The Dean Herman Schneider Award

CEIA recognizes distinguished achievement and excellence by annually recognizing educators and employers who have excelled or made significant impact in work-integrated learning.

Previous Achievement and Excellence Award winners can be viewed online.

The Dean Herman Schneider Award (Educator)

Instituted in 1965 for an educator from faculty or administration, CEIA presents this award for a significant and comprehensive record of contributions for the advancement of the philosophy and practice of cooperative education or internships over a sustained period of time.

Named for Herman Schneider who was Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (1906-28) and President of the University (l929-32), Schneider made a unique contribution to higher education, when in 1906, he founded the first program of cooperative education in the United States. Over his years Schneider addressed many industry groups about his plan, arbitrated disputes, published widely, and designed co-op programs for other schools, including the New York Public School System.

Schneider demonstrated a tremendous ability to balance opposites; in this case tempering his idealism with pragmatism, as reflected in his following comment on the co-op system, “It is not held, of course, that this method of training will supply full-fledged engineers, aged twenty three years; but it is believed that it will provide a better preparation, a stronger foundation, for the successful practice of engineering.”