Hello Everyone!
My name is Jasmine Ferrarer and I’m excited to be a part of the Rice University Master of Bioengineering GMI Summer 2025 Immersion Experience. I grew up in Los Angeles, California, and spent 5 years in Atlanta, Georgia, while earning my Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Here is a picture of me on my graduation day. My time as an undergraduate student was difficult, but my perseverance helped me to overcome many obstacles and I look forward to taking on new challenges as part of this graduate program. 
Some of my defining features include my prototyping skills, creativity, and passion for outdoor adventures. I spent 4 years working as a Prototyping Instructor at the Georgia Tech Invention Studio. This helped me to gain hands on experience with 3D printing, teaching engineering skills to students, wood working, SolidWorks, laser cutting, and using the water jet. I also completed summer internships with Johnson & Eli Lilly, which fueled my curiosity in manufacturing, process engineering, and building medical devices that improve life for others. Over the past few months, I learned how to lead climb rock walls at Joshua Tree National Park, Lake Arrowhead, and Lake Perris in California. Pushing myself to climb to frightening new heights built my physical and mental strength as I carefully found a way to the top of each rock face, one step at a time. 
This summer, I will be working for the medical device startup company Drop Access in Nairobi, Kenya. I’m bringing determination, a positive attitude, prototyping experience, manufacturing expertise, and problem solving skills to this internship experience. I’ve never worked with a company in Africa before, but I will work hard to build devices that meet the needs of the local population. Drop Access specializes in portable refrigeration units that will be used to transport vaccines, medical supplies, and blood donations to remote areas of Kenya. I will likely be assigned to a project that involves improving and manufacturing those refrigeration units. Through this experience, I hope to learn more about refrigeration, learn how to use different prototyping equipment, and understand how to make medical technology more accessible for communities of all income levels and locations. I also want to spend some time seeing the animals in Kenya safaris and visiting the beautiful sandy beaches of Kenya’s coasts. Growing up in Southern California made me realize there is nothing more relaxing than digging my toes in the sand, soaking up the warm sunshine, and listening to the soothing rumble of rolling waves. I hope to find a piece of that paradise here in Kenya this summer.
After completing this summer experience, I want to start the fall semester at Rice feeling more confident in my product design abilities. I want to take what I learned in Africa and apply it to other communities in the United States. I want to work in the medical device industry as a process or manufacturing engineer after I graduate from the Rice GMI program. I hope this internship and the classes I take this fall will help me to be well prepared for that career path. It was a pleasure sharing a piece of my life story with you and I wish you the best on your own summer adventures. Let’s show them all how Rice GMI students have the potential to make this world a better place.