After spending the majority of her life in Chicago, Eleanor Sandford decided to attend school outside of Illinois to pursue a degree in Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati. While the decision to attend school out-of-state required serious consideration, UC’s Industrial Design program spiked Sandford’s interest.
“UC was the perfect fit and there was no way I could disregard DAAP,” said Sandford. “At the time of my visit to UC, I think the Industrial Design program was ranked second.”
As an Industrial Design Student at UC, Sandford has had the ability to co-op at various companies nationwide. She has co-oped for Burton Snowboards in Vermont working on surf boards for the surf team and Hasbro Toys where she designed toys. This past summer she had the opportunity to return to Chicago to work for Wrigley.
“I really enjoyed working at Wrigley and had the opportunity to work on packaging design with different kinds of packaging design,” Sandford said. “Industrial Design is a really broad term that can deal with anything ranging from packaging to car design so it is an interesting field.”
Like many students, Sandford’s co-op provided her with an invaluable experience that will propel her into her future career. Sandford explained that co-op helped her develop a good breadth of understanding of the Industrial Design industry and gave her an understanding of how things worked and functioned in a corporate setting.
For many students, co-op gives students more than work experience. Sandford’s co-op opportunities enabled her to travel around the nation and meet and collaborate with people from different universities.
“When I look back on my experience, I have really grown up and not just from my experiences from co-op and at school. I’ve had to learn about how sublets work and live on my own,” Sandford explained. “All of these experiences have been beneficial to me.”
Sandford plans to graduate in June 2011 and will look for an Industrial Design job.
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