Participation and placement in the Cooperative Education/Internship Program is soaring, partly because of the office’s award-winning efforts in marketing the department.

The Coop. Ed./Internship Program placed about 800 students last year, according to Marilyn Smith, a coop coordinator. Smith said she expects the program to place about 1,000 students in programs this year.

The major focus of the NIU program is to give students tools and experience to compete in the job world before they graduate, Smith said.

“We’re a resource for students to help their careers,” Smith said.

“The benefit of a coop goes beyond just the experience itself,” Smith said. Developing resumes, making contacts and learning what specific areas in certain career fields are like all other benefits she mentioned.

“Statistically coop students make higher salaries and take less time to find jobs,” Smith said. She added that about 60 percent of the students who participated in an internship were hired by that firm.

Smith gave a brief description of how the program works. First, students must come to an orientation session, which takes about 20 minutes, she said.

Then students may schedule an appointment with a coordinator, who is assigned to students in certain departments. For example, business students see one coordinator and communications students see another. There are four coordinators.

Smith said students can usually get an appointment with a week’s notice. She said she often sees as many as a dozen or more students a day. She said things have been a little hectic since the program had to cut to coordinators, from six to four, in the last two years.

Students are then helped with creating a resume. Finally, those resumes are sent out to prospective companies with coop programs.

NIU’s program participates with about 1,800 companies, Smith said. The walls near the office, on the second floor of the Holmes Student Center are filled with internship opportunities, some with salaries and some without, some local and some in various parts of the country.

“Some students come in here expecting us to hand them a job,” Smith said. “We’ve got positions, but you’re competing with other students.

“Nobody can work for a student as hard as they work for themselves,” she said.

Smith said she encourages students and makes them aware of opportunities but expects them to do the work.

The program’s marketing approach includes award-winning Brochures and a newsletter, “Partners.”

The strategy was performed under the direction of Douglas Davis, program director, Casey Bozek, program coordinator and Mireya Pourchot, assistant program coordinator.

NIU won two first places and a second place for their marketing strategy at the Midwestern Cooperative Education Association held in October.