(Sept. 30, 2009) — Ashlie Shrewsbury didn’t set out to make history when she entered North Georgia College & State University, but she has become the first female leader of school’s Corps of Cadets.

North Georgia has a long history of providing education and leadership opportunities to women. When the school was founded in 1873, it was the state’s first public coeducational institution. Women were part of North Georgia’s first graduating class in 1878. And, in 1973, North Georgia became the nation’s first senior military college to admit women as part of the Corps of Cadets. Today, with more than 700 participating students, North Georgia’s Corps of Cadets is the largest in the school’s history.

In speaking about her role as brigade commander, “I was interested in the opportunity to lead and manage at a higher level, and, other than dispelling preconceived notions about gender, it’s about getting the job done for the betterment of the 700-plus member Corps.”

Shrewsbury is from Taylorsville, Ga., where she attended Woodland High School’s International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous academic program that encourages an international perspective. In addition to her native English, the 23-year-old now speaks Spanish, German and Russian and is looking at a bright future as a military linguist.

This fall, Shrewsbury earned additional honors by ranking in the top 20 percent of all Army ROTC cadets in the nation. The Army’s annual National Order of Merit List, this year, ranked more than 4700 cadets on the basis of performance at the Army’s Leadership Development Assessment Course at Fort Lewis, Wash., physical fitness, campus leadership performance, and academic achievement.  Because of her achievement, she will graduate as a Distinguished Military Graduate, one of the highest honors an ROTC student may earn.

“Ashlie’s no-nonsense style of leadership is complemented by her superb focus on academics,” said Col. Tom Palmer, commandant.  “She has assumed command of an extremely capable ROTC brigade, and she will make it even better.”

Shrewsbury has attended North Georgia as a Georgia Military Scholar and as part of her studies was able to attend and graduate from the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, Calif., where she studied Russian. She has also studied German and Russian at the Partner Language Training Center, Europe (PLTCE), which provides intensive language training for about 400 military and civilian linguists each year.