The College of Engineering at Ohio Northern University is guided by a straightforward but ambitious purpose: to give all students access to great careers and flourishing lives. Its mission centers on engaging students through personal relationships and remarkable opportunities, and its current initiative puts that mission into action by expanding the number of immersive learning experiences available to engineering students.

ONU is designing a pilot project that investigates what makes off-campus immersive experiences truly life-transformative — examining factors like duration, curricular alignment, focus, and group size. Students engage in structured reflection both during and after their experiences to reinforce meaningful connections to their studies, their peers, their faculty, and their broader sense of purpose. The initiative also formally centralizes and promotes the high-impact opportunities already available at ONU, including co-ops, study abroad, and engineering competition teams, with the goal of strengthening recruitment, retention, and career preparation simultaneously. The results to date speak for themselves: ONU consistently ranks among the top institutions in Ohio and the nation for graduate placement rates and return on investment, and last year nearly 90% of graduating engineering students had completed at least one meaningful immersive experience. The goal is to reach 100%.