From Loveland to UC: Local Student Finds Her Calling Through Co-Op Experiences

2 days ago

4 min read

Grace Nunn is using real-world design experiences to build a career focused on people, accessibility and problem-solving

For Loveland native Grace Nunn, college has been about more than earning a degree. It has been an opportunity to discover how she can use creativity to make everyday experiences better for other people.

Nunn, a fifth-year communication design major at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), has already completed four co-op experiences with Cincinnati-area organizations. She recently began a fifth with Procter & Gamble’s Home Care design team.

Along the way, she has worked on everything from environmental graphics and signage to healthcare, insurance literacy and research into how people interact with everyday products and services.

The experiences have helped shape the kind of designer Nunn wants to become.

“I thought it was interesting because it is more about how your design will benefit people and make their experience more accessible,” Nunn said of discovering UC’s communication design program. “I thought it would make me feel even more passionate about my work.”

A Loveland Student at UC

Nunn's connection to UC began well before she arrived on campus. Her mother is also a UC graduate, and the university's nationally recognized co-op program was one of the factors that attracted Nunn to the school.

The co-op program allows UC students to gain professional experience while completing their degrees, giving students an opportunity to explore potential careers before graduation.

Nunn has taken full advantage of that opportunity. She has completed two co-ops with NELSON Worldwide, a global architectural and interior design firm based in Cincinnati, and two with the Live Well Collaborative, a human-centered design studio founded by UC and Procter & Gamble. Rather than looking for four similar experiences, Nunn deliberately wanted each co-op to expose her to a different side of design.

“That was a totally different realm of design, and it was interesting,” Nunn said of her work with NELSON. “I wanted all of my co-op experiences to be different. That’s the hope — that you get a chance to learn about a bunch of different things.”

At NELSON, she worked as an environmental graphic designer, producing wayfinding, signage and graphic wallcoverings.

Her work with Live Well took her in a different direction.

Designing Around Real People

Live Well brings UC students, faculty and industry partners together to develop human-centered solutions designed to improve people's experiences and well-being.

Nunn worked on projects involving the Council on Aging, Cincinnati Children’s Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute and Procter & Gamble. The work included helping develop tools for an app prototype designed to improve patient insurance literacy at Cincinnati Children’s.

At the Council on Aging, she helped create a touchpoint journey map and service blueprints that led the project team to identify possible interventions for the Elderly Services Program billing system.

Another project involved researching laundry habits among particular populations and identifying opportunities to develop solutions based on what users actually needed.

For Nunn, those experiences reinforced one of the most important lessons of her education: good design starts with understanding people.

“Each focused on designing for specific audiences and played a key role in shaping my design approach,” Nunn said. “It is all about research, which is a fundamental part of communication design.”

Linda Dunseath, executive director and chief operating officer of the Live Well Collaborative, said Nunn brought both creativity and empathy to her work.

“Grace is truly a rock star,” Dunseath said. “She has a natural ability to build meaningful relationships with the individuals she works with, driven by her genuine desire to help and make a difference.”

Dunseath said Nunn's compassion, initiative and commitment to others helped her quickly earn the trust and respect of those around her.

Five Co-Ops and Counting

Nunn's latest experience began this month with Procter & Gamble's Home Care design team. Her work continues to center on accessibility, clarity and making sure perspectives that might otherwise be overlooked are represented in the design process. For Nunn, the professional experience is one of the biggest advantages of UC's co-op program.

“I would always recommend a co-op for students,” she said. “You get professional experience you might not have otherwise until after graduation.”

Nunn points to a common challenge facing recent college graduates: employers frequently ask entry-level applicants to have previous professional experience.

“A lot of companies ask for two years of experience for entry-level jobs, and many students leaving college don’t have that,” she said. “At UC, a lot of students do get that experience because they have had co-ops. It’s an extra step up.”

Finding the Right Path

Nunn initially wasn't sure whether she wanted to pursue fine arts or communication design. That changed when she began exploring UC's programs.

“I went on UC’s website and started scrolling,” Nunn said. “I saw communication design.”

The program appealed to her because it connected creativity with a larger purpose. Rather than simply creating something visually appealing, Nunn was drawn to the idea that design could help people navigate the world more easily and make experiences more accessible. That philosophy has now followed her through four co-ops and into her fifth.

A Bearcat Making an Impact

Nunn's involvement at UC extends beyond the classroom and workplace.

She is a Cincinnatus Scholar, a member of UC's Mortar Board and Cincinnatus Honorary Societies, and is active in undergraduate student government and the Programs & Activities Council. She also ran for student body president in the spring. Although she was unsuccessful in that campaign, she now serves as chief of staff for current student body president Wilaini Alicea.

UC's co-op program has become a significant part of the university experience for students like Nunn. More than 9,600 UC students participate in co-op, with more than 1,700 employer partners. Students collectively report more than $99.5 million in co-op earnings, with an average reported salary of $13,130 per student per semester.

The program is ranked among the top five university co-op programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

For Nunn, however, the most important return on those experiences may not be measured in dollars. Her co-ops have given her the chance to try different types of design, work with professionals, conduct research and, perhaps most importantly, learn what kind of designer she wants to be.

For this Loveland native, the answer is increasingly clear: she wants to create things that work for people.