This description of the development of North Lake College's (NLC's) academic cooperative program begins by outlining the philosophy of cooperative education and discussing its objective of increasing educational growth through the integration of classroom theory and direct workplace involvement. Next, an overall rationale for cooperative education is provided, which stresses its potential for meeting both student and business needs. The following section explains how the Academic Co-op Ed program developed at NLC; the procedures used to select students, instructors/coordinators, and on-the-job training sites; and student enrollment and course completion rates in the cooperative education course. Next, the relevance of the NLC program and its success in attaining its objectives are highlighted by student and coordinator comments on the program. Finally, the paper discusses the role and potential of cooperative education nationally and emphasizes NLC's commitment to the broadening and further development of cooperative efforts. Appendices list a sample of community colleges which offer cooperative programs, as well as NLC's spring 1979 training sites. They also provide student and coordinator comments, potential seminar topics, student objectives forms, and a student's summary of her experiences as a congressional aide. (HB)