The next installment of our Creative Inquiry + Undergraduate Research (CI) series focuses on Tigers Together, a suicide awareness initiative. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025, CI’s impact reaches 40% of Clemson’s living alumni body. Visit the program’s website for more information.
Faculty members Heidi Zinzow and Martie Thompson brought forward in 2016 a vision of educating students on suicide prevention by establishing the Tigers Together initiative. By integrating evidence-based practices with campus resources, Tigers Together has become a cornerstone of mental health advocacy — equipping students, faculty and staff with skills to identify and support those at risk of suicide.
They quickly enlisted the help of Healthy Campus, the educational arm of Student Health Services, to help not only with the instruction of a new Creative Inquiry + Undergraduate Research (CI) course, but also to spearhead advocacy training to equip a network of individuals with the requisite knowledge, empathy and skills to be able to recognize warning signs, engage in mental health conversations and connect students in crisis with appropriate resources.
Thompson has since moved on to another university, while Zinzow remains a professor in the Department of Psychology and invaluable contributor to the initiative. Today, the Tigers Together CI is led by Delana Reynolds, who serves as assistant director of suicide prevention and mental health initiatives for Healthy Campus.
Students enrolled in the CI conduct research activity related to suicide prevention and spearhead several important initiatives, such as planning the Out of the Darkness Campus Walk each spring and hosting different activities as part of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
Sarah King and Caroline Ruby are both juniors in the Tigers Together CI, and both discovered it through word of mouth.
“It’s an amazing way to have a hands-on impact with mental health on campus,” says Ruby, a student assistant in the Academic Success Center. “Since joining the CI, I’ve been able to make a difference through tabling and raising awareness about our resources. I never saw myself as the biggest research person, but this CI has been the perfect balance.”
Both students were part of the course last fall and were part of a benchmarking project that examined Clemson’s mental health resources in relation to peer institutions. King’s research centered on improving communication with students. During a group presentation, she broke down in detail West Virginia University’s approach of sending a monthly newsletter directly from its counseling center — hoping to pass along best practices to University staff in attendance.
“I knew I was passionate about mental health, but I wasn’t really doing anything about it,” she says. “CI has given me so many opportunities and made a big difference.”
Thomas Ross was also part of the Tigers Together CI last fall and conducted his own benchmarking of Duke University’s mental health services. But it wasn’t his only involvement; he’s also participated in an industrial engineering CI studying data at Prisma Health in Greenville.
“Creative Inquiry has changed my perspective as an undergraduate student,” he says. “It’s helped me develop more skills, allowed me to travel and introduced me to new opportunities.”
Just like thousands of students before him.