Cody Kenny

MECOP/CECOP interns gain practical experience at Evergreen

By Cody Kenny, Principal

How many of you have heard about MECOP or CECOP and wondered what it means?

The Multiple Engineering Co-Op Program (MECOP) started 40 years ago when Boeing, Tektronix, Freightliner and a few other companies approached Oregon State University and told them that their graduates “had book knowledge, no practical experience, and that they were useless when they graduated.” Maybe we are overstating it, but you get the picture. The companies wanted to partner with OSU to offer an option for students to go on two paid six-month internships (one their junior year and one their senior year) with two different companies.

This year, we have three MECOP/CECOP interns at Evergreen:
David Stone, OSU – Mechanical. Erik Lasher, mentor.
Cole Thomas, OSU – Mechanical. Jason McLaughlin, mentor.
Corey Groshong, OSU – Civil. Matt Kessler, mentor.

The inception of MECOP began in 1978. In 1980, the first seven Manufacturing Engineering students from OSU were placed during that first internship cycle at seven MECOP companies. The program has grown over the last 40 years to also include students from PSU, Oregon Tech, and the University of Portland. This year, more than 700 students were placed on six-month paid internships with the 100+ MECOP companies in the program.

CECOP is a branch of MECOP. CECOP was launched in 1998 and in 1999 placed seven Civil Engineering students in seven CECOP companies (I was one of them). Today CECOP has 40+ companies participating. Civil Engineering interns typically go to work for consultants, contractors, and public agencies, in addition to Environmental Engineering, Surveying and GIS. This year, CECOP placed more than 100 students.

This is the seventh year Evergreen has participated in the MECOP program. Erik Lasher was our first intern in 2013 and we have had a total of 19 interns and seven mentors. Other MECOP alumni at EEI include Cody Cowdin, Robin Schmidt, Jorge Hernandez, and Barry Reichelderfer. I’m proud to be serving as the Chair of the CECOP program and on the MECOP Board of Directors for the 2019/2020 year.

If you’re interested in finding out more, check out the MECOP website.