Cooperative Education Program holds expo for first-year engineering students

Clemson University has long been considered one of the national models in experiential learning. Consistently ranked among the top 20 universities nationally for cooperative education and internships, staff in Clemson's Cooperative Education Program showcased their creativity to close out the Fall semester on a high note.

Two-hundred and seventy-five students - comprised of those primarily in their first year - attended an engineering expo the evening of Dec. 5 and met with industry professionals. Representatives came from as far as Northwest Arkansas and Northern Virginia to network with and showcase their companies to Clemson's newest students over the span of three hours.

"We felt strongly there was a need to provide something special for freshmen," says Jeff Neal, a three-time alumnus who has served as the director of the Cooperative Education Program at Clemson since 2011. "We wanted to help entice them with a different format from the Career Fair, which can be intimidating to young students. We went with a show-and-tell approach. It was all we hoped it would be and more."

Students shared their overwhelming level of approval through an exit assessment.

"We never expected there would be an event like this for just us freshmen," says one general engineering student who responded to the survey. "We're grateful to the co-op program for doing this for us!"

Cooperative Education (co-op) is an academic program that pairs students with the same company for multiple rotations. For aspiring engineers, the co-op program follows a national standard that requires a minimum of three rotations with a company.

Clemson's co-op is one of the largest voluntary programs in the country. In 2023-24, more than 1,250 students enrolled.

"We're such big believers in the educational benefits of co-op," Neal says. "There are many surveys among companies that show gaps in learning, and we are a program that helps to bridge that gap."

Monique Elmore, also a Clemson alum, helped coordinate the logistics of the expo. In addition to first-year students, she noted 19 companies sent a total of 80 representatives - many who also graduated from and completed a co-op during their time at Clemson. Other informational tables were set up by the Michelin Career Center, UPIC program and multiple engineering-focused student organizations.

"Most students visited anywhere from 5-10 different booths," says Elmore, senior associate director of the co-op program. "One of the things that really drove this expo was that we had a lot of companies and industry partners asking us how to get in front of students early in their college careers. No other schools really have an event like this solely for first-year students."

Elmore says they'll look to continue to build on the success of the event in the future.

"Most students told us they'd recommend the event to other students," she says. "We've received a lot of survey responses, and the consensus is that they really enjoyed this opportunity."