My Co-op Gig: Chandler Nauta

Through the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences, students can participate in cooperative (co-op) education programs that alternate a period of academic study with full-time employment relating to their degree field. Computer science student Chandler Nauta recently took advantage of this offering, working as a software engineer for Northwell Health.

Citing “the unique opportunity to work at a company for an extended duration compared to a standard two- to three-month internship,” Nauta jumped at the chance to secure co-op employment. “I would be able to deeply contribute to a team and leave a more tangible impact on the company.”

The experience at Northwell was all he had anticipated and more—from January through June, Nauta was responsible for developing and engineering several projects. His first job involved building a monitoring system capable of scanning an internal platform of more than 100,000 user chats. The system identifies compliance keywords and then generates automated alerts for moderators. Originally built for a single internal community, Nauta re-engineered the system to scale across all internal communication communities.

Other projects included engineering a chatbot, creating reusable coding components, and developing professional documentation for new intranet changes and how they impact communication.

An aspiring software engineer, Nauta says his time with Northwell aligned exceptionally well with his career goals, providing him with valuable experience working in a front-end, development-focused role. He also credits the six months with bolstering his professional skills in a corporate environment. But above all, he learned the value of asking questions.

“I felt completely lost and quite intimidated,” Nauta says of his first two weeks at his co-op. But the early challenges empowered him to step out of his comfort zone, speak up, and connect with others both on his team and companywide. “My initial struggle ultimately led the to the incredibly great and impactful time I had at Northwell.”

As he navigated his daily schedules—some days coding and debugging projects, others spent in team meetings—Nauta’s passion for software engineering was fueled. Taking on assignments, learning new technologies, and growing his skillset all served as reminders of technology’s possibilities.

He reflects, “Working for a company dedicated to helping people and making a positive impact has given me a profound perspective on the immense good that technology can achieve.”