{"id":4578,"date":"2019-10-14T22:07:19","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T02:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2019-10-14T22:13:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T02:13:45","slug":"shaun-some-thoughts-on-and-from-a-co-op","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2019\/10\/14\/shaun-some-thoughts-on-and-from-a-co-op\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun: Some thoughts on, and from, a co-op"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know what you\u2019re thinking \u2014 aren\u2019t co-ops a Northeastern thing? If I had wanted to take a semester off of classes to go work, wouldn\u2019t I have gone to school on the E Line, not on the B Line?<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe, but hear me out when I say that, even for a BU student, a co-op can be a fantastic experience and a great way to break up the rhythm of classes. I\u2019m doing a co-op this semester at <\/span>The Patriot Ledger<\/span><\/i><\/a>, a daily newspaper based in Quincy, Mass. that covers about 30 cities and towns south of Boston. That means I\u2019m not taking any classes; instead, I commute to and from an office each workday like a (semi) adult. I still live on campus and eat in the dining halls, but I haven\u2019t done a lick of schoolwork since May.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m really happy that I chose to do a co-op, and while I know it’s an uncommon thing for a BU student to do, it\u2019s something I would suggest considering if you have the space in your schedule. Many COM students will have that space, I\u2019ve found, and it\u2019s an experience that can show you firsthand what a future career could look like on a daily basis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luckily, I still like what I\u2019m doing \u2014 print journalism \u2014 after almost five months of doing it for 40+ hours a week. That\u2019s the big risk you take with a co-op. It\u2019s a bigger commitment than most internships are, so if you hate it, you\u2019re kind of stuck for the long haul. But if you love it, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any better way to get real-world experience in your field as an undergraduate student.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also found that my co-op is a nice break from the rhythm of classes and, especially, exams. I know it\u2019s midterm season on campus because my friends are busy studying, but for me, it\u2019s just been like any other couple weeks. In fact, I\u2019ve almost found my life has more<\/em> structure nowadays than it did at any point before in my college career. I wake up at the same time, eat at the same time, commute at the same time and get home at the same time every weekday.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I think that when the time comes, I\u2019ll be more than ready to get back into that full-on college student rhythm.\u00a0<\/span>So yes, I know we don’t go to Northeastern. I know ours is the B Line, not the E. But consider a co-op, anyway!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know what you\u2019re thinking \u2014 aren\u2019t co-ops a Northeastern thing? If I had wanted to take a semester off of classes to go work, wouldn\u2019t I have gone to school on the E Line, not on the B Line? Maybe, but hear me out when I say that, even for a BU student, a … Continue reading Shaun: Some thoughts on, and from, a co-op<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44502],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4582,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions\/4582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}