On any given day, Mount students commute to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and go to work. Not just nursing majors, but students in behavioral sciences and biology who are placed in career experiences through the Mount’s widely-recognized Cooperative Education program.

Kelly Thornton (above) is one of many students to take advantage of the Mount's successful co-op program.  Another is Aubrey Bauer (top of page).

Kelly Thornton, a psychology major, goes to the Department of Emergency Medicine where she applies research methods to surveys she conducts for physicians. Katlin Stupi references her biology studies for assignments in the Genetics Department. Then there is nursing and biology student Aubrey Bauer who comforts children in the whirlwind wing of surgical short stay.

Cooperative Education at the Mount has made nearly 5,800 co-op placements since it was established in 1982 as the first local college to integrate co-op into the liberal arts. From the beginning, the Mount has been successful in matching employer’s needs with students educated in the liberal arts and sciences and who are prepared as thinkers, communicators and decision makers. Students majoring in all of the Mount’s liberal arts and professional studies programs at the undergraduate level are encouraged to add co-op to their Mount learning experience.

Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center is the Mount’s largest co-op employer — there were 98 placements in 2006-2007. Children’s is also the largest employer of Mount grads. For its long support of the Mount’s co-op program and for providing student with significant learning experience on the job, Children’s also received the Mount’s Co-op Employer of the Year Award in 2003.

Katlin studies breast cancer and colon cancer in the Genetics Department and is currently assisting with a project on autism. “I felt so prepared when I started to co-op here,” she says. “It is so inspiring to study with the biology faculty at the Mount. I go to class every day ready to learn something new.”

Kelly agrees. “It really helped to take the Research I and II courses to do this job.” Her most interesting assignment at Children’s has been studies on methods of intubation. From her location in triage, Kelly is dispatched to conduct surveys involving patients, medicines and treatment methods for research that will help emergency room physicians.

“The best thing about co-op is getting professional experience in psychology,” says Kelly. “A student can get so much more out of a major by co-oping and being in a professional environment.”

Mount nursing co-ops often work as patient care advocates. “We are like nurse aides,” explains Aubrey who works on the surgical short stay floor where children go for the first 24 hours after surgery. Her patients are kids who’ve had tonsils removed or casts plastered on arms and legs. “We take temperatures, orient patients and families to our floor, and help kids get up. It can be hard for little ones to go to the bathroom with IVs.”

Aubrey, who has always wanted to be a nurse, is discovering the reality of patient care through her placement at Children’s. “What I love the most about this co-op job are the kids. I’ve learned so much by actually getting to work with them. You learn how to help them and make them more comfortable.”

She adds, “Going to the Mount exceeds all of my expectations. I love the nursing program and I am learning so much in co-op.”

Katlin, who plans to enter the Mount’s doctoral program in physical therapy after graduating in biology, also volunteers in the physical and occupational therapy clinic at Children’s. “The kids are so inspiring to work with,” she says.

Her co-op experience at Children’s and a previous mission trip to Zambia through her parish, St. Mary’s in Wooster, Ohio, have shaped Katlin’s future plans. “These experiences have changed me to focus on helping others. It’s not so much about earning a high salary, but making life better for others. I feel called to use my gifts as a biologist to give back and help those in need.”

Aubrey has also found her life’s passion in nursing. “It’s so rewarding when kids run up and give me hugs when they are discharged. There’s no better feeling in the world.”