Students Share Global Co-​​op Experiences

January 19, 2016

Stu­dents flocked to the Curry Stu­dent Center Indoor Quad on Thursday to learn more and ask ques­tions about their peers’ recent co- op expe­ri­ences abroad.

A col­lec­tion of stu­dents who recently returned from abroad set up shop at the Global Co- op Net­working Fair, which was spon­sored by the Global Expe­ri­ence Office, to share their expe­ri­ences with others who are con­sid­ering working inter­na­tion­ally on co- op. The event pro­vided an oppor­tu­nity for stu­dents to learn more about co- op, the sig­na­ture pro­gram in Northeastern’s expe­ri­en­tial learning port­folio. Stu­dents have pur­sued expe­ri­en­tial learning oppor­tu­ni­ties in 131 coun­tries since 2006.

We caught up with sev­eral stu­dents at the fair, asking pre­sen­ters about their global co- ops and atten­dees what they hoped to learn there.

Mika White, BHS’18

White worked at Iganga Hos­pital in Iganga, Uganda, where as part of her co- op she helped develop a mal­nour­ish­ment edu­ca­tion and assis­tance pro­gram for the local com­mu­nity. “This co- op gave me the chance to see the dis­par­i­ties between health­care sys­tems in a devel­oping nation and what we have here in the U.S.,” she said.

Ian Metivier, SSH’16

As a com­bined major in cul­tural anthro­pology and Spanish, Metivier rec­og­nized that these dis­ci­plines present an oppor­tu­nity to pursue a career as a trans­lator. “I real­ized this is what I wanted to do with my career,” he explained.

So he set off for Madrid and worked as a project man­ager for Mondo Agit, which pro­vides trans­lating ser­vices to NGOs. At the fair, Metivier advised stu­dents inter­ested in co- op to start the plan­ning process early and take advan­tage of this unique opportunity.