Co-Ops & Internships

At Widener, your inside track to a successful career will be paved with outside-the-classroom, real-world experiences – the kind that will set you apart from the crowd.

Education into Action

Our acclaimed co-op program and emphasis on internships will transform your powerful Widener education into action, helping you gain the experiences, connections, and career-building moments that will benefit you for a lifetime.

Co-Op: Work for a Year, Graduate on Time

Our signature co-op program, coordinated through our Office of Career Design and Development, provides business, engineering, and computer science students with real-world work experience before graduation.

Co-op is offered in both a 4-month and 8-month format. Depending on your program, you can choose to do both, thus gaining up to one year of paid work experience with a top company. And the best part, you can still graduate on time, within four years.

My opportunity at Comcast would not have been possible without Widener’s co-op program. This experience has not only helped me build numerous connections within the company, but it has also helped me understand what corporate life is all about. The co-op program helps differentiate yourself from other applicants when applying for a job as employers see that you have experience, especially from a tech giant company like Comcast. — Mathew Thomas '21, accounting

Internships

It’s never too early to start getting real-world work experience. As a Widener student, we encourage you to get an internship as early as freshman year. And when it comes to finding one, we’ve got you covered. Internships are coordinated through academic departments, and your professors, career advisors, and others on campus have an extensive network of local, regional, and national partners to help you find and secure a position that fits your professional aspirations.

And there are tons of internship opportunities being this close to Philadelphia. Just ask Danielle Cardona '18, a communication studies major who had five internships in broadcasting, which helped her land her first job with the Philadelphia Eagles.

To being able to start here, go toward my internships, and then take everything and put it toward a big NFL team, has been phenomenal. — Danielle Cardona ’18

Measured. Results.

Explore Our Co-Op Program

Co-op is full-time, paid work experience relevant to your major. Our co-op program has a wide network of employers across the Philadelphia region and beyond, so you can work for some top organizations. Some students have gone as far as California for their co-op experience. And many employers extend full-time job offers to co-op students after graduation.

You can choose to participate in 4- or 8-month co-op cycles. Engineering and business majors can choose a combination of both to gain up to 12 months of work experience. Computer science majors can select either a 4-month or 8-month co-op. You have the flexibility to create your own co-op schedule. The table below offers a suggested schedule, depending on the academic year you choose to work:

	Summer	Fall	Spring
Freshman		Study	Study
Sophomore	Study	Work	Study
Junior	Study	Study	Work
Senior	Work	Study	Study

While on co-op you do not pay tuition. You can choose to live on campus, at home, or even travel for co-op.

We offer a summer-long professional development series before your first co-op that teaches everything from industry-level Excel training to perfecting those all-important oral and written communication skills.

Employer's Guide to Co-Op

For more than 30 years, our students have partnered with employers as part of our flexible, supportive co-op program. Widener students are career-ready and well-prepared to make meaningful contributions to any organization. And our professional staff provides support for employers and students throughout the co-op process.

Hire Widener

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Pride Perspectives

Hear from our students about their co-ops and internships.

This program gave me the protocol to follow and has taught me how to be a great ultrasound technician. This is the stepping stone to get me there.

Danielle Laskowski

Danielle's Story

“I feel like if I went to a bigger school I wouldn’t have been able to, or felt comfortable enough to, interact with the professors the way I did at Widener.”

Kevin Brown

Kevin's Story

Widener has helped me take my academics and what I’ve learned in classes and apply it not just in the Chester community, but to the whole world in general.

Hannah Berard

Hannah's Story

Female student in a lab coat with goggles on conducting research

Widener helped me to gain a deeper appreciation for science, fall in love with the brain, and to learn what it was like to work in a high-powered, fast-moving academic setting.

Juliette DiFlumeri

Juliette's Story

I knew that coming to Widener would mean opportunities to meet speakers working in the industry. And, I know that when the time comes, I will be able to turn to them to help find a job.