With the Mount’s Cooperative Education program (co-op) students gain career-related, valuable work experience while also earning academic credit. Co-op also enables students to enhance career goals, integrate theory with practice, and establish contacts in their field. And co-op can help defray education costs.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, co-ops earned more than $900,000, and nearly 40 percent of students who co-oped were hired by their co-op employers following graduation.

Annie Barkley Horn graduated with a degree in communication studies. Annie visited another larger college, but knew she needed a smaller, more intimate environment to succeed.

When asked to rate her educational experience at the Mount, Annie says it was superior. “The Mount taught me so much more besides ‘textbook’ material,” she says. “The classes and lessons were relevant to my major and I did not feel like we were given ‘fluff’ assignments. The professors truly have a passion for what they are doing. I really felt like I mattered.”

Outside of the classroom, Annie says she most appreciated the Mount’s co-op opportunities. “Had I not had the opportunity to work at multiple co-ops, I would have not succeeded after college,” she says.

While at the Mount, Annie held four different co-op jobs. In addition to working as a public relations co-op in the College’s marketing office, she also worked as a communications intern for SORTA/Metro, as an intern for WLWT News 5 and as a sales support co-op for Messer Construction Co. She remained at Messer after she graduated until a full-time position became available.

Annie is now a sales support specialist with Messer, providing strategic and creative counsel, writing, design, production, and management for proposals, qualifications, presentations, bid support, and other marketing materials. She also received Messer’s 2011 Corporate Community Service Award for her work with Freestore Foodbank and Girls on the Run of Cincinnati.

“Through professional development courses at the Mount, I was better prepared for the business world. Things such as etiquette, what to wear, how to act in meetings, helped me give positive, lasting impressions to the employers,” Annie says. “I truly believe co-op is essential for success after college. The competitive advantages in work ethic, professionalism and learning curves really make a difference.”