Center for Career Development

The mission of the Center for Career Development is to advance personal, educational and professional growth. The Career Center complements The Cooper Union’s academically centered tradition by preparing students to make a successful transition from studying with a distinguished and creative faculty to applying their knowledge and skills to a professional practice. The Career Center facilitates student inquiry into relevant applications of the education they have received at the institution, strengthening The Cooper Union’s historic commitment to science and art.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.