International Co-op Work Experiences Provide Student's Future Design Direction

UC co-op work experiences in Iceland and Italy have provided fashion design student Andrea Sisson with a new direction for her coming career.

Andrea Sisson
DAAP's Andrea Sisson, at right, in her unexpected role as a waitress in a production of "La Boheme" in Italy. It was an experience made possible for Sisson thanks to UC's co-op program.
While on a University of Cincinnati summer co-op experience in Italy doing costume work, fashion design student Andrea Sisson also had the chance to go on stage to play the part of a waitress in the second act of a stage production of "La Boheme."

And while she played the part of a service provider on stage, Sisson has also seen to it that her work experiences in Lucca, Italy, and in Reykjavik, Iceland, have both served her well when it comes to her career goals.

Sisson, 22, of Western Hills, just completed her latest UC cooperative education work experience in Iceland in the summer of 2009, working with noted designer Sruli Recht. She will return to work for him during her final co-op quarter in the winter of 2010 and hopes to return to Iceland for an extended stay after graduating in June 2010.

(Cooperative education or co-op as it is called is the practice wherein students alternate quarters or semesters in the classroom with quarters or semesters of professional, paid work related directly to their majors. Design majors at UC generally graduate with about 18 months of professional experience on their resumes. Co-op had its global founding at UC in 1906, and the university's co-op program is ranked in the nation's Top Ten by U.S. News & World Report.)
Andrea Sisson
DAAP's Andrea Sisson in Iceland while on a recent UC co-op quarter in that country.

In working with Recht, UC's Sisson explained that the best part was having a mentor who shares her design ethos: "I want to go back and work with Sruli in Iceland after graduation. I have such respect for him as a designer. This is what I want to be doing. Designing for a reason, solving problems, working in collaborations with other creative people from the fields of music, film and dance. The energy is Reykjavik is spectacular. Recht told me at the end of the summer co-op quarter that I had made myself indispensible, and I really consider this co-op has having been the true beginning of my career."

Sisson likewise seems to have made herself indispensible during an international co-op work experience in summer 2008 in Lucca, Italy. While there, Sisson did technical costume work for UC performers in the five-week Opera Theatre and Music Festival in the Tuscan city of Lucca. She was also unexpectedly chosen for a small stage role.

"The director chose me to be a clumsy waitress in the second act of Puccini's 'La Boheme.' I had to fall and spill wine. As a former dancer, I was not unused to performing, and I did joke that the clumsy waitress role was something quite natural for me," she recalled.

As with her work in Iceland, Sisson appreciated the diversity of opportunity in the theater production in Italy. She explained, "I like to do a variety of things. When they needed someone to build sets in the theater, I volunteered for that. Then, there was the costume work and the acting role. As a designer, I want to design. While I'm in a fashion design program and that has been my medium so far, a designer can design, period. So, I'm interested in designing products and moving into other media and materials."
Andrea Sisson
A view of the countryside in Iceland.

If able to work in Iceland with Recht after graduation, Sisson is interested in an entrepreneurial focus on materials research, new technology and sustainability.

But before that time, she will be displaying some of her most recent work at a store and design co-op in the Brighton district of Cincinnati. The store, The Brush Factory, is planning a near-term opening by the end of the coming winter. It will provide an opportunity for young designers - many of them students and alumni from UC's internationally ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) - to display and sell work.
Design by Andrea Sisson
One of Sisson's designs: a Violin Suit specifically for a violinist's needs emotionally, functionally and physically.

Sisson plans to exhibit and sell hand-knit "neck cuffs" made of Icelandic wool.

She stated, "They're not quite scarfs, as they're not that long. I began knitting them while in Iceland because everyone there knits as a form of relaxation. So, I picked up the habit too, and I have come to rely on it as a relaxing pastime."

So, another experience that is serving her well.