Three students studying German in the Department of Languages had the opportunity to intern with Häring at their Georgia office this summer: Jaiden Heard (senior, language and international business major with a German emphasis), Kassidy Swinyer (senior, mechanical engineering major with a technical German minor), and Smith Brown (senior, electrical engineering major with a technical German minor).
The Department of Languages has had on ongoing relationship with Häring Precision for the past four years. The partnership provides languages students with overseas internship opportunities while also connecting Häring with local German-speaking talent.
According to Lee Ferrell, BMW Principal Lecturer of German, four languages alumni currently work at the company, and five others have interned there. This summer marked the first time engineering students participated in the internship.
In the following interview, Heard, Swinyer and Brown share their experiences, as well as their thoughts on the future.
Jaiden Heard: I found out about the internship through Emma Durfee (’21), Häring’s Senior Marketing Specialist. I originally met Emma at the Language and International Business Conference in January of 2023. With the help of Lee Ferrell, I have maintained contact with Häring since my freshman year at Clemson.
Kassidy Swinyer: I found out about Häring on a tour of the plant with Professor Ferrell during our German Short Stories course. We met with Nathan, the production floor manager, and I asked him a ton of questions about projects that he had in the works. I knew immediately that I wanted to work for Häring because of their motivation to optimize their production and their German work culture.
Smith Brown: I found out about this internship through a tour of Häring that my German class did during the spring 2025 semester. I was very interested in learning more and helping to complete projects we had learned about during the tour.
JH: I worked primarily in the administration office with Emma. The small marketing team in the U.S. works closely with the marketing team in Germany. I interacted with many colleagues from the German headquarters, so listening to and reading German was a daily task. My projects varied from planning and setting up internal and external events, to translating documents from German to English, to creating flyers and social media posts, to attending local job fairs and leading plant tours.
KS: I was working under Nathan, one of the production floor managers. My main project of the summer was to design and build a lifting mechanism for the production machines. I began with tons of research, and eventually, Nate encouraged me to dive in and start building. I built several prototypes and made modifications along the way using materials at the plant, and even had some materials delivered. At the end of my internship, the lift was in its final design stage, ready to be implemented.
SB: I learned basic machining and used these skills to complete a variety of blueprints to practice machining and learn the basics of the company. After the first two weeks, I became a member of the Technology Management department at Häring. My job included machine maintenance involving electrical and mechanical issues, as well as robotics work for machines. I learned how to teach and program the two types of robots used by the company and implemented these skills to solve problems in production.
JH: Marketing in a B2B company looks different than what we normally think of marketing (B2C), but add the international component into it, and it looks even more different. It pushes the marketing team to be creative and think critically when approaching projects and how to make them stand out as a company. One of the most interesting parts of working at Häring was seeing how truly international the company is. Within one day at work, I would hear not only German being spoken around me, but also Polish, Spanish, French, and Chinese.
KS: Throughout my lift mechanism project journey, I had to learn how to fail. I faced disappointment with each prototype because it wasn’t the solution just yet. Nathan encouraged me to finish the prototype, weigh the pros and cons, make modifications and try again. By the end of the internship, I learned the meaning of “failure is a part of the journey”. In this way, I feel I grew as an engineer and even as a person.
SB: The internship has made me want to work in manufacturing and for a German company in the future. I enjoyed the German workplace environment and being able to utilize my German skills. I also liked problem-solving and constantly adapting to new issues that came up.
The German program at Clemson University prepares students for a wide range of careers and graduate studies in the humanities, business, sciences, engineering, politics, diplomacy, law and education. There are four avenues a student can take to study German at Clemson: a B.A. in Language and International Business, a B.A. in Modern Languages, the German Studies minor, or the Technical German minor. The Technical German minor is designed to fully integrate with any engineering major. The minor allows students to take classes in their discipline, but taught in German, equipping students with a unique skillset as they pursue industry work.
