{"id":83466,"date":"2023-02-01T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T20:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/?p=83466"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T20:01:22","slug":"iep-alumni-feature-where-it-all-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/iep-alumni-feature-where-it-all-began\/","title":{"rendered":"IEP Alumni Feature: Where It All Began"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We recently asked IEP alum Jodi Ashmun, a long-time supporter of the program, why she chooses to give to the IEP each year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jodi (Senger) Ashmun \u2019<\/strong>01<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

German & Mechanical Engineering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I enjoy supporting the International Engineering Program (IEP) since it definitely helped shape my path to where I am today. I truly believe in a dual language education starting as early as possible. I myself struggled when learning a new language in college. I started the IEP late, in my second semester, after I found out that a bunch of my friends were doing it. I knew I needed to take a language and chose German, figuring that I could change my mind later, never once thinking I would actually end up landing an internship in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went on a URI study tour to visit German companies that first summer and had so much fun with Dr. Grandin, IEP\u2019s founder, and Dr. von Reinhart. A few years later, I made it to Germany and completed an internship at Volkswagen. It wasn\u2019t all sunshine and roses, but what an accomplishment! While in Germany, I made lots of great friends, traveled a bunch, and still have some of the best memories of my lifetime from the time I was there. While I don\u2019t use the language often nowadays, whenever I am back in a German-speaking country, it comes back to me. I don\u2019t know everything but I know plenty to get by. I really do credit Dr. Grandin as one of the main catalysts during my college years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I look back on some of my accomplishments as an adult, I definitely think of how both high school and college shaped me and made me driven to survive and thrive in a male-dominated field. Today I spend countless hours with middle school girls and other K-12 students, showing them that engineering is a path for them through my work with the MABLE SWE Next middle school STEM group, the Society of Women Engineers, and other groups. I also share my international experience and suggest study abroad as a possibility to everyone – it just creates more culturally aware people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years ago, I earned the level of Engineering Fellow at Raytheon, something that less than three percent of engineers receive, of which only six percent are female! I was also recently recognized by YWCA with the Katharine F. Erskine Award in Health and Technology<\/a> for my work and outreach activities. Just last month, I was honored with a WE Local Legacy Award<\/a> from the Society of Women Engineers for my service to the SWE mission, my mentoring and outreach of K-12 students and my work accomplishments, another amazing achievement. I am proud of everything I have accomplished, but even more proud to be a role model for other women to follow in my footsteps!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in case you would like to join me in giving to the IEP, you can do so by going online here<\/a> or by mailing a check to URIFAE, PO Box 1700, Kingston, RI 02881. Don\u2019t forget: Your company may even match your donation, as Raytheon does for me! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently asked IEP alum Jodi Ashmun, a long-time supporter of the program, why she chooses to give to the IEP each year. Jodi (Senger) Ashmun \u201901 German & Mechanical Engineering I enjoy supporting the International Engineering Program (IEP) since it definitely helped shape my path to where I am today. I truly believe in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2296,"featured_media":83467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83468,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83466\/revisions\/83468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}