asset in collaborating with our operations team,” she says. “She initiated a weekly meeting to show what volunteer shifts are open and worked on how to bridge the staffing gaps. Having a student take the lead in setting this up has ensured that we’re all on the same page.”
Like Vernile, co-op has been source of talent for Fisher. “One of our co-ops is just fantastic, and we’re in the process of having her come back part-time to support the operations teams,” says Fisher. “It’s a great example of a co-op turning into a job opportunity, another way to keep the professional connections going.”
Steinberg, founder and director of Dream Machine Creative, a full-service video production company, sees the fresh perspectives that co-op students bring. “They see things in new ways because they’re coming from an education setting where professors are always imparting new knowledge,” he remarks. “They’re on the cutting edge of the science of filmmaking, so when they come to Dream Machine, they talk about new technologies and techniques, and about AI. They bring a lot to the industry.”
At Dream Machine, Steinberg provides opportunities for students to take on real-world responsibilities. He says, “Depending on the project, a co-op student will have full responsibility over the video production process. Right now, we have a co-op student with full autonomy over an editing project. He’s working directly with the client, doing all the editing work and managing that client relationship.”
Like other employers, Steinberg often returns to the co-op talent pool. “With one co-op student, after he returned to Drexel, I hired him as a freelancer during his senior year,” he says. “When he graduated, I brought him onboard, and he now sees through every Dream Machine job from inception to delivery.”
You Can Help the Next Dragon Rise
All co-op employers can tap into Drexel’s network of students. For alumni, establishing that co-op connection is also a way to come full circle, having benefited from the program themselves, then giving back to the Drexel community as an employer.
On being part of that co-op continuum, Vernile says, “It’s an honor. My mom went to Drexel and told me how meaningful co-op was. When I got to Drexel it was amazing to see how co-op changed people, the life moments they gained. They came back with amazing portfolio pieces and learned how to be in a workplace.”
“Now as an employer, I’m on the other side,” he continues, “I feel like I’m driving forward one of the pillars of Drexel.”
Setting up a co-op can seem like a complex process to some prospective employers. In reality, it’s easy, says Steinbright Executive Director Lynn Hickle: “Co-op follows a typical recruitment process, from reviewing résumés and interviewing students to making a job offer. At every touchpoint, a co-op advisor is available to provide support.”
“The system is easy because, through the portal, you can select your candidate, set up an interview, and make an offer,” says Vernile. “Once the student sees we’ve put in that offer, they can choose us.”
Vernile goes on, “If we have questions, we reach out to our co-op advisor, and she’ll help with anything. She sends out scheduled reminder emails about deadlines, so nothing falls off our radar.”
On establishing a co-op with Drexel, says Steinberg, “It’s 100% worth the effort to build co-op into your company. You gain the feeling of giving back and helping someone realize their potential, while also offloading some tasks and creating more space for other work.”
Start Here
There’s always a need for new co-op employers, and alumni make some of the best. Just as Drexel stays at the forefront of innovation in its research and academic programming, the co-op program seeks to provide job opportunities that keep students on the cutting edge of their field. Says Hickle, “We continually work on job development. We always have new majors at Drexel, and industries can shift dramatically. Drexel co-op evolves to meet the changes and challenges of the real world.”
The Employer Relations team in the Steinbright Career Development Center makes becoming a co-op employer easy. Whether an alumnus or alumna holds a hiring role or not, the Employer Relations team can facilitate setting up a co-op connection in any industry or company size, both locally in the Philadelphia region and nationwide.
If you are interested in hiring a co-op, or simply learning more, take a moment to fill out this brief interest form and someone will be in touch with you! DM
