Clemson Center for Career and Professional Development

Co-op Ambassador:
Jasmine Patel           

Major: Industrial Engineering
Graduation Date: August 2020
Co-op Company: AFL


Why did you decide to co-op?
I decided to co-op because I had never really had any internships or experience with working with engineering. I really wanted to co-op because it would give me a full year of experience in the field to apply everything I had learned so far at Clemson.


If you received multiple offers, what made you select the company you chose?
I chose AFL because it really fit well with what I was looking for in a company. I wanted to co-op for a company that gave back to the community and also had a family environment. I also chose AFL because they were a huge part of the fiber optic industry which is a field that has continuous learning and improvement.


What types of projects did you work on?
I worked on a few interesting projects that all revolved around Human Factors engineering. I was able to create many different documents that allowed operators to efficiently learn how to use the new equipment that was added within our department. The equipment was very different from the older equipment, so I was able to learn how to use the equipment along with the operator and create documents that helped operators do their job safely. I worked with sending these documents through an online system and keeping them updated as we found new information on a day to day basis.


Describe your relationship with your mentor(s) and other colleagues:
My relationship with my mentor and other colleagues was very professional but also fun and engaging. I learned a lot from them, and they were able to help me understand the way things work at AFL. They made it interesting and engaging anytime I was learning anything new so that it was more helpful in understanding how to do different tasks.


What was your most memorable moment on assignment (Biggest “Aha!” or biggest “Oops!” moment)?
The most memorable moment was when I was finally able to get working on creating documents and I realized how much of the stuff I learned at Clemson I was actually using. It was really neat to use something I had learned from my Human Factors class to help make the equipment I was working with more efficient so that the operators wouldn’t have to strain themselves while doing a specific task.


What aspect of your co-op assignment do you feel will be the most beneficial after you graduate?
I think the aspect that will be most beneficial was the working environment and the people I engaged with. The people I worked with really made the work I did enjoyable because I was comfortable in asking questions and learning new things. They kept me engaged which is something that I want to be able to do with the work I do all the time.


Describe how you feel you changed/grew as a person and student as a result of your co-op.
I feel that I grew in finally being able to understand a lot more about what I had learned as a student in school. I was able to learn how to do something more hands on which gave me more confidence in knowing how to understand that concept.


What was the most challenging part of your co-op?
The most challenging part was really just being able to apply myself and having confidence in what I was doing. That was definitely something AFL helped me grow in but it was hard in the beginning when I first started and had to learn the new things that I was so unfamiliar with. Over time, I started gaining more confidence and understanding more by asking questions.


Describe an instance where you applied something from your coursework to your co-op assignment, or vice versa.
I used a lot of the information I had learned in my human factors class. For my main project, I was able to do FMEAs of the new equipment so that we could better understand where things were not going so well and where we could improve upon with the equipment. The FMEAs were something I didn’t really understand in class, but once I was able to see how they worked with hands on experience, it really made more sense as to why they are used and what benefits they have in continuous improvement.