Growing up, Ava Dioli loved exploring new places and traveling with her family. She made it a goal of hers to take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad while she was in college. As a freshman in the Global Engineering learning community, she discovered the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE) program, which combines working abroad with studying abroad. “I wanted to experience life outside the U.S. and fully immerse myself in another culture, which is harder to do on a vacation or a short-term program” she says. The experience she pursued became one of the most transformative of her time at Purdue.
Although GEARE is catered to engineering students, Dioli, now studying Manufacturing Engineering Technology, reached out to the team anyway to see if she could still qualify. The team connected her with Purdue Polytechnic's Elizabeth Barajas and Nathan Hartman. They were leading a new initiative and looking for a second-year Polytechnic student to complete a three-phase program: a summer 2025 internship with Saab in West Lafayette, an exchange semester at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in the spring of 2026, and a second Saab internship at the company's headquarters in Sweden the following summer. At the time, Dioli was working in Orlando at the Tomorrowland Speedway on the Disney College Program. She met with them for what she thought was a casual conversation, but little did she know, it had higher stakes than expected. “The calendar invite said 'GEARE Chat,' so I tried to stay calm even after the questions started sounding like an interview,” Dioli says. “When they called and said they'd chosen me, I was ecstatic!”
Dioli became the first Purdue student selected for the new Purdue-KTH-Saab pathway. “They trusted me to go first, and I felt the weight of that,” she says. In the summer of 2025 at Saab in West Lafayette, she worked on production for the T-7A Red Hawk, the next-generation jet trainer for the U.S. Air Force. As an intern, Dioli was trusted with full ownership of multiple projects that affected daily operations on the floor. She led process optimization work with senior engineers, operators and suppliers to improve tooling availability and manufacturing efficiency.
“I loved the fast-paced environment, where there was a new problem to solve every day,” she says. She remembers meeting with the production supervisor for a status update on a solution that had escalated to the highest priority on the floor. “I was motivated knowing the team was relying on me and that the work I was doing would be used long after I left.”
Dioli's program coordinator ensured that she was involved in many aspects of the production process. She worked with tooling engineers and suppliers on a new tool design, and with the training academy on a new way to teach operators to apply sealant in hard-to-reach areas. She also sat down with operators to understand how they choose drill bits and reamers, which led her to build an interactive dashboard in Excel to assist with the selection process. By the end of the summer, her training aids, standardized procedures and dashboard had helped cut sealing time by 20%, reduce non-conformance reports by 45%, and shorten tool selection time by 80%.
As part of the second phase of the program, Dioli began her journey abroad when she moved to Stockholm in January. It was initially a difficult transition. She arrived at an empty apartment, took classes where she was the only exchange student, and experienced about eighteen hours of darkness per day for the first two months. Walking to class, she slipped and slid across layers of ice that had frozen over the sidewalks on campus. “There were plenty of moments when I didn't know what I was doing,” she says. “But I kept going.”
In the classroom, Dioli studied Industrial Technology and Production Maintenance at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Visits to Sandvik Coromant in Gimo and Scania in Södertälje showed her how culture shapes the manufacturing environment. In a simulation course, she and two Swedish classmates modeled material flow at Scania's battery factory and proposed solutions to a production bottleneck. “Working on an intercultural team was fun, but it was also a challenge,” she said. “Expectations for grades aren't viewed the same way in Sweden as they are back home, and learning is much more self-directed than supported by professors.”
To Dioli, her semester abroad had a built-in deadline. She decided early that she wanted to leave with a journal of all the adventures she had, rather than a list of things she wished she'd done. “Everyone knows the phrase 'life is short,' but when you have an allotted amount of time and you know it ends, it pushes you to get out there,” Dioli said. She chased the Northern Lights in Tromsø for eight hours to see them for 15 minutes. She mushed a dog sled down a mountain and enjoyed ice skating around Kungsträdgården. She said yes before she had a plan, got lost exploring, and became comfortable feeling uncomfortable. Her first friends abroad were her teammates on the KTH volleyball team, which finished the season as Division 2 champions. Traveling across Sweden with them was one of her highlights of the semester.
When the term ended in June, Dioli moved to Linköping to continue working on the T-7, this time supporting production from the Saab headquarters. Her work spanned engineering changes, documentation, tooling and assembly, and showed her how closely design and manufacturing teams must work together to be successful. Her final weekend in Sweden coincided with the 100th anniversary celebration of the Swedish Air Force in Linköping, and she spent her last day at the airshow with colleagues and friends who had made her feel at home.
Upon returning to West Lafayette, Dioli wanted to share her experiences and support others with their own study abroad journeys. She spoke on a panel at an orientation for students heading abroad the next semester. “I know how hard it is to be on your own in a new country,” she says. “Every obstacle on the course was mine to find a way through. Now that I've lived and learned, I'll happily laugh about the moments that once haunted me." Additionally, an intern she worked with in Linköping will arrive at Purdue in January. After finishing his exchange semester in the spring, he will be the first KTH student to intern at Saab in West Lafayette. Dioli has been mentoring him as he prepares to move to the United States and plans to help him make the most of his time abroad.
Completing the program will add three credentials to Dioli's degree. When she graduates in May with a B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering Technology and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, she will also hold minors in Global Engineering Studies, Advanced Global Technology and the Co-Op certificate. She's not done exploring, either. This spring break, she will visit Varese, Italy to study how data centers will become safer and more sustainable.
Beyond the academic achievements and places she visited, Dioli's study abroad experience changed how she approaches challenges and uncertainty. “I left knowing I can show up anywhere, navigate the unknown, make meaningful connections and adapt when things don't go according to plan,” Dioli says. “The way I handle those obstacles is different than before I left, and I don't let them rattle me the same way.”
Looking back, Dioli encourages students not to let uncertainty keep them from pursuing something they want. "Don't wait for a perfect plan. Send the email, ask the question, take the risk," she says. "You never know where one conversation or opportunity might lead."
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