The IEP hosted several events in fall 2024 to engage with new and prospective IEP students.
To kick off the 2024-2025 academic year, the IEP hosted its second annual student showcase on September 18, 2024, where students and recent alumni shared about their recent experiences abroad.
There were about 20 poster presenters at this event with around 100 guests in attendance this year. As was the case in 2023, this event took on a life of its own once everyone was in the room, running itself from start to finish with guests and presenters chatting and enjoying themselves the whole time. Guest speakers included Deans Anthony Marchese (College of Engineering) and Jen Riley (College of Arts and Sciences) as well as President Parlange. By having this event a whole month earlier than the previous year, this was a great opportunity for students who were considering joining the IEP to come and meaningfully connect with many of the returning students across language programs and engineering majors to gain their diverse perspectives on the program. Rounding out the guest list were also IEP Advisory Board members, alumni and even some industry representatives in the room, allowing older students the opportunity to get advice and make connections for their next steps, too.
The IEP has also been involved with several recruitment efforts, both on its own and through the College of Engineering.
In partnership with URI Admissions, two webinars were offered for students interested in the IEP on October 29 and November 13. Maintaining these virtual options allows a wider range of students to learn about the IEP. Essential to these webinars were the perspectives of IEP alumni Michael Logar ’18 ( Spanish & ocean engineering), Cameron Hahn ’24 (German and mechanical engineering, current dual master’s student), and Anna Cetera ’24 (Spanish & biomedical engineering, current electrical engineering MS student) plus students Hong Nguyen ’25 (GLAS-Japanese & biomedical engineering), Jorge Menacho Aliaga ’25 (German and civil engineering), and Emily Principe ’26 (Italian & chemical engineering).
IEP coordinator Melissa Schenck and a group of four IEP students and alumni made the trip over to Davies Career & Technical High School in Lincoln, RI on November 1, 2024. The panel included:
IEP alumni Alexander Mendoza ’17 (Spanish & civil engineering), Giovanni Grande ’18 (Italian & mechanical engineering) and Temitope Aina ’23 (French & biomedical engineering) and current IEP student Ahmad Almuhtaseb ’26 (GLAS-Japanese & computer engineering) shared their experiences in the IEP and beyond with a group of about 20 Davies students very interested in pursuing a career in engineering.
With just these four IEP panelists, there was such a diversity of academic paths pursued (4 out of 8 EGR programs, 4 out of 6 IEP languages and many related extracurriculars!), careers/career interests represented and personal stories shared, that there really was something for every student to take away from this session.
A team of German faculty (Drs. Sigrid Berka, Claire Ross and Max Kade Visitor Evi Petrouplou) and German Section intern Marie Huebler welcomed 17 German-learning students and their teacher Joshua Zahren from North Kingstown High School to participate in our URI Kafka Weeks. Dr. Ross had received funding from the German Embassy in Washington to run a two- week program to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the author’s death. On November 15th, the NKHS group visit began in the IEP house with Dr. Berka introducing the German IEP along with Piper Krause ’27 and Gabriel Stradtman ’27, both German IEP students; followed by a student-led campus tour by Daevan Goel, also a GIEPer. The main attractions were rotational, small group activities in the Language Center where students expressed their reactions to Kafka’s work by writing comics, drawing their emotions, writing endings to text prompts and more. The visit ended on a fun note, posing with the Gregor Samsa face-in-the-hole banner next to the Kafka Comics exhibition booth in Swan Hall.
On December 5, the IEP met with about 40 visiting students from West Warwick High School in the IEP House Living Room for small group discussions about what it’s like to be a student in the College of Engineering / in the IEP at URI. IEP ambassadors Cameron Hahn and Cristian Varela ’26 (Chinese and industrial & systems engineering) joined program coordinator Melissa Schenck to help facilitate this activity. The visit was part of a larger day of events planned by COE’s Rosetta Spino and included tours of both the bay and main campuses and time in an on-campus lab.
Another IEP delegation spent a morning with the entire eighth grade (over 125 middle schoolers!) at Wickford Middle School on December 11. In speaking with these young students, the aim was to spark enthusiasm for engineering fields as possible career paths, studying languages as a way to multiply and deepen connections, and study abroad as a way to broaden horizons – it’s never too early to start thinking big!
The group of presenters was comprised of Kelly Engels ’12, an accomplished URI/TU Braunschweig dual degree Master’s grad (mechanical engineering), and a record-breaking total of four members of the Japanese IEP: Harrison Timperley ’20 (GLAS-Japanese & computer engineering), Jonathan Martinez ’26 (GLAS-Japanese & chemical engineering), Ahmad Almuhtaseb and Harrison Cotton ’27 (GLAS-Japanese & ocean engineering). To be able to rally so many JIEP students and alumni for such a visit is a testament to the growth of this particular language program at URI!
If you are a current student or an IEP alum who would like to participate in similar initiatives and events connecting with current and prospective IEP students in the future, the IEP would love to work with you! Please write to Melissa Schenck at schenckm@uri.edu if interested.