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From ground floor to thriving campus: Gina Copping’s journey in Seattle

Copping was Northeastern’s second hire in Seattle, which has grown to serve 1,300 full-time in-person graduate students.

Portrait of Gina Copping.
“This was a chance to help bring the first private top-tier research university to Seattle,” Gina Copping says. Courtesy photo

Gina Copping had come home from London in 2012 with a newly earned master’s in comparative education. She was planning to return to the U.K. to pursue a Ph.D. when she was approached with an unanticipated opportunity.

Northeastern University was launching a campus in her hometown Seattle. Would she like to be in on the ground floor of the new venture?

“This was a chance to help bring the first private top-tier research university to Seattle,” Copping says. “And we had the backing of this century-old institution that could support us with all its resources and brilliance.”

Copping became the second employee hired at Northeastern University-Seattle in charge of admissions recruitment and student services. Twelve years later she is director of program development for the thriving campus, which has grown to serve 1,300 full-time in-person graduate students from its initial enrollment of 98.

“We have always had such positive support from our leadership,” Copping says of Northeastern. “It has always felt like a ‘yes’ space. Should we try this? Could we do this? And the leadership says, ‘Yes, try that. Do that.’ “It’s just been a really positive work environment and I think that’s how we’ve been able to get such great things done,” adds Copping, who along the way has married and had three children.

Copping spoke recently with Northeastern Global News about her evolving role as well as the campus’ growing partnerships within the Seattle community. Her comments have been edited for brevity.

How surprised were you by the Northeastern opportunity in Seattle?

The campus was just being formulated. What was really exciting to me is this concept of starting a university space from nothing — building something that was brand new. 

Northeastern really helped us with the concepts — but at the same time let it flow to become what Seattle’s campus needed to be for the region, for the Seattle area. That helped us to identify where there were gaps and voids so that we could use the power of higher-ed to build something that has been very inspiring to me as a local Seattleite.

What was your role in those early days?

We started as a team of five. My role was everything that touched the student experience, from recruitment to student services, including orientation and graduation. I was the main point of contact.

I developed the Student Affairs Department here in Seattle and then also worked on alumni engagement. I found it very rewarding to work with the students in those ways. I loved it.

What had been your career plan before you received the opportunity from Northeastern?

I think within three days of each other, I received my Ph.D. program acceptance in London and then this job offer.

My goal at that time was to work with students and leverage their international experiences. I’d had such a wonderful time studying abroad and I was passionate about enabling students to have those kinds of experiences through higher ed.

When we received approval to sponsor F-1 (student) visas, the international applications came flooding in. There was such an interest for international students to be here in Seattle and to be part of Northeastern, and so my job then morphed into working closely with international students, which had always been my goal.

You’ve been director of program development for four years. What does that entail?

I get to continue creating new programs for our students. The main thing I’ve been working on for the last couple of years are undergraduate Semester In and Summer In programs where we get to bring students within Northeastern to come and spend a semester studying with us here in Seattle.The programs are theme-based and interactive with industry, so students get to learn about their interest area through site visits, alumni panels, project-based courses and such. I love getting to introduce our students to the Seattle area via industry connections, and equally enjoy taking them to the Space Needle and Pike Place Market.

What is the best part of your day?

It’s when we make strong industry connections that benefit our students in support of our mission. In the past year we’ve been able to engage with more than 200 partner organizations to provide opportunities for our students. Students usually love the big names, but are often as inspired by companies they may have never otherwise learned about.

How old are your three kids?

They’re all a year-and-a-half apart and the oldest just started kindergarten. The two littlest go to preschool.

Life at home is fun, it’s wild. I love that they know I work in education. When they’re going to school, they know I’m going to school too.

Do you have a favorite lunch spot near campus?

There’s a nice street-food Vietnamese restaurant called Ba Bar. I like the mixed vermicelli bowl there. 

Our campus is in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. When we started here, it was pretty much just the global headquarters for Amazon and AWS around us. 

As we’ve grown, so has the space around us with different restaurant options and a much greater flow of people. Ba Bar hasn’t been here as long as us, but I have a lot of nice memories from eating there over the years.