The Beauty of the Drexel Co-op Highlighted in Annual Photo Contest

Every year, Drexel University’s Steinbright Career Development Center holds a photo contest for students to submit pictures of themselves on co-op. And every year, the photos that take the top prizes show snapshots of the varied — and beautiful — ways that Dragons gain real-world experiences outside of the classroom. This year’s crop of winning photos is no exception.

As always, co-op students are encouraged to submit a picture that best represents their experiences both “@Work” and “@Play.” This year, Steinbright received over 100 photo submissions, with a panel of University judges taking on the arduous task of narrowing the field to the top 5 finalists in each category. The entire Drexel community then voted on the photos — and the winning photos that gained the most votes were announced April 10.

DrexelNow rounded up the top three photos in each category, which are posted below.

@PLAY CATEGORY WINNERS

Third Place:

Let’s Boogie — David Kassie (computer science)

Second Place:

Awe Inspiring Sa Pa — Jessica Fritz (environmental studies)

First Place:

What Are You Looking At? — Coralie-Michele Francois (biology)

@WORK CATEGORY WINNERS

Third Place:

Typical Day at Google — Samuella Takyi-Buachie (financing and marketing)

Second Place:

GOES-R Satellite Launch — Matthew Wiese (mechanical engineering)

First Place:

Newport Bridge Cable Walk — Tim Browne (mechanical engineering)

And because every picture tells a thousand words, here's some more detail on what's happening in that top "@Work" photo:

"I worked for WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff in their New York office, but sometimes got to travel to different projects in the Northeast region to collect field data and help oversee project operations," said Browne. "On the day that the picture was taken, we were conducting a bridge inspection on the Newport Bridge in Rhode Island, which mostly required us to walk along the underside of the bridge, checking for things such as corrosion and paint chipping that could lead to more serious structural issues. The exciting part came when we had the opportunity to join a guy who worked for the Bridge Authority on a cable walk to see how they change the signals and lights at the top of the bridge. So we strapped on some harnesses and walked along the cable, 400 feet up, and got the privilege of taking in the beautiful view you see in the picture. Was it scary? A bit, the cable was only about a foot in diameter and it was a bit dewey that morning, so things were a bit slicker than I would have liked. Combined with the cars honking at us as we made our way up, it certainly made things interesting."

About the Drexel Co-op program: More than 98 percent of eligible undergraduate students at Drexel participate in the co-op program, balancing full-time classes and up to three different professional work experiences during their time at Drexel. In the 2015 academic year, students worked with more than 1,700 employers in 33 states and 48 international locations.