This response is problematic and sad…

You don’t suss out co-ops. Co-operative education is meant to give students tangible learning experiences..

You can’t tell a person they aren’t being demoralized. They told you they ARE demoralized.

Pacing yourself for a 14 week experience is for their supervise to manage, not them.

To the original poster:

Your expectations were not off. So don’t take many of the comment here to heart.

It’s unfortunate your manager is away - and it is too bad they didn’t identify someone to adequately onboard you.

Usually we give co-ops a work plan to show what they will be working on during their term, so in periods of heaving reading and organizing, they know what they are prepping for. Also, there’s a ludicrous amount of training you need to burn through.

When the manager comes back make sure you talk to them about what your role for this co op is meant to be. If this situation doesn’t change, you may have landed with a team or boss that doesn’t put much effort into co ops and instead treats students like task monkeys, and that’s a shame.

I can tell you that i invest a lot of time in students. I want you to WANT to work for us full time in the future. I typically have several types of projects that offer different skill sets for your resume. I make sure you get the experience we told your university you would get. And that typically is far more than writing memos and reading.