Clemson Spotlight: Real-World Learning Through A2i Company Site Visits

A2i Company Site Visits offer graduate students and postdoctoral scholars a unique chance to explore real-world career environments—both in person and virtually. These immersive experiences connect participants with early-career professionals who have recently transitioned from academia, introduce them to company leadership, and provide a behind-the-scenes look at workplace culture through guided tours of industry facilities.

We’re thrilled to highlight one of our A2i academic partners, Clemson University, and their efforts over the past year to engage A2i students through multiple company site visits. Take a look at how they’re creating meaningful impact across a variety of industry settings!

Can you share some examples of past companies that have hosted site visits for A2i?

We have visited companies of a variety of sizes and in different industries. Smaller companies like Parimer Scientific, medium-sized companies like Alliance Construction Consulting, and large companies like Rite Dose.

What is the typical structure and duration of a site visit?

Usually we meet with a selection of representatives from different aspects of the company, and they tell us about their work. We follow that up with a Q&A session where students ask questions about their personal career journeys, questions about the company and its culture, or general questions about job searches and industry work. Then, if appropriate, we tour their facilities. In some cases, this visit lasts two hours; in others, it takes four. It depends on how long of a tour we take and how large the facility. 

How do these site visits help students gain insight into workplace culture and industry expectations?

These site visits are useful for students in every discipline, even if they aren’t interested in working for each specific company because many of the insights are universal. For example, we try to spend time at sites that are all sizes, start-ups vs. long-term corporations, and in-office vs. hybrid. When we talk to representatives about their personal career journeys, we ask about the pros and cons of each type and why they ended up where they did. I think these conversations have really helped the students see what some of their preferences might be for general workplace structure and culture.  

We also ask them questions about advice they would offer or topics they would study that maybe graduate students aren’t thinking about. An example of this was a recent industry representative telling them that being able to learn GDP or “good documentation practice” and put it on their resume would give them an edge in getting an interview. Most of us had never heard that acronym before!

As the link between graduate students and industry partners, what has been the most rewarding aspect of these visits?

I think the most rewarding aspect is watching the students have these “light bulb” moments where they learn a small nugget of information that they hadn’t considered before or that they didn’t think applied to them specifically. An example of this was our recent visit to the South Carolina Research Authority offices in Greenville, SC. The team there talked about their work and how nearly all of their success is due to their ability to communicate complex ideas, which reinforced the work we have done as a cohort to strengthen those skills.

Do you provide any workshops or resources to help students prepare for site visits?

We directly prepare them in a short meeting prior to the site visit where we talk about our specific expectations for dress, etiquette, etc We also do a lot of workshops that indirectly prepare them by strengthening their communication and networking skills and giving them the industry-specific vocabulary to be able to ask the right questions.

What advice would you give an A2i academic partner interested in organizing a company site visit, but unsure?

The most difficult part of site visits is finding locations/volunteer hosts who are committed to providing meaningful experiences. Anybody can take a “field trip” to a site, but we want students to leave every session of A2i feeling like it was a valuable use of their scarce time. This means we have to put a good deal of work into building and maintaining those deeper industry partnerships (particularly with alumni) with folks who are equally committed to training the next generation of professionals, even if they aren’t necessarily going to hire them directly.