The Duke Co-op Advantage

Most engineering graduate students are familiar with the traditional internship: a two-to-three-month window to apply classroom knowledge in a professional setting. But what if you could step into a full-time role, lead meaningful projects and build the foundation of a high-impact career, all while completing your degree?

That is precisely what the Duke Pratt School of Engineering offers through its flagship Co-operative Education Program.

Created for professional master’s students seeking immersive work experiences, the co-op program enables students to take on full-time industry roles during the summer or the academic year while remaining enrolled at Duke. Since its launch in fall 2024, the program has quickly become a defining feature of the Duke Engineering graduate experience.

A Strategic Career Investment

A co-op at Duke Engineering is an opportunity for master’s students to embed themselves within a professional team, take genuine ownership of projects, and develop the kind of depth and credibility that sets them apart in a competitive global job market. Where a summer internship offers a glimpse into industry, a co-op gives students a seat at the table.

Master’s students take an active role in securing their own co-op positions, which is a deliberate design choice that empowers them to pursue the organizations and industries where they are most excited to grow. With the support of Duke’s resources and reputation behind them, students are well-positioned to land a role that sets them up for long-term success.

“The co-op experience was extremely valuable for me to understand what position I’m actually interested in,” shared Kol Rollins, a biomedical engineering master’s student in his second year, who completed his co-op at Anthrex in Naples, Florida. “I served in a biomechanical research position, but my experience made me realize that I was actually interested in product management.”

Rollins will now be looking for a product management role after graduation.

“My co-op experience really grew me as a leader because it allowed me to take initiative and learn how to speak with managers and people that I’m managing effectively,” he added.

Rollin’s experience is a testament to what co-op is designed to deliver, which includes the clarity, confidence and leadership skills to pursue a career with purpose.

“Because of the rapid rate of change of technology, all organizations are changing how they
function,” said Pat Gunsch, executive director of Duke’s Master of Engineering Management program. “The fact that we have students who are learning how to adapt and evolve and help their companies adapt and evolve as well is really an appealing prospect for those companies, and it allows our students to have a significant impact.”

“For industry folks, it’s a really great way for them to get to know our students,” added Sara Oliver, executive director of Duke’s Climate and Sustainability Engineering master’s program. “They get to have an extended, deeper experience with our students ahead of potentially hiring them full-time.”

Learning by Doing

Applying technical and design skills to solve real-world challenges at leading organizations helps professional master’s students bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice.

“Duke prepared me very well for my co-op,” said Hrishikesh Deshpande, a master’s student in engineering management, who worked on Toshiba’s global commerce solutions team. “All of the classes that I took, including design thinking and project management, set a good foundation for understanding how teams work and how to operate in cross-functional collaborative environments, and also how to think about how to build user-centric products to help the organization add a lot of value.”

To help students succeed during their co-op experience, they can lean on faculty advisors and the Graduate Student Programs and Services (GSPS) team to support them throughout their journey.  

“Having the academic pathway that allows students to work full-time in the fall and spring semesters—and even summer—gives them that opportunity to take advantage of some of these great opportunities that they’re securing,” shared Joe Kelly, who serves as the senior program coordinator for the co-op program. “It allows them to engage in these high-impact experiences with some of the top companies in the world.”

That real-world engagement doesn’t exist in isolation from the academic experience, but actively strengthens it when students return to campus. The co-op program is intentionally structured so that what students learn in the field flows back into the classroom, creating a continuous loop between theory and practice that sharpens both their professional instincts and academic growth.

“Students who have the co-op experience can come back into the classroom and know how the concepts apply in the workplace,” said Gunsch. “As professionals, we know that experience matters, so having the opportunity to get that additional work experience while still a student and then to be able to apply that to continue learning as they finish up their degrees is a very powerful combination.”

Where Professionals Are Made

The co-op program is also designed to develop the kind of professional instincts that only come from being in the room where decisions are made.

“Co-op helped me grow as a professional by building a sense of ownership,” said Priyanka Maanya, an engineering management master’s student who completed her co-op with NetApp. “It meant having to build a solution that I wanted to build and reaching out to the people I wanted to work with rather someone telling me to do something.”

For Maanya, that ownership over her projects extended beyond her immediate team. Stepping into a client-facing environment pushed her to think differently.

“When I went to industry, I saw how talking to customers really mattered, so I could understand what their real pain points were. It allowed me to get a whole different perspective about the product so I could dive into the problem directly.”

“You’re learning these great concepts when you’re in the classroom, but then to go out and put it to practice with clients is a complete game changer,” said Kelly. “That’s the biggest thing that we’ve heard from students, is how much they’ve learned from those interactions. It has a profound impact on an organization and its stakeholders.”

In just 18 months since its launch, the co-op program has grown tenfold in student participation and expanded to include 79 employer partners, which is a remarkable trajectory that program leaders say is only the beginning.

“I think Duke has the opportunity to really focus on partnering with the types of companies that are looking for leaders in different roles,” said Mike Lynch, director of master’s studies in biomedical engineering. And I think the students who are attracted to Duke, especially the ones that are industry-bound, really want that sort of next step. So they want to be industry leaders. They want to be taking off with their careers.”

For master’s students ready to go beyond the traditional internship, the co-op program offers something rare: the opportunity to do meaningful work, grow as a leader, and enter the job market not just with a degree, but with a proven track record of their resilience and what they can achieve.

“I think the ability to overcome and fail is a part of any organization and company that you’re going to be in, and co-op is no different,” added Kelly. “Being able to learn that now is an experience that’s going to set our students up for success five months from now, a year from now, and throughout the rest of their lives.”