KINGSTON, R.I. — December 11, 2000 — The American Association of Teachers of German recently awarded the University of Rhode Island’s Dr. John M. Grandin the Outstanding German Educator Award and Checkpoint Charlie Foundation Scholarship.
The annual award is given in recognition of personal innovation, talent, and leadership, which reflect uncommon excellence. Recipients are nominated by their chapter presidents in recognition of service to the language teaching profession, participation in professional organizations, contributions to German language education, and continued growth as a German educator.
As a recipient of this award, Grandin will receive a one-week Berlin seminar as well as roundtrip transportation sponsored by the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation.
Grandin, of Wakefield, has taught at URI since 1970, and co-founded and directed the International Engineering Program (IEP) since its inception in 1988. The IEP is a five-year program in which graduates earn both a Bachelor of Arts degree in German, French, or Spanish and a Bachelor of Science degree in a selected field of engineering. The program, the first of its kind across the nation, has been cited as a national model for internationalization of the engineering curriculum. The University of Connecticut and RICE University in Texas are among those currently developing programs based on URI’s model. The program has received the prestigious national Educational Innovation Award from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and has a 100 percent employment rate for its graduates.
“The IEP provides young engineers with the skills needed for careers in a workplace which becomes more and more global each day,” said Grandin.
He also co-founded and directed the German Summer School of the Atlantic, which is an intensive six-week German language immersion program run at URI each summer.
URI recently hosted the third annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education, where engineering educators from more than 40 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad met with representatives from several global corporations.
Grandin has received the Order of the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic in Germany and was selected as ACE Mentor for the American Council on Education’s Spreading the Word project.
The URI Professor was also part of Governor Almond’s recent economic development mission to German and Switzerland.