Stevens Institute of Technology: Admissions Blog

Outstanding Achievement

For the sixth time in eight years, a Stevens student has been selected as the Cooperative Education and Internship Student of the Year award by the New Jersey Cooperative Education and Internship Association (NJCEIA).

Senior Erik Thompson, an Electrical Engineering major and participant in the Stevens Cooperative Education (Co-op) program, is the 2012 recipient representing four-year college students. His selection is based on his outstanding achievements on the job and contributions to the employer.

“Erik is extremely smart and hard-working,” said Christian Uhl, assistant director of Cooperative Education (co-op) at Stevens. “He is a natural fit for a professional environment, and that helped him acquire very high-quality work experiences through Co-op.”

As an undergraduate at Stevens, Thompson took part in five Co-op internships. The first two assignments were with Datascope Patient Monitors, where he worked with the electrical engineering staff to test hospital products and implement fixes. Next, he worked as a computer engineer at the Armament, Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsensal. Finally, Thompson spent two semesters at Safe Flight Instrument Corporation. There, he served as project lead for the development of cockpit sensors that prevent airplanes from stalling. He was primarily responsible for overseeing the design and testing of software and electronics systems.

“I chose Stevens in large part because of the Co-op program,” said Thompson. “Each internship I did was critical, in its own way, for preparing me for the workforce. Datascope introduced me to the corporate culture and helped me understand how business is done. Picatinny gave me excellent software experience, and Safe Flight was really excellent at developing my design skills.”

Thompson earned a 3.65 GPA over his undergraduate career. Outside of his academics, he participated in numerous student activities as Stevens, including Castle Point Radio, the Anime Club and the Computer and Console Gaming Society. He also spent many hours volunteering his time to mentor younger Co-op participants by conducting mock interviewers and ushering students to employers.

“Erik was always incredibly generous with his time and always willing to give back because of the opportunities that he received through Co-op,” said Uhl. “Not only did every employer want him to join their ranks, but every student wanted to learn from his success.”

After Thompson graduates this month with a B.E. in Electrical Engineering and Graduate Certificate in Wireless Communications, he will begin full-time work as an assistant technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a research and development center focused on applying advanced technology to problems of national security. Thompson applied through the position through Stevens Career Services and was interviewed on campus last fall. He received the official offer while on winter holiday trip to Cancun with his family.

“Needless to say, it was a great vacation,” Thompson said.

There are numerous past Cooperative Education and Internship Student of the Year award-winners from Stevens, including Michael Phipps (’04), Jibu Abraham (’05), Poitr Czerechowski (’06), Keith Cassidy (’08) and Regina Pynn (‘11). In addition, Cassidy and Daniel Mirota (’06) were named National Cooperative Education Students of the Year by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

Uhl said one reason behind Stevens’ leadership in cooperative education is the staff’s personal relationships with students.

“We know our students’ interests and abilities and can make an accurate determination of what employers would be the best fit,” Uhl said. “Because our students are better matched, we are able to serve both the students and the employers better.”

He added that the Co-op program’s strong connection to numerous companies is another factor in its success.

“Stevens has longstanding relationships with employers, many of whom are Stevens Co-op alumni themselves,” Uhl said. “They know where the students are coming from both academically and professionally, which – along with the preparatory programs offered through Co-op – sets the table for our students to be successful on the job.”

Thompson, whose future employer includes a pipeline of Stevens alumni, said the Co-op program provides students essential resume differentiation in today’s competitive job market.

“With the way the job market is right now, you really need to be able to show that you’ve done something in addition to classes,” Thompson said. “Co-op allows you to go and do something meaningful and contribute to the company success.”

Thompson will be presented with the Cooperative Education and Internship Student of the Year award at the annual NJCEIA program on June 7 in Morristown, N.J.

Cooperative Education (Co-op) at Stevens

In Today's Competitive Job Market, a Degree Alone is Not Enough. Enter, Cooperative Education.

More and more, college students are realizing that top employers expect college graduates to have professional experience when they complete their degrees and apply for full-time jobs in their fields. But how does an undergraduate college student accumulate the kind of experience companies are seeking? With heavy course loads, active student lives, and limited opportunities for resume-worthy work experience, this is a tall order for the average college student.

Successfully meeting this challenge for many years, Stevens' Cooperative Education (Co-op) Program is well-known and distinct. An impressive 40 percent of our students participate, and in recent years, Stevens Co-op students have been standouts among their peers, several being honored with the national Cooperative Education Student of the Year and New Jersey Cooperative Education Student of the Year awards. 

At Stevens, Co-op students begin their first Co-op placement after their freshman year, and they then alternate semesters in class with increasingly sophisticated full-time work experience, garnering up to five placements by the time they graduate. They work with industry leaders in a particular field, testing their career goals in different companies and positions, building impressive resumes, and earning money to help pay tuition and expenses. 

While the benefits are unlimited and also unique to individual experience, a common positive outcome is that Stevens Co-op students have no problem when it comes to preparedness for career placement at the end of their educational journeys. For Co-op students like cybersecurity major Max Grifka, deciding to participate in Co-op was a "no-brainer." In fact, Stevens' Co-op program was one of the main reasons he chose Stevens when he was searching for colleges. He's completely satisfied with the result. At the start of this - his senior - academic year, Max accepted a job offer from Goldman Sachs and will begin his full-time responsibilities as an information security analyst for the company in July 2012. "Co-op is as much (if not more) about gaining experience and confidence navigating the professional work environment as it is about developing your technical knowledge and skills," he said. "I worked in several high-pressure environments and with high-level executives," he said. "This kind of experience is invaluable." 

Chelsea Bajek, senior environmental engineering student, expressed similar sentiments about her time as a Co-op student. Chelsea gave high praises for the "meaningful work" she did in five placements at Hazen & Sawyer, a private environmental engineering consulting company in New York City. "As an undergraduate, and early on, it was the same level of work they give entry-level engineers who already have a degree," she said. "Being entrusted with serious projects feels great. It builds confidence and a kind of knowledge you just can't learn in coursework alone." Writing detailed specifications for clients, working with outside vendors, and analyzing current technical processes for cost savings and other benefits are some of the responsibilities she exemplified as critical experiences for her career development. Among many advantages, her Co-op work validated her interest and passion for creating innovative solutions for water and waste water treatment. "We're always going to need access to clean drinking water," she said. "Even more so in the future. My Co-op work experience and my senior design project leverage me on the forefront of innovation, working toward energy conservation and cost savings associated with water treatment technology. I am truly grateful." Chelsea will also earn a master's degree in environmental engineering at Stevens by the time she graduates this spring.

Co-op student Daniel Bolella had placements in three different companies, and he validated that his Co-op duties were anything but "busy work."  At ADP, Hess, and the Burgiss Group, all companies in the metro area, Daniel's analytical, programming, and coding skills, for example, were put to use to solve sophisticated problems with tremendous outcomes. Professionals at Hess are still using his solution for better estimating future electricity prices, he said. Applying what he learned as a computer science major at Stevens and, in turn, bringing knowledge from the workplace back to his coursework and class projects added great value to his education. One of his biggest take-aways as a Co-op student was learning discipline, he added. "With coding, for example, it's one thing to learn how to do it from a book or course, and another thing when you're on a real project for a real company. The expectations are high, the problems are complex, and while there are great mentors and mangers there, you've got to direct your own process too," he said. "My Co-op placements really taught me how to be a professional software engineer." At Stevens, Daniel is also working toward a minor in history, is the music chair of the Student Government Association's entertainment committee, and is collaborating with a multidisciplinary team as head computer engineer developing the artificial intelligence for an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) to be entered for the second year in a national competition sponsored by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research.  

Emily Hesselbacher is a senior biomedical engineering major whose four Co-op placements at Stryker Orthopaedic and L'Oreal helped advance her on a path to success. At the beginning of the school year, Emily was happy to accept a full-time job offer from L'Oreal. She will be joining the company in an elite, fast-paced management development program right after graduation this spring. At L'Oreal, three leadership rotations, each for one year, will expose Emily to manufacturing, supply chain, and finance areas of the company, positioning her for a high-level management position upon completion. "My presentation of results from the Co-op project I worked on at L'Oreal ended up being part of my job interview for a full-time position there," she said. "It was great because I was confident about my presentation, and I was genuinely excited because I liked and was proud of my work, and I knew the L'Oreal team well." While her first Co-op placement at Stryker Orthopaedic was in research and development (R & D), it was the experience in manufacturing at L'Oreal that piqued her interest the most. Emily is glad to have had the opportunity to explore different areas of focus and different companies while a Co-op student, well before graduation. Biomedical engineering is a growing major, she said, adding that few universities offer it. Stevens was on the top of her list when it came time to look at colleges not only because Stevens offers biomedical engineering, but also because of the university's location and size. Experiencing a smaller university and program was a bonus, she said. "Professors at Stevens know you by name. My Co-op adviser was always available. Plus, I got to work in groups on projects with my peers and on serious design projects. In the real world, engineers work in groups on multi-disciplinary teams. I'm lucky to have had that experience in my Co-op jobs but also at Stevens."  Among other positives she experienced as a student at Stevens, Emily said she's also grateful for the opportunity to have taken a break from engineering one summer to take part in an exciting archaeological dig in Genzano, Italy, near Rome. She was also pleased to have served as chair of Stevens' chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, helping to enhance programs and increase participation in this important legacy at Stevens.

Engineering management major Steven Koch, who's also earning a minor in economics and a concentration in systems engineering, is finishing up his senior coursework and is another Co-op student already celebrating a full-time position awaiting after graduation. Steven recently accepted a job offer from Johnson & Johnson and will start there in June, 2012, as an associate analyst in the company's Information Technology Leadership Development Program. Steven is actually one of a special group of Stevens students who entertain more than one job offer. He also received an offer from Ernst & Young. Of his four Co-op placements and one internship experience, Steven said he enjoyed getting exposure to his field from a practical stand point, noting that Co-op made him "grow up" professionally and in other ways. Hands-on experience at the Movado Group, Research in Motion, and Crestron Electronics, for example, allowed him to apply the theory and concepts he learned in class to solving real problems. In addition, the experiences fostered important qualities like independence, determination, and even management of personal finances, he added. "Essentially, Co-op allowed my learning to extend beyond the text book," he said. "My work included work all along the information technology (IT) supply chain. I oversaw all steps in the distribution process, including software, cost saving, developing, and reporting performance metrics," he said. "For me, Co-op was an agent for a lot of change, professionally and personally."

Paul Peskosky set his sights on Stevens mainly due to the Co-op program's excellent reputation, he said. Five Co-op placements later, Paul is now wrapping up his senior year as a civil engineering major and said he truly enjoyed the "trial by fire" and "down and dirty" experience he was exposed to in the Co-op placements. Paul's area of expertise and interest is construction and structural engineering, and he's thankful for his Co-op jobs at Hayward Baker and Boswell Engineering. He is especially fond of his work at Hayward Baker, a specialized geotechnical, large-scale construction company based in New Jersey. "It's the best work you'll never see," Paul joked. "The pilings and such for skyscrapers. The construction that has to withstand forces like earthquakes and hurricanes and in all kinds of terrain, and on budget and on schedule."  At Hayward Baker, Paul served as a field engineer and took on project engineer responsibilities when the opportunity arose one month into one of his Co-op placements there. He enjoyed the work so much, he even took on a night shift for a period of time to learn more. There's nothing about Co-op Paul sees as too much of a challenge. In fact, he said he's like the Co-op ambassador, if such a role existed. "I truly think Co-op is the best thing at Stevens," he said. "Not that everything else isn't great, but I mean I just can't see students not at least exploring it if they can." During his career at Stevens, Paul also found time to be invovled on campus. For example, he helped rejuvinate Stevens' chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, promoting civil engineering across campus with intriguing events like a tower building contest in which winners received iPod shuffles.   

 

Senior civil engineering major and Co-op student Michael Consoli is also earning his master's degree in construction management. One of the great advantages of being a Co-op student at Stevens, he noted, was that he was allowed to take night classes even during the alternating semesters he was working full-time on Co-op assignment. Like many students, this allowed him to maximize his time at Stevens, and it paid off. Michael began his career at Stevens as a mechanical engineering student, but his first mechanical engineering Co-op job made him realize that civil engineering was more in line with his interests, and he had the flexibility at Stevens to change his major. "Getting your feet wet in the field before it's too late to change your mind is really key," Michael said. "I'm glad I was able to test the waters with mechanical engineering and then change my path very easily. My remaining Co-op placements were in civil engineering, and it was clear then that I'd made the right choice." Like other Co-op students, Michael said that doing work that affects a real business is very rewarding and builds confidence. His experience at Tishman Construction was especially rewarding, and he's still employed part-time there as he finishes up his senior year at Stevens. "Being involved in the life of an entire project for a company is amazing," he said. "I even inherited roles at the company that became available as their regular employees moved on or into new ones. Essentially, I truly felt like an integral part of the organization, learning about and affecting the day-to-day work and getting a feel for what it's really like on the job. It's important to experience the successes and failures of the business firsthand and to actually apply what you've learned in class," he said. Michael highlighted how rewarding it is that the Co-op experiences and his coursework at Stevens reinforced each other. It's a win, he said, all around. "At Stevens, you have amazing professors, great design and course work, and at the same time, you get a solid career-orientation and worldliness you don't get at other schools," he said. "Especially as Co-op student."  

Erik Thompson joins his Co-op peers in noting that he was treated like any other full-time employee (and paid well) at his Co-op placements. He made major contributions and even earned employee benefits. A senior electrical engineering major who will also leave Stevens with a graduate certificate in wireless communication, Erik will be entering a career in electrical engineering with a highly sophisticated resume due to his Co-op work. At SafeFlight, for example, he was involved in sophisticated problem solving in all aspects of the development of a new "Angle of Attack" sensor, which is a mechanism that keeps airplanes from stalling. And Picatinny Arsenal gave him a chance to hone his computer programming skills. He made a major contribution by translating code he'd found on an open source library into the company's programming language and earned much respect for doing so. "The reality is, employers expect something beyond the classroom," Erik said. "Knowing that, Stevens' Co-op program and the design spine in the engineering programs were the top reasons I chose Stevens. These are especially great advantages for Stevens students. If I look at my before and after resume alone, I see an amazing transformation." Erik's sights are set on a career in wireless communication research for the defense industry.  At Stevens, Erik was also busy serving as the radio station's program manager. His senior design project involves implementing a repeater on Steven's Howe Center, a device that extends the range of weaker radio signals in and around Hoboken. A member of the Anime and Hobby Robotics clubs and the Gaming Society at Stevens, Erik also started up an amateur radio club.

You can learn more about applying to Stevens by Clicking Here. We look forward to showing you all that Stevens has to offer!

Career Focus at Stevens

Stevens' Career Fair last week attracted more than 100 companies and 700 students to the eagerly awaited, and historically successful, event held in the Schaefer Center each fall for seniors. 

The fair presented an opportunity for both sides - the Class of 2012 and potential employers - to connect and standout. From the overwhelming turnout and high level of preparedness, to the outstanding career outcomes Stevens publishes each year, it's clear that Stevens students make excellent use of their time in front of some of the nation's top companies and agencies that recruit talent here. Impressive career placement figures for the Class of 2011 include an average starting salary of $63,200, which is 9% above the national average. In addition, 85% of Stevens' Class of 2011 obtained job placement within three months of graduating, and 35% entertained more than one job offer.

"I received great, positive feedback from those who participated in the Career Fair, and I am delighted that the event generated a lot of excitement from everyone involved," said Lynn Insley, Director of Career Development at Stevens. "I'm especially pleased about the wide variety of employers represented this year."

Employer representation ran the gamut across industries, expertise, and types of jobs, which provided students from every discipline ample access to career networking and placement. Amid the economic stress of today, the diversity and breadth of commercial and government representation at this year's fall Career Fair is especially encouraging.  Some companies return to Stevens after years of maintaining relationships here, and some have a more recent presence.  NBC Universal, for example, made its first appearance last year. 

A representative from LGS Bell Labs Innovations summed up what his company sees in Stevens graduates this way: "The Stevens graduates we've worked with are well-prepared and they transition very well to high-end work with little stress and time. They adapt quickly and make positive contributions to sophisticated problems and projects right away. They're also team-oriented, which is  very beneficial." 

LGS Bell Labs delivers communications and R&D-based technology solutions to the U.S. government community and is looking to Stevens for computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, and physics majors to fill various full-time roles as well as internships. The representative added, "It's nearly impossible to predict where technology will be five years from now. We all know how quickly it evolves and changes. So we're not only looking for folks with excellent knowledge and experience, but also those who like to learn and who adapt while we all 'follow the technology', so to speak." 

At a pre-fair luncheon for employers and students, Stevens presented Johnson & Johnson with its Employer of the Year Award for going "above and beyond" the typical recruitment relationship. In addition to internships, co-op placements, and full-time employment, especially distinct is the company's role in providing student workshops in leadership and networking as well as Johnson & Johnson's sponsoring of Stevens senior design projects. 

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP), Barclays Capital, Becton Dickinson & Company (BD), Deloitte Services, Ernst & Young, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Hamilton Sundstrand, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Morgan Stanley, L'Oreal USA, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Pepsi Bottling Group, Risk Management Solutions Inc.,  UBS, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Verizon were a few among the many companies represented.

 

Experience Matters!

The National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) 2011 Internship & Co-op Survey indicates that internships are a critical piece of the college recruiting scene. The survey finds that employers expect to increase internship hiring by about 7 percent this year and co-op positions by nearly 9 percent. Furthermore, they will draw approximately 40 percent of their new college hires for 2011 from their internship and co-op programs. These figures demonstrate the central role that experiential education plays in the overall college recruiting process.

Stevens is proud to offer world class Cooperative Education and Internship programs. They are run by dedicated staff who identify employers and opportunities, facilitate recruiting opportunities, and also work closely with students to prepare for interviews, craft resumes, and secure co-op, internship, and permanent placements. Ninety percent of Stevens students participate in some form of experiential education during their time on campus, and that distinguishing factor sets them apart when it is time to secure full-time employment.

See more details about how internships and cooperative education are more important than ever before in the NACE research brief.

Affordable Education

Stevens is committed to making a quality education as affordable as possible. About 90% of our students receive some form of Stevens aid. Information about financing your education at Stevens is available by Clicking Here, and our admissions staff is available to answer any and all of your questions.

We are proud to offer a wide range of scholarships to our incoming students. You may want to consider applying for the DeBaun Performing Arts scholarship, the FIRST (Robotics Competition or Tech Challenge team) scholarship, or the Science and Technology Center Volunteer scholarship.

A college education is an investment. Stevens has a notable history of preparing students for challenges in engineering, the sciences, business, and the arts. Consider all that Stevens offers, and you will see your investment as a springboard to future successes.

ATTENTION: Our Admissions Application deadline is February 1^st.  You can Apply Online today!

If you have applied, be sure to submit any missing documents and complete your interview if you have not already done so. The deadline for submitting your supporting documents is March 15!

 

Stevens Students Power Their Futures at Career Day

Over 600 graduating seniors and graduate students at Stevens took advantage of the Class of 2011 Career Day last week, reporting to the Schaefer Athletic and Recreation Center to meet the nearly 100 employers who attended.  Marked by the students’ confidence and knowledge, their own resolution to succeed and their already impressive résumés, the Career Day also exemplified the comprehensive guidance students are given by the Office of Career Development at Stevens. 

Opportunity was knocking on both sides of the door at the event – for students, the chance to connect and discuss post-graduate employment; for the representatives of top companies wanting knowledgeable, highly-skilled, goal-oriented graduates, the occasion to recruit top candidates to meet their greatest business challenges. The conditions were right, as they overwhelmingly are at Stevens. And the result is success. For example, of last year's graduating class, 80 percent accepted offers of employment or enrollment in graduate or professional school programs - and 38% chose from more than one job offer.

For Roque Rios, senior computer engineering major, the Career Day was an opportunity to further enhance the connections he'd made during his IT internship at Colgate. "The face-to-face really helps," he said. "I'm doing what you need to do to make sure your resume gets on the 'good' pile for the jobs you're interested in." His advice to incoming students is to connect with the Office of Career Development early on, well before the various career fairs, and to attend the ongoing career placement workshops and other sessions offered to students. "Because of all the support here, there's really no reason to be lost about job placement at graduation," he said.

L’Oréal Human Resources Manager Terri Dedinski was one of several representatives from the company eager to speak to the Career Day participants. She noted that of the five Stevens students who were chosen for their Operations Internship Program last summer, three were offered permenant positions at the company after graduation. "The partnership with Stevens for internship and career placement has been very successful," she said. "There is a tremendous opportunity for growth for students. Whether during their internships or new employment with the company, their contributions are significant and become part of our ongoing product or process development. And they distinguish themselves on a leadership track that propels them to upper management."

The Career Day also included a luncheon at which employers were recognized for their ongoing support of Stevens students. The Employer of the Year Award was presented to The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and accepted by Toshiya Morita, CIO, Systems Office for the Americas, Yawer Fadoo (M.S.`07), Vice President and Manager, Systems Office for the Americas, and Ann Stenson, V.P. of Human Resources. 

Reckitt Benckiser, a consumer products company that hired four Stevens students into research-based summer internships, received the Internship Employer of the Year Award. The students engaged in a variety of projects, from developing new products for the European market to testing antibacterial agents for bar soap. Accepting the award was Will Lenzetti, Global R&D Category Manager.

The Externship Award was given to THE Partnership: NJ Transit and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for providing an outstanding learning experience to Stevens engineering students by coordinating site visits to one of the most exciting construction projects in the area.

The MIT Lincoln Laboratory Scholarship Awards were presented to Phillippe Pierre-Paul and Richard Sanchez.  Phillippe is a junior electrical engineering major pursuing a dual master’s degree in technology management and a minor in pre-law policy.  Richard is a computer engineering major and cooperative education student. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory scholarship was created three years ago and is awarded to two students each year. The director of the Laboratory, in recognition of the nation's critical need to develop more engineers provided scholarship funding to Stevens for these awards.  The recipients are selected on the basis of merit by Dean Deborah Berkley, who directs the Stevens Technical Enrichment Program (STEP).  "It's important to note that these students are not only outstanding students academically, but they are also leaders on campus, and very involved in helping their peers," she said.  

Lynn Insley, Director of the Office of Career Development, expressed how fortunate Stevens is to have longstanding employer relationships that facilitate students' professional development and lead to impressive career outcomes.  "Our students build their success early through internships, cooperative education assignments and research opportunities," she said.  "By the time Stevens students enter their senior year, they are well prepared to engage with recruiting professionals and secure employment opportunities that lead to rewarding careers."

 

The Diverse Pursuits of a Stevens Student

What do aviation, beekeeping, writing and engineering have in common? James Clague (BE, ’12) is passionate about each of these diverse interests and hopes to incorporate them all as he moves forward in his studies and career.

Drawn to Stevens for many reasons, James has always enjoyed writing, but wanted to follow in his family’s footsteps and study engineering. Stevens’ Engineering Management program seemed like a perfect fusion of technology and communication, and that, coupled with our co-op program, sealed the deal for him. With two co-op semesters at UPS and CB Richard Ellis behind him, James is thankful for Stevens’ ideal location, accessible to many well-known organizations. On-campus James is the president of the Stevens Investment Group, in addition to being a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and Formula SAE, and participating in intramural sports.

Off-campus, James is just as active. More than six years ago, he and a close family friend discovered bees in a chimney, and after contacting a local beekeeper, decided to start a hive of their own. Over the next couple years, they met other beekeepers, learned how to buy bees, process honey, keep the bees alive during the winter months and introduce a Queen. They have expanded that one hive and now James is a partner in a success honey company called Blue Grass Honey. James is charged with selling the honey their bees produce, and coordinates many of these sales in the tri-state area. He has been integral in determining how to package and label the honey, and how to market it to local businesses and through their website.

This experience has been important for James. He said: “It’s been great learning how to take care of and manage the bees. It actually helped me in my co-op assignment at CBRE as I had to take care of buildings and manage projects.”

Not only has he been involved in beekeeping for many years, but James has also been pursuing aviation. At 15, he attended ground school, and at 17, James received his pilot’s license for small aircraft. His family has a history in aviation: his father is a commercial pilot and his grandfather built his own plane. Currently James has logged 70 hours of flight time and is working with his father and his brother to build their own plane.

James is hoping that his diverse interests will converge after graduation. He would like to work in the aviation field, and one day pursue a Master’s degree in Engineering Management or an MBA. In the meantime, he’s looking forward to another co-op semester and discovering all that lies ahead at Stevens and beyond.

Mickey, Minnie and Erik Solan

When most kids visit Disney, they immediately love it – the rides, the characters, the energy, the atmosphere. But when Erik Solan (BE, ’11) first visited Disney, he didn’t just love it, he wanted to be a part of it.

Erik’s dream of working for Disney Imagineering is one of the reasons he came to Stevens, where he is majoring in Civil Engineering and minoring in Art & Technology. He says: “My goal is to be in structural design, which is a great way to combine my passion for art and my passion for building.” Another key factor for Erik’s decision to attend Stevens was the Co-op program. After attending an open interview session that Disney was holding in the area, Erik worked with the co-op office and soon became the first Stevens Disney co-op student.

During his first co-op semester, in spring 2008, Erik worked as a Monorail pilot at Walt Disney World. While there, he took classes with Disney engineers and was able to secure a professional internship through the relationships he built. Erik plans to return to Disney next month, where he will work as a structural engineer through January 2010, assessing and performing maintenance on the rides in the park. His experiences have led him to be named the Disney representative for Stevens, helping other students who are looking for internships with Disney.

In addition to his role as Disney rep, and his participation in co-op (his second co-op term, in fall 2008, was with Boswell Engineering), Erik is a member of the Verge Art Exhibition board for Art & Tech students, on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade crew, and a columnist for The Stute. Recently, Erik received an Engineering Excellence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).

“Stevens is allowing me the opportunity to pursue my dreams,” Erik says. “Everyone here is so supportive. My professors and the faculty, plus the co-op office and the rest of the staff, all want the students to succeed here. They help us the entire way.”

Mike Munley's Journey to Job Success

I knew when I decided to attend Stevens (way back in spring of 2004, mind you) that I’d be getting a first-class engineering education, which would set me up for obtaining a great job post-college.  What I didn’t know is that everything I did from that point on would affect my future job hunt.  Bear with me as I explain my college experience; you’ll soon understand what I’m doing.

Coming into Stevens I knew I wanted to study Engineering Management (EM).  I liked the combination of core, broad-based engineering peppered with business, economics, and project management.  Beyond that, I was clueless.  Ask me what I wanted to do with a degree in EM, and I’d give you an “Umm, I dunno... business maybe?  Maybe construction management?”  Clueless.

Freshman year at Stevens I did about a thousand different activities outside of class: Stevens Political Awareness Club, Dramatic Society, Ambassadors’ Club, Entertainment Committee, American Society for Engineering Management.  In the spring, I utilized the NYU/Stevens relationship and took Elementary Japanese 2 at NYU’s College of Arts & Sciences (I was fortunate enough to place into EJ2 thanks to four years of high school Japanese).  Over that summer, I did a construction management internship with the Port Authority, where I had the opportunity to go to the top of the George Washington Bridge and down into the pit of the World Trade Center Site.  Without a doubt, it was the most exciting of any of my jobs to date, though it did make me realize one thing... I wasn’t much a fan of construction management. 

And so sophomore year began with me being just as clueless as ever with what I wanted to do post-grad.  I stayed involved with the Dramatic Society, including a position on the e-board, and the Entertainment Committee, and I decided to join a social fraternity.  I knew a bunch of guys who, rather coincidentally, all happened to be in Sigma Phi Epsilon and after hanging out there a lot in the fall, I soon became a brother and quickly became the Balanced Man Scholarship Chairman.  I also did my first co-op at Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company.

My third year was basically a repeat of my second year.  My next co-op, however, was at GlaxoSmithKline where I developed various operational excellence experiments to see how we could save money on the packaging lines of Aquafresh and Sensodyne.  Yep, lots and lots of toothpaste.

After my third year, I decided to forgo a co-op term to study abroad in Japan during the summer of 2007.  I studied Intermediate Japanese at KCP Language Institute in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.  At this particular school, they refuse to speak in English in the classroom.  Everything is conducted in Japanese; just ask my buddy Marc who studied there the next summer and knew no Japanese before going!   I lived in a dorm about an hour train ride away with only four other Americans and a ton of Japanese college students.  I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) down to Kyoto, the ancient capital, and I went on a school trip to Yamagata, which is essentially the boondocks of Japan.  And I even got credits transferred for use as a humanities course at Stevens.  The food is strange, the culture is different, but all of it was incredibly amazing and awesome!

My fourth year I was elected as president of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.  We hold various community service events, such as Tau Beta “Pie”, where we pie professors in the face and the annual Pi Mile Run.  The spring was spent mostly on my final co-op at Medco Health Solutions.  It was about as far away from engineering as a job could be, as I did business analysis the majority of my time there.  And would you believe it… I LOVED IT.

And so came my final year, and the job hunt.  By now, I knew what I actually enjoyed and wanted in a career: business analysis, travel, a leadership/management role, and problem solving.  After working with Career Development, attending the career fairs, and sending my resume to everyone and their mother, I lined up a bunch of interviews with consulting companies and leadership development programs.  It felt as if every other day I was in my suit.  And I had to balance all this with school.  Yes, it’s tough, but if there’s one thing that stands out about Stevens, EVERYONE is in the same boat.  And even with all that, I still found time to hang out and make it to trivia night at my favorite bar (I am over 21 after all).

In my interviews, I noticed I’d get the same questions over and over again:

Q: Name a difficult team experience.  What did you do about it?  A: “At Ethicon, most team members were in different countries and had different priorities and cultures, and I had to impress upon them the importance of quickly doing what I had asked...”  (Side note: remember this was my first co-op job... and can you believe they actually listened?!?!)
Q: Name a time when you had to innovate.  A: “At Medco, I developed a user-friendly self-populating spreadsheet that automatically generated monthly metrics for 12 very different groups with 12 very different sets of metrics...”
Q: What’s your proudest achievement?  A: “Managing a team that organized a 100-person regional conference for Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society...”
Q: Describe a situation when you challenged authority.  A: “When I was the scholarship chairman of my fraternity...” and I’d speak of the time I had a dispute with some of my fraternity brothers on how to manage our scholarship.
Q: Speak about a time when you had to take the lead and learn something new to get a goal accomplished?  A: “In my freshman design lab we had to program a robot, and no one on my team had any clue how to program a robot...”
Q: What’s your best leadership quality? A: “Well, if there’s anything that going to Japan taught me, it’d be adaptation...” and then we’d chat about sushi for 5 or 10 minutes.
Q: What’s your passion outside of class?  A:  “Well, that’d be acting and singing,” and I’d go on and on about all the fun times with the dramatic society.

I think you see where I’m going.  If I didn’t do all that I did while at Stevens, I’d be answerless.

In the end, I had five sets of second round interviews (including one which was an all-expense trip to Fairfax, VA... while it’s not a very touristy city, it was still pretty cool to take the Acela train, stay at a hotel, and eat at no cost to me).  I got the “I’ve got some very good news for you” call from Johnson & Johnson’s Information Technology Leadership Development Program around mid November, and with that call, the weight of the world was released from Atlas’s hands.  I signed, sealed, and delivered my offer acceptance on December 1st, and I’m slated to start my position with Consumer Products (think Band-Aids, Johnson’s Baby Powder & Shampoo, Aveeno) on June 15th.  In my time between school and work, I plan to take a quick jaunt to Scotland to visit some relatives I haven’t seen in more than a decade (with banked co-op cash!) and to road trip out to Wisconsin for my buddy Gus’s graduation party (he’s already got his job lined up with UPS).

And as for this semester, I’ve got Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays off, and with the exception of Senior Design, not a care in the world and no longer clueless.

- Michael Munley, ‘09

Student Profile: David Barker, B.S. Computer Science ‘08

Profile By Nicole Moldovan ‘08 (Stevens News Service)

Dave Barker is a 5/5 senior, a term used by many students at Stevens Institute of Technology, denoting participation in the cooperative education program. Dave chose to do a five-year college plan, alternating semesters of study with real-world paid work experience. Roughly 600 students are currently enrolled in Stevens’ co-op program, meaning about 40 percent of the undergraduate student body opt to do this five year combination of classes and corporate experience, with 150 employers to choose from.

“It’s really the co-op program that brought me here to Stevens, even more so than its academic reputation,” says Dave. It was the overall strength in career development that caught his attention as a high school senior and that of his guidance counselors at Roselle Catholic in Roselle, N.J. Five years later, Dave feels he got what he expected – a well established program that has “really, really strong ties with many industries that makes the process easy for students.”

Click to continue profile (Stevens News Service) >>