Wichita State News: Cooperative Education

Education graduate enjoys teaching young children

Dana Mitchell enjoys interacting with her kindergarten students and seeing them grow in their education.

"I want to teach young children because they still have (an) attitude of learning," Mitchell said. "They want to come to school."

Mitchell graduated from Wichita State University with her bachelor's degree in elementary education in spring 2008.

As an undergrad, she participated in the Cooperative Education and Work-Based Learning Program and received six credit hours when tutoring at Samuel E. Spaght Multimedia Magnet, the elementary school she attended.

Mitchell is now teaching kindergarten at Spaght full time.

"She has just completed her first year and received a special award from the district for being an outstanding first year teacher," said Cathy Razook-Ellsworth, College of Education coordinator in cooperative education.

Mitchell is working on her master's degree at WSU, as well.

But her education career began in high school when she tutored at Spaght as a senior. At the time, she was thinking about a future in social work, but she decided to pursue a degree in education after working with the students.

"I loved working with kids and seeing the gains they made," Mitchell said.

Mitchell teaches reading, writing, math, science, health and social studies. She said it depended on the child, but all of her students seem to enjoy every subject.

She said music helps the children calm down, but it also "hypes them up" when needed.

"We love to dance and sing," she said.

Mitchell said she is amazed how complex the minds of 5- and 6-year-old children are.

"They are so funny, loving, caring and hardworking," she said, "and they always want to please you."

The students are making her a better person, as well.

"When I went into teaching, I never thought that I would be learning from them," she said. "They teach me to be more silly and carefree."

She said the children make her laugh every day, and she returns the favor.

One challenging aspect of her career is dealing with all the personalities in her classroom and meeting the needs of each student, she said.

"Teachers educate the future, and if I don't do my part in teaching the basics, I am not only failing them, I am also failing myself," Mitchell said.

If she sees her students struggling, she works with them to get them where they need to be.

"Teaching is more than making sure that they learn, it's about teaching them to be better people, to respect themselves and everyone else," she said. "I am helping to prepare them for their future."

Gwendolyn Mukes, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, said Mitchell has an intuitive teaching factor needed in the education profession.

"It was apparent that (she) was a natural," Mukes said.

Mitchell's second-grade teacher, Kathy Stybr, was her favorite teacher when she attended Spaght and one influence that pushed her toward a teaching career.

"She helped me to love learning," Mitchell said. "On the last day of school she read ("I Love You Forever") to us, and she cried. I read to my students on the last day, and I cried, too."

Mitchell said working with co-op was the practice she needed to be prepared.

"Co-op gave her real-world job experiences and allowed her the freedom to test her wings," Mukes said.

"The hands-on experience that I gained is unbelievable," Mitchell said. "Everyone should do it."

Internship is an impressive achievement for WSU sophomore

Courtney Looney, print journalism major at Wichita State University, interns at the Salina Journal earning college credit through WSU's Cooperative Education and Work-Based Learning program.

Her interests in journalism began in high school on the newspaper and yearbook staff. Jay Myers, her journalism adviser, deserves all the credit for her interest in the subject, she said.

"He has a passion for news, and it rubbed off on me," Looney said. "To me, there really was no other choice but journalism."

Journalism is an exciting career, she said. She arrived at the Salina Journal at 9 a.m. her first day. By 9:15, she was already out on her first assignment.

"They threw me right into the mix to see what I could do," she said.

Since working at the Journal, Looney has been able to interview interesting people, such as a world-renowned artist and storm chasers who have a show on the Discovery Channel.

Her most recent story was about a woman who was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

"It's a sensitive subject," Looney said, "and sometimes I feel rude for intruding (on the family) simply so I can get my job done."

She has written about topics ranging from foods to eat at the Smoky Hill River Festival to women walking 39 miles for breast cancer awareness.

She said dealing with uninteresting news is a difficult obstacle to overcome.

"There is a challenge to find the simplest event and turn it into something big," she said.

On slow news days, Looney spends her lunch hour hunting for stories in Salina's downtown.

"I have learned never to hesitate to ask someone for a news idea," she said. "Everyone has a story, and most people won't hesitate to share theirs."

Looney gained more than "a little writing experience" at the Salina Journal, she said. She learned how to be a journalist.

"To be a journalist, you have to be willing to search for the interesting, unusual and unique aspects of a simple subject," she said.

For her, journalism is not about bylines, it's about getting the story out and informing the public.

Her journalism future isn't clear, Looney said. She could go to graduate school, continue to work at the Journal or work for a not-for-profit organization.

"I have always dreamed of being a columnist for a large-scale magazine," she said.

Although most of her experience has come from high school, WSU classes gave her more.

In Writing for the Mass Audience, lecturer Laura Kelly challenged her to search for more information in a situation.

Looney is also one of the 19 students who traveled to Greensburg with Professor Les Anderson.

"It was one of the best hands-on experiences I have ever had in my life," she said, and attending was one of the best decisions she's made in her college career.

"She did well considering her lack of experience," Anderson said.

Looney had only taken one writing class at WSU before going to Greensburg.

But after her experiences in both Greensburg and Salina, Anderson said she'll have a better understanding about what she's taught and how to apply it.

"It takes passion to be a reporter and a writer and, even at an early stage, she's showing that," he said.

Participating in the cooperative education program gave Looney the benefit of earning college credit, getting hands-on experience in her major field and earning money.

Looney said without WSU and the opportunities she's been given, she wouldn't be where she is today.

"And I'm only a sophomore," she said. "I have two more years to take advantage of this school and its benefits."

Comer uses coop program at WSU to build her career

Senior Kayla Comer took advantage of the cooperative education program at Wichita State University to begin her career search and discover what opportunities were available to her.

Comer grew up in Thayer, Kan., a small town of 500 people. Her 2005 graduating class of 13 people was the last class to graduate from Thayer High School before the school moved to Cherryvale. She will be the first in her class to complete her bachelor's degree.

Comer was the last valedictorian in Thayer, where she fell in love with accounting and the financial world.

"I think it's interesting how finances work," she said. "I like the idea that I could provide useful financial information to business leaders."

Comer brought her interest in finances to WSU to study accounting at the W. Frank Barton School of Business.

She was involved with Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP, a federally funded program promoting higher education in children and teenagers.

"I saw (KKGU) as a great scholarship opportunity," she said. "It would make it easier for me to complete my degree."

The site coordinator for KKGU, Vic Chavez, said GEAR UP is focused on what a child might need to go to college. The program provides such services as mentoring, tutoring and college preparation and financial aid counseling.

At WSU, Comer said she was able to use the cooperative education program to put her resume "out there" where industries could find her.

"I attended a workshop about resume building," she said. "After that, I posted my resume on the coop Web site."

Comer met with Koch Industries at a career fair and has been an intern at Koch Mineral Services, a child company of Koch Industries, since October 2007. After she graduates, she will accept full-hire status in January 2009.

At Koch, Comer held an operational accounting role within Koch Fertilizer and owned a trading book in Koch Carbon. New employees rotate every six months and move into another position. Comer is in Koch Exploration Co.

Koch Exploration Co. operates gas wells, which require reports to be submitted to both federal and state governments. She is responsible for completing the reports on a monthly basis.

Koch Employees are given mentors to guide them and work with them throughout their process.

"My mentor and I discuss the different roles I have held and future roles, what my strengths and weaknesses are, what I have enjoyed and not enjoyed and where I plan to take my career," Comer said.

She would like to investigate available career opportunities within Koch.

"I love working at Koch Industries," she said. "I enjoy the culture. I think Charles Koch's ideas are very enlightening."

While Comer has been with Koch, she said she has had the opportunity to learn new things.

"I think this is what I enjoy most," she said. "I know that in my career journey, that if I am OK about getting up in the morning and going to work, I have succeeded. I never want to have a job that I dread going to."

Local universities use Wichita's size to prepare students for life after classroom

Wichita State University's method for preparing students for careers in the Wichita area would seem to be an obvious path for success.

Yet nearly 13 years have passed since Connie Dietz, director of WSU's cooperative education and work-based learning office, came to the university. She still sees WSU's career-oriented office well ahead of the curve nationally.

The office helps students who have met specific GPA and credit-hour requirements, and who take part in cooperative education experiences or internships suited to their majors at companies such as Hawker-Beechcraft Corp., Koch Industries Inc. and BKD LLP.

The office also helps with resume design and interview preparation.

"We want kids to get their learning in the classrooms and connect it to actual work within the professional work arena, so they can begin to draw that connection and see how learning it in here applies to a real-world job," Dietz says.

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Aerospace engineering major expands knowledge at NASA

Many college-bound students enter universities without knowing what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Jordan Jensen, however, has chosen and committed to a future career full of discovery as an aerospace engineering major at Wichita State University.

Even in his youth he knew what he wanted to do. Since fifth grade Jensen has been interested in aerospace engineering and flight.

"It's just something that's always been," he said.

Jensen, a sophomore, grew up in Aurora, a small Nebraska town of about 4,200 people. While most students attend college in Lincoln as business majors, Jensen says he's one of very few engineering majors to come out of his hometown. Now, thanks to WSU, he is one of many engineering students given the opportunity to go to NASA.

Scott Miller

Before enrolling, Jensen had two campus meetings at WSU: one with Scott Miller, professor and chair of aerospace, and the other with the mechanical engineering department. He was so enthralled by Miller and what he heard about WSU's aerospace engineering program that he completely blew off his second meeting, and the two talked for an hour.

"He's one of the reasons I came to WSU," Jensen said. "He's a pretty inspiring guy."

Since Jensen has been at WSU, he has been given many opportunities through the cooperative education program. His foremost opportunity was an internship with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., where he expanded on his career goals and his love of flight.

Right now, Jensen works full time with NASA on data analysis, sound testing for aircrafts and the LaNCETS program.

LaNCETS, which stands for "lift and nozzle change effects on tail shocks," is Jensen's current project in which he monitors the engines or nose boom pressure of the aircraft in flight. The experiment involves two F-15s flying in close formation at supersonic speeds. The trailing F-15 has pressure sensors in its nose boom that collect data from the leading aircraft. The goal of the project is to measure the strength of the leading F-15's shock waves.

Being at NASA's Dryden Research Center has also given Jensen the opportunity to go to middle school career days and represent NASA. Jensen is constantly reaching out to kids about his work and the opportunities he has been given.

In fact, back home in Aurora, Jensen volunteers at an aerospace engineering camp where he teaches students grades 4-8 about his work at Dryden and his college studies. The students participate in advanced tasks and experiments, and Jensen gives them timelines and budgets.

He wants to teach kids about aerospace engineering and share with them the "sense of discovery" that comes with everything he does at Dryden. He didn't have to worry about his own career path, and informing others about the options and opportunities out there is one of his goals.

"It was very beneficial to me to know exactly where I wanted to go," he said.

Jensen has been at Dryden since January, and will return to WSU for fall classes.

"I could not be happier with WSU," he said. "The professors are excellent."

Although Jensen has decided his long-term career goals, he hasn't yet chosen where he will implement them. He wants to be involved in flight research and will come back to Wichita to check out the options available such as Boeing and Hawker Beechcraft, but he loves what goes on at Dryden.

Until that time, Jensen will continue to relish in the sense of discovery he experiences every time another planes takes off.

Iorio: Need for teachers not new in nation's history

Our nation is facing a shortage of teachers trained to prepare students for 21st-century careers and to help high-needs students. Interestingly, these challenges are really not so different from those faced throughout our nation's history.

In colonial New England, struggling villages had difficulty keeping their schools open, and when settlement moved west, it was often not easy to find teachers for the one-room schoolhouses that dotted the prairie.

Nevertheless, as early as 1647, Massachusetts law mandated that every town of 50 or more families support an elementary school, and by 1918 compulsory education for elementary school became law in all states. Today children in America enjoy 12 years of free public education. However, overall population increases have contributed to severe teacher shortages in urban and rural schools.

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Graduate owes success to WSU's co-op program

Jenny Farha said she doesn't think anyone is supposed to be in college for 11 semesters, but that's exactly how much time she spent doing co-op while at Wichita State, starting with her first semester of college.

"Co-op literally changed my life," Farha said. "It showed me what I really wanted as a vocation and helped me get comfortable in front of the kids."

Farha said she was terrified the first time she had a small group of kindergarteners by herself and couldn't imagine going into student teaching with that same feeling.

"If you're really serious about teaching, co-op should be a priority," she said. "You can go to class at WSU and learn from books, but until you apply it, you're not ready for the classroom with real students. That's when the real learning takes place."

Farha has a full-time job offer at Price Harris, and through her co-op experiences, already knows some teachers at the school.

"I'm just thrilled I'm a graduate, and it's the greatest feeling in the world," Farha said. "I've never felt so accomplished. I owe it to the co-op program."

Student placements on the rise for WSU co-op office

New 2006-2007 figures released by Wichita State University's Cooperative Education and Work-Based Learning Office show a 3 percent increase in student placements, to 1,371, from the year prior.

That's the highest placement rate ever for the co-op program, which also produced 2,099 credit hours and worked with 484 employers.

Several other figures also rose in 2006-2007.

WSU placed 71 percent of students who actively pursued a co-op or internship, a 5 percent increase.

And more than $5.1 million was earned by students, up $500,000 from 2005-2006.

Based on these strong results, WSU's co-op office was recognized as an exemplary program by the Higher Learning Commission.

"The 2006-2007 academic year was an excellent year for the co-op program," said director Connie Dietz. "It is always exciting when we can provide a greater number of WSU students with real-world, professional work experience before they graduate."

NASA internships, co-op positions prepare students for life outside of college

The Cooperative Education and Work-Based Learning Office at Wichita State University had a landmark year in 2006-2007, increasing the number of student placements to 1,371, its highest ever.

WSU's College of Engineering co-op program – through its relationship with NASA – is a big reason for that growth.

Dozens of students have received co-op positions and internships with NASA. And it's all thanks to WSU's co-op program, which is helping students discover new ways to enhance their education by getting real-life work experience with one of the most prestigious federal agencies in America.

Kyle Carr

"For those students who dream of working at NASA, this is their opportunity to get a name for themselves, build important relationships there and possibly be able to work there full-time once they graduate," said Kyle Carr, coordinator of the College of Engineering's co-op program.

It worked for Alexandros Kanelakos, who graduated from WSU in May 2007 and is now working in the extravehicular activity task group at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Carr said WSU's program is unique because he and other co-op coordinators work at placing students from each department in co-op and internship positions. That doesn't happen, he said, at every university.

"Often students are left to find these positions themselves," he said.

Carr said co-ops and internships are NASA's best way of recruiting future employees. That, he said, in turn becomes a good recruiting tool for WSU's College of Engineering.

"I think it's an extremely important marketing tool for the university," he said. "We have a track record of helping students get there."

'Something everyone should do'

Kanelakos, who completed five semesters of cooperative education at NASA while attending WSU, said one of the main reasons he came to WSU from Topeka was because of its co-op partnership with NASA.

"When I went to Wichita State … I was told to work hard and that I'd get to work at NASA," he said. "I think they really came through on their word."

Kanelakos also said he felt that WSU staff took a special interest in him and his career ambitions.

"It was the personal touch and interest in me as an individual that really attracted me to Wichita State," he said.

Kanelakos said he was lucky, though, to get an internship at NASA on his first try. It isn't usually so easy. Carr said he works with 10 to 15 students a year who want to apply. Most, though, don't actually get in, at least not on the first try.

That was Luke Staab's experience. He wasn't accepted the first time he applied at NASA, so he took a job working at Hawker Beechcraft, meanwhile taking a full load as a student. After his second application, he was accepted.

"A lot of times I'll tell students even if you don't get hired through your first application, next year let's apply again," Carr said.

And once you get that far?

"Fairly often, once you get that internship or co-op position, you get hired full-time if that's the path you want to take," Carr said.

Anne Roemer, who heads the Cooperative Education Program at Johnson Space Center, agreed that students who take those positions often have a bright future ahead of them.

"We've had multiple WSU students who have co-oped and gone on to get full-time job offers," she said.

Another student, Kimber Lemon, went through a 10-week internship with NASA, where she worked on a research project for navigation systems that will be used the next time astronauts land on the moon. She said she learned a lot about what it takes to work there and encourages other students to pursue internships as well.

"They (the co-op office) helped me with everything I needed," she said. "I had never really planned to do an internship. But once I'd done it, I think it's something everyone should do."

NASA offers a co-op position and an internship position. Carr said the co-op position is more sought after because it gives students the option of working there for a total of three semesters.

"It gives the students a wide array of exposure to NASA," he said.

Some students, however, can't commit to three semesters and therefore prefer an internship, which also provides an invaluable experience.

For Kanelakos, the process was all worth it.

"Ever since I was very young I wanted to work here," he said. "NASA was really kind of a career lifetime goal."