Persuasive Research Essay
Synopsis
My research paper is addressed to the SUNY New Paltz administrators. The purpose of this paper is to persuade them to integrate cooperative education programs on our campus. The topic I decided to research is cooperative education programs and how more of those opportunities should be offered here at SUNY New Paltz. The reason why I chose this topic is that I believe co-op programs would be extremely helpful in helping a student understand their career goals. The experience that one student can gain can make them outstanding candidates for their desired occupation. As an aspiring doctor, co-op programs would immensely help me be prepared for medical school. This is an important topic because many students are going into their graduate studies underprepared since they haven’t stepped foot in that environment before. I hope that at the end of my paper, my readers will agree with me that co-op programs play a key role in a student’s success; which is why SUNY New Paltz should incorporate them.
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SUNY New Paltz Should Offer more Co-op Learning Opportunities SUNY New Paltz Should Offer More Co-op Learning Opportunities
Imagine coming out of college with not only a degree but genuine work experience. Having your first day on the job before you get your degree. What seems like an impossibility unless you “know a guy” is becoming a reality for an increasing number of students in colleges with integrated co-op programs. These programs allow students to gain employment in the career field that they plan to enter while they are still in school. Two of the most well-known co-op programs are at Drexel University and Northeastern University where co-ops benefit students in a variety of ways. The experience they gain is a massive leg up that helps students avoid the cold realities of today’s job market. In addition, working in a student’s chosen field can make people fall even more in love with their career, which can serve as a powerful motivator academically. For others, the co-op experience is more of a reality check especially if they realize that what they thought they wanted to do for a living is not what they are truly interested in. Without having the experience from a co-op, students will lose sight of their main goal, or they might not succeed since they won’t have enough “tools in their toolbox.” A lot of graduates struggle facing the “real world” and co-op programs give students the tools to succeed while in school and beyond, which is why the State University of New Paltz should integrate such programs for its students in its curricula.
Drexel is one of the most developed co-op programs in the nation and for good reason. They have dedicated a significant amount of effort to develop a program that truly benefits as well as the business affiliated with them. One very important way they do this is through Handshake, a website that connects both prospective students and businesses. The students can post their resumes and grades and companies can look at them and offer them the positions. It’s an extremely useful portal that helps students reach out to companies. The academic advisors and co-op staff are very well versed in the whole process and are there to help any student with any issue they might be having. They are very dedicated to the program and even offer two different academic paths based around coops. Students can either choose a four-year one co-op plan or a five-year three co-op plan. The second plan is for those who really enjoy the work and don’t mind staying an extra year. This plan also gives students more time to potentially choose another career path if they decide they don’t like the one they’ve chosen. The school really helps walk them through the whole process as they even have a co-op 101 class all students are required to take before their scheduled coop. This class teaches them everything they need to know about the application process, learning the ropes of the job, etc. Drexel’s program is the perfect example of what a school that properly implements co-op could become. They are truly invested in their student’s success both in school and after graduation.
I recently interviewed Conor Thompson, a sophomore at Drexel University who plans to do his co-op in the spring and summer of his junior year. When I asked him if the co-op program was a big reason for his decision to enroll at Drexel he said, “Oh yes absolutely. It was actually the very first school I toured and yeah I just loved the idea of being able to get genuine work before graduating.” When I asked why he said, “I don’t know it was such a new and cool idea I hadn’t seen before. And it made so much sense like preparing yourself for your career before you graduate and are on your own. I just really loved that I wouldn’t just be learning about my career in a classroom but also up close in person.” Conor mentioned that he was more of a hands-on learner, so the ability to actually participate for experience was a “perfect opportunity.” He went on to say how he’s found that many people in high school preferred projects where you actually had to get physically involved and use creative thinking and reasoning. Then said how co-op was essentially the college version of that, with a paycheck. He believes that Drexel integrates coops perfectly for the students with websites like Handshake and by scheduling their students in either fall/winter coops or spring/summer ones as it gives everyone a fairer chance to get the co-op they want. This comes as no surprise as Drexel is one of the biggest and most popular co-op programs. When I asked him about how co-ops are generally perceived by the student body he said “Oh everyone I know loves them. Getting to get a break from the drag of schoolwork while getting meaningful experience? Everyone’s like sign me up!” All three of his roommates are in the five-year three co-op option offered by Drexel and they apparently much prefer it. Especially considering the two who are in co-op programs are now making 19 and a whopping 27 dollars an hour. Conor admits though that you may not get exactly the same job as your major, “Yea I mean my roommate is a mechanical engineering major and his co-op is as an estimator for a company that builds and sells construction.” However, you still get meaningful experience in your field and students often have a few options to choose from. After asking him if he would’ve chosen Drexel if they didn’t have co-op he said, “I mean it likely would have still been in the running, but not my number one choice. Co-op was really the deciding factor that made Drexel my first choice. It’s such a great idea that really benefits everyone.”
Although cooperative education programs seem like a lot of work, they help students perform better in school. Not only that, but students can solidify their career goals before they commit to a major. When students gain both knowledge and experience, they generally perform better academically because they understand how to apply the skills, they are learning in class to the work environment. Instead of memorizing topics so they can get good grades, they are actively using their minds to better understand a subject, which would obviously work way better than just memorizing something. This has a clear effect as students in cooperative education programs tend to have a higher-grade point average (GPA) than the rest. One might wonder why GPA is so important? It basically determines where a student will stand in higher education. While being in a co-op, students learn how to prioritize, sacrifice and push themselves more, which is what enables them to be so successful. The theme of “academic growth and development” emerged on multiple occasions which verifies that co-op programs strengthen a student’s educational capacity and drive them to achieve more (Ciarleglio 114). By being in cooperative education programs, students will have the grades and the experience to be qualified for their dream job.
Students who go through co-op programs have a better understanding of occupational goals, which is directly related to one’s major in college. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about one-third of students enrolled in undergraduate programs change their major at least once. The student population at SUNY New Paltz is approximately 6,597, so that would mean over 2,000 students change their major at least once. By implementing cooperative education programs, that number could be drastically reduced. It is more common for students who aren’t in co-op programs to be less confident in their field of interest, and students need to be positive with what they choose before they are too far down the road. Of course, changing majors means students often must retake classes or take additional classes for their new major, and that costs money. It is proven that students in cooperative education programs “have a stronger career identity, and thereby change majors less frequently than students in the regular non-co-op stream” (Drysdale et.al 146). Research shows that non-co-op students often change their major up to three times. Although the research also identified co-op students who did change their majors, we can look at that from a different perspective. By being in their co-op programs, they realized that it wasn’t their field of study, so they made a practical decision and changed their major. The big difference is that traditional students change their major solely on personal interest, but co-op students do it with logic and reasoning (Drysdale et.al). A student needs to incorporate both personal desire, and intuitive thinking in order to fully succeed in the professional world.
Another benefit of a co-op experience for students is that most companies typically hold co-op students in higher regard in comparison to a traditional student. Every hiring manager/team wants someone with experience. Interviewers typically put experience at the top of their list since they don’t have to spend as much time training the new worker and they can hit the ground running. While it is an effective hiring strategy, it can make the job market a bit of a “no man’s land” for brand new bright-eyed college graduates. Why would they want someone who doesn’t know what they are doing? According to the SUNY New Paltz website, 62% of students find a job within six months after graduating. If more co-op programs were added to the system, the number can absolutely be much higher. We can think about it like this: co-ops provide outcomes that are beneficial for all sides. The students will gain the experience to succeed in the professional world, employers will be getting a good flow of people with experience, and SUNY New Paltz will have more students that will get jobs right after graduation. Employers will benefit even more considering they will be building a relationship with the college and thus, exert influence on academia (qtd.in Ciarleglio 24). Students would gain meaningful experience and learn the ropes of their chosen career paths that will make them much more capable in their field and give their resumes a significant boost.
Not only can a student be the most fit for their desired environment, but they will also have a higher starting salary than traditional students. This is due to the increased professional skills and the knowledge that they have retained from their co-op programs. This is directly correlated with the employment benefits students get once they reach the professional world. Students receive financial benefits from being in cooperative education programs. Some co-op programs pay their students, which would cause a decrease in student loans. A study that was conducted indicated that the percentage of students who collect debt and the average student loan for students is less for students in co-op programs than those in traditional programs (Haddara and Skanes 70). This result was derived from an experiment on a group of engineering college graduates and their salaries in their current careers. Not only will co-op students be highly successful in their careers, but they also have the ability to finance their education and therefore achieve financial stability quicker than most students in non-cooperative education programs.
Likely, in order to oversee these co-op programs, SUNY New Paltz would need to hire more personnel in the Career Resource Center as it would be nearly impossible for one professional member to be keeping track of all the students and the paperwork. For other universities like Cornell, Drexel, and Northeastern, their co-ops are run by a specific department with numerous employees. SUNY New Paltz does have a Career and Resource center that oversees the internships here, but it is the faculty who oversee fieldwork placements. Beth King, the internship coordinator at the Career Resource Center here at New Paltz stated “this school is more internship geared, rather than having co-op programs.” This is because co-ops are very extensive, spanning over six months, while internships typically do not last as long. In order for students to get academic credit, a faculty member has to be supervising the student and they would be the point person. Not to mention, some students might not like that cooperative education programs “add 0.4 years on average to the total time to degree”; since you are contracted into a company during your co-op you can’t leave until the contract is over (Main et.al 468). Students just want to get out of college as fast as they can and quickly move on to a job, since some may think that life is too short to be wasting so many years in school.
In a way, SUNY New Paltz doesn’t have to hire more faculty since faculty already oversees it. Unlike Drexel University and Cornell, New Paltz doesn’t have a big student population, so if more faculty needed to be hired, it wouldn’t be that many. Of course, this university can’t ever reach that point, where every student can take advantage of a co-op/ internship; but it wouldn’t hurt to dip our toes in the water. If more partnerships are created with companies and faculty is given release time to supervise co-op students, then SUNY New Paltz could slowly add more without having to hire a big staff. To reassure that the cooperative education programs will be high in demand, a survey should be given to students as to what they want to see. Based on the feedback, the school can then decide what is reasonable for the school and for the budget. In the research experiment conducted by Joyce Main and her team, they divided their experiment into “dosages”: complete co-op participation versus no participation, partial participation versus no participation, and finally complete participation with partial co-op participation (Joyce Main 464). In order to get the most benefits out of co-op programs, students must do the complete co-op participation. But at the same time, those who did partial co-op participation also received some of those benefits. If they were implemented here, students can decide which would benefit them the most; a complete co-op or a partial co-op. Whatever benefits they could receive is better than not having an advantage at all.
The cooperative education program is the answer to the evolving economy and job market. More companies are valuing things in addition to brains and status. They are looking for determined employees who have the experience to hit the ground running and make a difference, and co-op programs help make students just that. Now imagine a student, freshly graduated from New Paltz with her brand-new shiny degree. She’s having lunch with a friend from Marist who’s her age and just graduated with the same major as well. He brings up their future, how he doesn’t know what jobs to apply to as many are turning him down due to lack of experience. The woman from New Paltz doesn’t know how to tell her friend that she not only has an offer from the job she worked her co-op at but also has three interviews lined up for other companies. This could be a reality for many New Paltz graduates if the co-op program was implemented here. It has proved highly successful for graduates from schools like Drexel and Northeastern and there is no reason New Paltz students can’t have these same benefits. The co-op program would give so many students a first-hand view of their potential future and would give them a significant leg-up in the job market. It would greatly prepare students for life after college and give them the best chance to succeed, which in the end is the whole purpose of college.
Works Cited
Ciarleglio, Anthony. “The Relationship among Cooperative Education Program Participation, Student Grade Point Average and Retention.” Southern Connecticut State University, Ann Arbor, 2008. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/relationship-among-cooperative-education-program/docview/304325815/se-2?accountid=12761. Accessed 17 October 2021.
Drysdale, Maureen T. B., Natalie Frost, and Margaret L. McBeath. “How Often Do They Change Their Minds and Does Work-Integrated Learning Play a Role? an Examination of ‘Major Changers’ and Career Certainty in Higher Education.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, vol. 16, no. 2, 2015, pp. 145-152. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/how-often-do-they-change-their-minds-does-work/docview/2231207569/se-2?accountid=12761. Accessed 18 September 2021.
Haddara, Mahmoud, and Heather Skanes. “A Reflection on Cooperative Education: From Experience to Experiential Learning.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, vol. 8, no. 1, 2007, pp. 67-76. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/reflection-on-cooperative-education-experience/docview/2231281223/se-2. Accessed 17 October 2021.
King, Beth. Interview. Conducted by Ashlyn Scaria. 21 October 2021.
Main, Joyce B., Beata N. Johnson, and Yanbing Wang. “Gatekeepers of Engineering Workforce Diversity, The Academic and Employment Returns to Student Participation in Voluntary Cooperative Education Programs.” Research in Higher Education, vol. 62, no. 4, 2021, pp. 448-477. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/gatekeepers-engineering-workforce-diversity/docview/2531845505/se-2?accountid=12761, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09596-7. Accessed 18 September 2021.
Pacheco, Amanda C. “Cooperative Education as a Predictor of Baccalaureate Degree” Completion, University of Central Florida, Ann Arbor, 2007. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/cooperative-education-as-predictor-baccalaureate/docview/304747649/se-2?accountid=12761. Accessed 17 October 2021
Thompson, Conor. Interview. Conducted by Ashlyn Scaria. 29 October 2021.
Rough Draft: SUNY New Paltz Should Offer More Co-op Programs
Imagine coming out of college with not only a degree but genuine work experience. Having your first day on the job before you get your degree. What seems like an impossibility unless you “know a guy” is becoming a reality for an increasing number of students in colleges with integrated coop programs. These programs allow students to gain employment in the career field that they plan to enter while they are still in school. Two of the most well-known coop programs are at Drexel University and Northeastern University where co-ops benefit students in a variety of ways. The experience they gain is a massive leg up that helps students avoid the cold realities of today’s job market. In addition, working in a student’s chosen field can make people fall even more in love with their career, which can serve as a powerful motivator academically. For others the co-op experience is more of a reality check especially if they realize that what they thought they wanted to do for a living is not what they are truly interested in. A lot of graduates’ struggle facing the “real world” and co-op programs give students the tools to succeed while in school and beyond, which is why the State University of New Paltz should integrate such programs for its students in its curricula.
Though cooperative education programs seem like a lot of work, they help students do better in school. Not only that, but students can solidify their career goals before they commit to a major. When students gain both knowledge and the experience, they generally do better, since they understand how to use those skills in the work environment. Instead of memorizing topics so they can get good grades, they are actively using their minds to better understand a subject, which would obviously work way better than just memorizing something. Students who go through co-op programs have a better understanding of occupational goals, which is directly related to one’s major in college. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about one third of students enrolled in undergraduate programs change their major at least once. The student population at SUNY New Paltz is approximately 6,597, so that would mean about 2,199 of the population changes their major at least once. By implementing cooperative education programs, that number could be drastically reduced. It is more common for students who aren’t in co-op programs to be less confident in their field of interest, and students need to be positive with what they choose, before they are too far down the road. Of course, changing majors has both its disadvantages and advantages. The main reason why students change their majors is because they find another subject more interesting, or maybe another program is more interesting. For some students, this might actually help them be one step closer to their final goal. But for other students this may lead to more obstacles to overcome. They might have to take a bigger course load or redo classes that are necessary for their new major, and that costs money. It is proven that students in cooperative education programs “have a stronger career identity, and thereby change majors less frequently than students in the regular non-co-op stream” (Drysdale et.al 146). Their research showed that non-co-op students have changed their major much more than co-op students, and they changed it up to three times. Although their research did show a few numbers of co-op students who did change their major-we can look at that from a different perspective. By being in their co-op programs, they realized that it wasn’t cut out for them, so they made a practical decision and changed their major. The big difference is that traditional students change their major solely on personal intertest, but co-op students do it with logic and reasoning (Drysdale et.al). Students in cooperative education programs also have a higher-grade point average (GPA) than the rest. They learn how to prioritize, sacrifice and push themselves more, which is what enables them to be so successful. The theme of “academic growth and development” emerged on multiple occasions which verifies that co-op programs strengthen a student’s educational capacity and drives them to achieve more (Ciarleglio 114). By being in cooperative education programs, students will have the grades and the experience to be qualified for their dream job.
Luckily for them, most companies typically hold co-op students in higher regard in comparison to your traditional student. Every hiring manager/team wants someone with experience. Why would they want someone who doesn’t know what they are doing? According to the SUNY New Paltz website, 62% of students find a job within six months after graduating. If more co-op programs were added to the system, the number can absolutely be much higher. We can think about it like this: it is an outcome that is mutually beneficial for all sides. The students will get the experience to succeed in the professional world, employer’s will be getting a good flow of people with experience, and SUNY New Paltz will have more students that will get jobs right after graduation. Some students might not like that cooperative education programs “add 0.4 years on average to the total time to degree”; since you are contracted into a company during your co-op you can’t leave until the contract is over (Main et.al 468). But not only can a student be the most fit for their desired environment, but they will also have a higher starting salary than traditional students. This is due to the increased professional skills and the knowledge that they have retained from their co-op programs. In the research experiment conducted by Joyce Main and her team, they divided their experiment into “dosages”: complete co-op participation versus no participation, partial participation versus no participation and finally complete participation with partial co-op participation (Joyce Main 464). In order to get the most benefits out of co-op programs, students must do the complete co-op participation. This is directly correlated with the employment benefits students get once they reach the professional world. Students receive financial benefits from being in cooperative education programs. Some co-op programs pay their students, which would cause a decrease in student loans. A study that was conducted indicated that the percentage of students who collect debt and the average student loan for students is less for students in co-op programs than those in traditional programs (Haddara and Skanes 70). Not only will co-op students be highly successful in their career, but they also have the ability to finance their education and therefore achieve financial stability quicker than most students in non-cooperative education programs.
Likely, in order to oversee these co-op programs, SUNY New Paltz would need to hire more personnel in the Career Resource Center. Of course, these co-op programs aren’t something that one person can just oversee. It would be nearly impossible for one faculty member to be keeping track of all the students and the paperwork for a great quantity of cooperative education programs. If a school feels pressured to immediately hire staff, then they might be unqualified. For other universities like Cornell, Drexel and Northeastern, their co-ops are run by a specific department. SUNY New Paltz does have a Career and Resource center, that oversees the internships here, but it is the faculty that does more of the heavy stuff. Beth King, the internship coordinator at the Career Resource Center here at New Paltz stated “this school is more internship geared, rather than having co-op programs.” This is because co-ops are very extensive, spanning over six months, when an internship wouldn’t be as long. In order for students to get academic credit, a faulty member has to be supervising the student and they would be the point person. In a way, SUNY New Paltz doesn’t have to hire more faculty since faculty already oversees it. Unlike Drexel University and Cornell, New Paltz doesn’t have a big student population, so if more faculty were to be hired, not much would be needed. Of course, this university can’t ever reach that point, where every student can take advantage of a co-op/ internship; but it wouldn’t hurt to dip our toes in the water. If more partnerships were created and faculty continues to adjudicate students in these programs, then SUNY New Paltz can slowly add more. To reassure that the cooperative education programs will be high in demand, a survey should be given to students as to what they want to see. Based on the feedback, the school can then decide what is reasonable for the school and for the budget.
The cooperative education program is the answer to the evolving economy and job market. More and more companies are valuing things other than brains and status. They are looking for determined employees who have the experience to hit the ground running and make a difference, and coop programs help make students just that. By helping students gain real experience while in school, colleges and universities drastically increase their chances of finding a job after they graduate. Not only that, but co-op students tend to do better in their jobs as they are more experienced and motivated while still being able to look at everything from a different perspective. They come in with the knowledge and excitement to successfully perform and are a fresh set of eyes that can possibly improve the workplace. Co-op programs produce the perfect up and coming candidate for companies while also helping them in school. Co-op students can get paid in their coops which gives them some financial freedom to be able to enjoy themselves without the “broke” college kid stereotype. Also, it eases the financial burden of paying for college as students in the program take out less in student loans than the average student. And when they get back to classes, students that were in coop have higher GPAs on average. Overall, cooperative education programs help students all around from grades to financials to finding/securing a future career. They give students a significant chance to live the meaningful life they desire, which in the end is the most important purpose of college.
Works Cited
Drysdale, Maureen T. B., Natalie Frost, and Margaret L. McBeath. “How Often Do They Change Their Minds and Does Work-Integrated Learning Play a Role? an Examination of ‘Major Changers’ and Career Certainty in Higher Education.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, vol. 16, no. 2, 2015, pp. 145-152. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/how-often-do-they-change-their-minds-does-work/docview/2231207569/se-2?accountid=12761. Accessed 18 September 2021.
King, Beth. Interview. Conducted by Ashlyn Scaria. 21 October 2021.
Main, Joyce B., Beata N. Johnson, and Yanbing Wang. “Gatekeepers of Engineering Workforce Diversity, The Academic and Employment Returns to Student Participation in Voluntary Cooperative Education Programs.” Research in Higher Education, vol. 62, no. 4, 2021, pp. 448-477. ProQuest, https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/gatekeepers-engineering-workforce-diversity/docview/2531845505/se-2?accountid=12761, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09596-7. Accessed 18 September 2021.