Harrison Bradley (‘13) attends Drexel College in Philadelphia, where he is immersing himself not only in the classroom, but also in the workplace. One of the basic tenants of Drexel is that every student should acquire real world work experience before graduating in order to gain a fully comprehensive education. For most students, this means completing three six-month long cooperative education experiences in their chosen field.
Harrison’s first co-op was with Drexel itself in their electrical and computer engineering department, where he assisted with the teaching labs and various tasks the professors assigned him.
For his second co-op, Harrison searched for an international opportunity that would meet Drexel’s requirements as well as satisfy his desire to study abroad. Harrison found the perfect combination with Bosch, a German multinational engineering and electronics company, at their research campus in Renningen, a small town located outside of Stuttgart, Germany. At Bosch, Harrison performed experiments for their thin film coatings division, which creates coatings for applications such as saw blades and injection nozzles.
While working in Germany for six months, Harrison found time for sight-seeing, even though his internship technically did not provide him any vacation days.
“I took a couple of weekend trips, or I would save up overtime and go on longer excursions,” Harrison said. “At the end of my internship I had about a week before I had to fly home, so I spent the entire week traveling around Germany.”
Cities he visited included Nuremberg, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven, Leipzig, Berlin, Cologne, Obsterdorf, and Strasbourg.
One of the most surprising cultural revelations to Harrison was the vast number of people in Germany that speak fluent English. While the reduced language barrier made living and working in Germany much easier, not being proficient in the German language still provided some minor frustrations, such as occasional miscommunications in food ordering and when shopping for specific items.
Harrison still has two years left at Drexel along with one more co-op, which began with WB Engineering in Rockville, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. in mid-September 2016.