For most college students, summer consists of taking a break from the hussle-and-bussle of the academic year. From catching up on sleep to having some home-cooked meals, students usually spend a majority of their time relaxing and hanging out with their friends.

RIT students, however, have a different agenda for those three months outside of Rochester. During those three summer months, most RIT students take a proactive step towards their future by engaging in a cooperative education experience.

The School of Print Media requires that all of its students complete a total of six months in such a position. Cooperative Education (or Co-op) is the hallmark of an RIT education and provides an opportunity to put classroom lectures, textbook theories and your personal initiative to the ultimate test—performance on the job.

SPM et cetera contacted three students who spent this past summer working at their respective coops to get their take on their experiences. From newspapers to packaging, we’ve sampled a variety of jobs for our readers. Finally, if you haven’t yet… start thinking about those coops!

Cristina Stoll
Disc Graphics
Manufacturing Assistant
Hauppauge, New York

Printing + folding cartons + Long Island accents = totally sweet co-op.

This summer was quite the adventure at the Disc Graphics, Inc. headquarters in Hauppauge, New York, which is the largest folding carton manufacturer on Long Island. With two smaller plants in New Jersey and California, the Long Island plant is a monstrous facility, with hundreds of employees, that houses everything from sales to shipment.

At first, such a facility seemed intimidating. However, after spending six weeks on eight-color and 56” UV presses, I felt right at home with the pressmen. My twelve weeks at Disc Graphics were well spent. My schedule consisted of: six weeks, pressroom; two weeks, die cutting; one week, folding and gluing; one week, production and prepress; one week, scheduling; one week, estimating and sales; and in between time with quality assurance. Within each department, I trained with the top employees for nine hours each day.

Overall, my co-op provided me with more than hands-on experience; it allowed me to understand the importance of technical knowledge as well as interpersonal communication skills in our industry. This summer, I plan to return to Disc Graphics, and focus my time in one or two departments. The following summer, I will be coordinating with them to co-op with one of their consumable suppliers, such as a paper, ink, or equipment supplier.

Katie Benson
Cox Ohio Publishing
Production Management Intern
Dayton, Ohio

This was my first newspaper internship, and I did not know what to expect really. While at Cox Ohio Publishing, I was introduced to the daily operations in various departments including: production, distribution, editorial, customer support, and pre-press. I liked moving around from department to department meeting different people with different positions. It was really interesting to see the entire workflow and how everything fits together and how people communicate. Overall, I really enjoyed being exposed to the complete workflow of how a newspaper is created.

Thomas Pelillo
St. Petersburg Times
Operations Intern
St. Petersburg, Florida

I spent the past summer in Florida working for the St. Petersburg Times. They are an independently owned paper and are currently ranked no. 9 on the list of top 10 newspapers in the country. While working there, my official title was Operations Intern. I trained in all the departments of the production workflow for the Newspaper, usually spending about a week in each department. I worked in areas such as imaging, pagination, press, packaging, and transportation. During my internship, I learned a lot of valuable information in such a short amount of time. The company was great to work for and so were the fellow employees, and interns. I also enjoyed spending a lot of time at the beach under that awesome Florida sun.