Champion’s Co-op Program

The goal of Champion’s Co-Op / Internship program is to provide future engineers and developers a pathway to gain hands-on experience in the automation industry. Champion selected our first Co-Op in Fall of 2006. In 2012, we formalized our program to ensure a cohesive experience while allowing the Co-Ops to gain college credit. The overall goal is to allow Co-Ops to get exposed to the entire project lifecycle or to develop tools to aid Champion and the Automation teams. Co-Ops can work on various components of project execution, including: 

  • Panel fabrication and hardware checkout 
  • Drawings analysis 
  • Light programming: PLC programming (code snippets/hardware trees) & HMI graphics development 
  • Project documentation 
    • I/O list development 
    • Network block diagrams 
    • AutoCAD drawings 

Co-Ops also use their time to contribute to internal tools and projects, including some listed below: 

  • Original Price Sheet Tool + improvements 
  • Loop Tuning Training System: Water balancing system project 
  • Champion Test Panel Design & Fabrication 
  • Pattern Game for marketing / career fair usage 
  • Demo system design and fabrication 
  • Visio Template Library 
  • I/O List to Drawing Package Export Proof-of-Concept Tool 
  • Many more! 

Since implementing our program, we’ve had over 45 Co-Ops join us for at least one semester before graduation. For the Co-Ops that shine, such as the ones listed below, Champion often makes an offer of a full-time position beginning after graduation.  Thankfully, many of them enjoyed their experience and accepted offers to establish their careers with Champion.  

EngineerOfficeCo-Op in…Full Time in…
Asa Ange LC Fall 2006 & Spring 2007 May 2007 
Chris Kuhlmann LC Spring 2008 January 2009 
Daniel Quebedeaux BR Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014 June 2014  
Bo Hock BR Spring 2015 & Summer 2016 January 2017 
Ben Marler LC Spring 2018 May 2018 
Tyler Stewart BR Summer 2017 & Fall 2018 June 2019  
Tristen Harris LC Summer 2018 & Spring 2019 May 2019  
Collin Brown LC Spring 2019 May 2019 
Jordan Eiland BR Fall 2019 January 2020  
Greg Smith LC Fall 2019 June 2020 
Michael Mason BR Summer & Fall 2018 January 2021 

We asked our former Co-Ops who chose to pursue their careers with Champion to share their perspective on the Co-Op program and their experiences.  

I started with Champion as a Co-Op in 2006. Over the past 14 years, Champion has changed and grown but has always retained the inviting family culture I was introduced to as a Co-Op. Champion has given me the opportunity to participate in various roles and mature in my career along with the company. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with an amazing group of people and to contribute to the success of a great company. The future looks promising for Champion and I look forward continuing the goals and sharing in the success of our upcoming endeavors. 
Overall, the Co-Op position was a great experience that I would recommend to anyone. It gave me invaluable work and real-world experience that helped me confirm that this was an industry that I wanted to pursue as a full-time career. I felt that it really put what I was learning in school into perspective. It also helped me choose electives that would be more relevant to this field when I returned to school. 

The Co-Op position also helped in my career. I gained a lot of experience from my Co-Op that directly helped me when I started full-time. I started full-time with 3 of my classmates from LSU and there was a lot that I already knew that they had to learn from scratch. It helped me take on bigger challenges and responsibilities sooner. 
I have learned a lot working at Champion, including technical skills as well as teamwork skills. I’ve learned how to better communicate about work, and I feel that it will definitely help me in my future career. 

The advice I’d give to future Co-Ops: If you are coming into Champion, keep yourself busy. Usually, you learn the most when you are working. So, if you find yourself idle ask around you might learn something!… Prepare to learn a lot and learn quickly. 
My career has grown since completing my Co-Op with Champion – I completed my first few years in engineering, but I’ve almost fully transitioned to an Estimation role within the company. I was asked if I wanted to give it a shot, and I did since I had thought about moving into a Project Manager role at the time. Now, I’ve seen over 300 quotes, dealt with several material vendors, and learned so much about the money side of this business.

My advice to new Co-Ops is to ask questions about what the engineers are doing. Most Co-Ops typically can’t jump right into programming on a PLC or DCS, but if you’re working on smaller items like graphics and panels, or setting up for an FAT, feel free to ask questions about the engineering side of things. I only spent part of my Co-Op programming, but during my entire Co-Op I was observing what the engineers were doing at the time, and that made me want to join Champion.  

We appreciate all the Co-Ops-turned-full-time-Champions. Thank you for your commitment to Technical Excellence and making the most of your experiences! 

If you know any talented and capable engineers who may be interested in Champion’s Co-Op/Internship program, talk to them about our open Co-Op position and let Laurie know!