Joining Windsor Hall’s Purdue Grand Prix team inspired Mollie Parker to pursue a position in the racing industry

Racing has long been a part of Mollie Parker’s life, whether through attending NASCAR events with her family at the California Speedway or watching Formula One and IndyCar races on TV. 

But she had never actually participated in motorsports until, as a Purdue sophomore living in Windsor Hall, she noticed the flyer that changed her life. 

“It said, ‘Do you want to race?’” recalls Parker, a senior majoring in both economics and marketing. “And I was like, ‘Of course!’” 

The flyer invited female students to join the Windsor Racing Team based in Purdue’s oldest all-female residence hall. Parker started out as an inexperienced mechanic working on the team’s go-karts that compete in the Purdue Grand Prix. But by her second year with the team, she had advanced into a leadership role as crew chief and race director. 

“When I joined Grand Prix, it really opened my eyes to what hands-on involvement looks like in this field,” says Parker, whose Windsor team was the only all-women team to qualify for the 2023 Purdue Grand Prix and barely missed making the grid last year. “There’s something really satisfying about seeing a direct, tangible outcome from the work you put in. Implement these changes here and you can immediately see how it affects performance on the track. That kind of instant feedback is what drew me in, and I fell in love with it.” 

That was only the beginning of a racing journey that has already taken Parker to internships at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and at race car manufacturer Dallara’s U.S. headquarters in Indianapolis.

These experiences have helped Parker envision a future working at the highest levels of the racing industry, ideally contributing to strategy for an open-wheel team. And she credits her foundational Grand Prix experience — where she leverages a data analysis background to make decisions for a team stocked with engineering know-how — for inspiring that audacious goal. 

“One thing that I think has been helpful as a nonengineer is a lot of my teammates are able to come up with a variety of innovative solutions to the problem. My role, though, has been to help guide the decision-making process and implementation, keeping us moving forward — a struggle point for some teams,” Parker says. “And so this experience has taught me to be very decisive in stressful situations, to trust my judgment and build on the strengths of the team.” 

Before Parker attempts to apply these lessons in a professional setting, however, she still has some races to run at Purdue. 

Working around trips to Dallara’s offices on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she remains involved in the event that helped her recognize that she could turn her new passion into a profession. 

This is Parker’s second year leading the Windsor team into the traditional (combustion engine-based) Purdue Grand Prix that will take place April 26. This year she also joined Purdue’s first all-women electric vehicle team — Lady Elizabeth EV Team, sponsored by the Purdue Integrated Business and Engineering program — that won the evGrandPrix on April 18.

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The EV team recently garnered a coveted sponsorship from auto giant Toyota. 

“It’s great to have their support, not only supporting us financially, but through resources in both engineering and management,” Parker says. 

Only a few short years have passed since Parker noticed that flyer on the wall at Windsor that set her on a path toward a career that truly excites her. It all started by working around a group of supportive women who simply enjoyed hanging out and sharing a hobby that they loved. 

“Everyone truly wants to be there to have a good time. We’re all working toward a common goal of getting the kart on the track and developing our driver,” Parker says. “The results, of course, they’re fun. It’s fun when you win; it’s fun when you qualify. But seeing the kart that you have built from the ground up race is awesome, and fine-tuning it is even more fun. 

“My favorite part is seeing our team dynamic, how it has changed over the years, and helping girls develop whatever skills they want to develop to get where they want to be in life,” she says. 

She never expected it before joining her first racing team at Purdue, but for Parker, that might someday involve working on pit row at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When I joined Grand Prix, it really opened my eyes to what hands-on involvement looks like in this field.

Mollie Parker

Senior in economics and marketing

This Purdue Global graduate’s perseverance and grit helped her overcome mental health challenges and earn a psychology degree

Recent Purdue Global graduate Tara Melton knows life dealt her a lousy hand. But when she tells her story, she’s not feeling sorry for herself. She’s smiling. Her voice is strong. Because she holds completely different cards now. 

“People always say we have to utilize the cards we’re dealt. And, well, I didn’t accept that,” she says. “Circumstances you’re born into don’t have to dictate the life you create for yourself.” 

Melton persevered through a traumatic childhood and the harrowing young adulthood it led to. But all along, the most important thing to her was that she’d be able to help someone else rewrite their script. Her experiences have driven her to make a difference, especially for individuals who, like her younger self, often are unheard or misunderstood. 

“As a kid, I was always dismissed by my teachers as an angry child,” she says. “But if somebody would have just asked what was really going on underneath the surface, things might have been different for me. That’s why the work I do now means so much to me — because I see my younger self in many of the children I support.” 

Looking back now, she realizes that her passion for behavior intervention was rooted in her own lived experience. There is something healing about finding the meaning that’s often overlooked within human behavior, knowing there’s more to it than meets the eye.  

“I have always been drawn to understanding not just what someone does, but why they do it,” she says. “Behavior is a form of communication, and I want to be the one who takes the time to listen.”  

Eventually, she found that her struggle to rise above was not only worth it — it would provide tangible course credit toward a Purdue Global degree, enabling her to make even more of an impact on the welfare of others.

Turning experience into expertise 

As a young adult, Melton briefly lived in South Carolina while struggling in an unhealthy relationship. It was there, amid the turmoil, that she first decided to change her story. She attended a local technical college and earned a certificate in human services. 

Empowered by her success, she moved home to metro Detroit to continue her education. But she faced some unexpected hurdles. 

“I didn’t get much support from any direction. My academic advisor literally sat me down and said, ‘Tara, you’re better off going somewhere else.’ He just knew that this school couldn’t accommodate adults like me,” she says. 

While it was a heavy blow to her morale, Melton was boosted by her work with children facing behavioral challenges. That’s when a colleague who was attending Purdue Global saw a potential sweet spot for Melton and suggested she give it a try. 

“We both work in the field, of course, so I knew it was a good program for what I wanted. It was the best decision I could’ve made. My only regret is that I didn’t go sooner!” she says.

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The game changer was the sheer magnitude of credit she could earn from what she’d already done. For students who have worked in a career, served in the military or participated in learning outside the traditional college classroom, Purdue Global offers the opportunity to earn course credit. Students take a course to help them develop and submit a portfolio to demonstrate their prior learning, which is assessed for undergraduate credit. 

“It was the thing that saved me the most time and money,” she says. “I’d already had seven years of experience in the field when I enrolled, so I petitioned for every class I could. Out of the 13 classes I petitioned, I got 12.”  

It saved her years of coursework and thousands of dollars. 

She acknowledges that most people don’t petition for as many courses as she did — the average is three — but it still pays off. 

“The portfolio course for students like me who have experience, even if you only petition for three courses, it’s worth it. If you don’t get credit for the courses you petition, you get your money back,” she says. 

Streamlining her education allowed Melton to focus on reaching her goals as fast as possible, for what would end up making the most impact on her career. 

A journey that’s worth it

Since behavioral intervention is Melton’s true passion, she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in applied behavior analysis (ABA). ABA is a standard treatment in autism therapies, but Melton says its applications are broader — which expands her options. 

And wider possibilities for her means wider possibilities for people who can benefit from her services. 

“I’m now a clinical supervisor at an ABA center, where we primarily provide ABA therapy for children with autism,” Melton explains. “But ABA can be applied to so many other areas as well. It’s effective for individuals with ADHD, developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries, and even areas like weight management and addiction recovery.” 

As she looks forward to a career full of opportunities, Melton wants to encourage others who might consider changing their lives with an education. 

“Lean into the belief that you are capable of more than the world has led you to believe. If I can rise above the challenges that tried to define me, so can you,” she says. “You don’t have to do it perfectly, and you don’t have to do it alone. Believe in your own worth, embrace the messiness of life and keep pushing forward even when it feels impossible. Today, I stand here as a first-generation college graduate — proof that you can rewrite your story.”

Today, I stand here as a first-generation college graduate — proof that you can rewrite your story.

Tara Melton

BS psychology, Purdue Global ’24

The Boilermakers are hot off their best team finish at the NCAA Championships since 1992

Over the past dozen years, head coach Tony Ersland’s Purdue wrestling program has been climbing steadily. It’s been about the process and developing talents like Matt Ramos and Joey Blaze, who finished as national runners-up in their weight classes in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

Ersland’s Boilermaker team battles for respectability in arguably the most competitive conference in collegiate sports. Consider this: A Big Ten school has won 18 consecutive NCAA team titles, and in 12 of those 18 years, the league also had the runner-up.

That is dominance with no peers in the college sports realm.

For Purdue, this year was a breakout of sorts. Purdue finished 13th at the NCAA Championships, its best mark since George H.W. Bush was president. Blaze came within a whisker from winning the school’s first national title since 1992, and Ersland believes things are in place for continued improvement.

“If you want to compete for Big Ten or NCAA championships, you are going to have to be on the level of being capable of winning a world championship,” Ersland says. “It’s that competitive.

“We’re trying to teach standards and the best way of doing things so that we can operate at this high level. Having two like Matt and Joey in your room as examples of what high standards look like helps pull other guys along.”

For Ramos, who wrestles at 125 pounds, there have been some challenging lessons. As a redshirt sophomore, he pulled one of the biggest upsets in college wrestling history, pinning Iowa’s three-time national champ Spencer Lee en route to a runner-up finish. However, what Ramos experienced in the following two years helped him grow as a wrestler and mentor.

Ramos admits to losing focus in his junior year and not living up to the expectations he placed on himself, let alone what others had for him.

“I got caught up in a lot of what people think about me, and I’m the guy who beat Spencer Lee,” Ramos says. “I put a lot of stress on myself. I didn’t admit it then, but it helped me work to realize my potential to be the best I could be. It took me reflecting after last year’s national tournament as I was in a bad place afterward. My support system helped me.”

That support system included his teammates and coaches, as well as his daily process of reminding himself of his goals and why he loved the sport. Journaling helped, but so did a further deduction to his “brothers” on the team.

Blazing his own trail

Blaze’s story is similar to Ramos’ tale. He came in with grand expectations and showed promise as a freshman in 2023-24, but there were struggles.

“I wanted to be ‘the guy’ instantly, and I struggled as a freshman,” Blaze says. “I was too ambitious.”

And that struggle didn’t end in this year’s sophomore season. Blaze, a 157-pounder whose brother Marcus is the nation’s top incoming freshman and is committed to Penn State, battled knee and hamstring injuries midseason. This had the added effect of making weight maintenance extra challenging. But with the help of coaches and Ramos’ mature leadership, Blaze stuck to his process.

“You take those losses and you learn to take it on the chin,” Blaze says. “It’s about keeping that in perspective, that it is all a blessing. I know my friends, family and teammates love me, no matter if I win or lose.”

Blaze’s “intentional” process, a keyword used often by Ramos, Ersland and himself, pulled him through.

“I have to be intentional because I struggle with focus,” says Blaze, who battles ADHD and takes extra pride in being a two-time NWCA Scholar All-American as a selling and sales management major. “I have learned to be as intentional in class. I challenge myself to be the best I can be in the classroom, too.”

That ability to pay attention to detail paid dividends on college wrestling’s biggest stage. Blaze upset top-ranked Penn State wrestler Tyler Kasak in the NCAA quarterfinals in Philadelphia and in front of a partisan Nittany Lions fanbase. The victory paved the way for him to become the youngest Purdue wrestler since 1950 to reach the NCAA finals. While the 19-year-old Blaze’s upset wasn’t quite as shocking as Ramos’ 24 months earlier, it turned plenty of heads.

Lately, I’ve just been free as a bird and having fun. Grateful to be here and embrace every moment.

Joey Blaze on advancing to the ncaa final

“I had to be more creative with how I worked,” says Blaze, who, like Ramos, wakes up each morning and writes down his goals. “How I chose to work the back half of the year played a role in my success at the end of the year because I was mentally ready.”

Live on ESPN in front of a sold-out Wells Fargo Center crowd of 18,826, Blaze was edged out for the NCAA crown by Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor, someone Blaze had defeated a couple weeks earlier for third place in the Big Ten Championships.

The Purdue sophomore dictated the pace for most of the championship match, forcing multiple stalling warnings on his opponent, but Taylor held on for a 4-2 win after nabbing an early takedown.

As frustrating as the result was, the experience whets his appetite for more. Much more.

Call me “Coach Ramos”

If Blaze is going to climb the ladder one more rung in college wrestling, he will do it, in part, under the tutelage of Ramos. Ersland will add Ramos to his coaching staff for 2025-26 and beyond as the Lockport, Illinois, native is expected to be a physical and mental link to the Boilermakers.

Ramos, who spent a year at Minnesota before transferring to Purdue, will still be training in hopes of competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which can be accomplished while working with the team. The relationships Ramos has built with everyone associated with Purdue wrestling excites Ersland.

“I say this a lot about Matt, but his ability to purposely work on his relationships with his coaches and teammates separates him,” Ersland says. “That is what I love about him. That’s what Matt wanted in his coaching staff. And I think that’s why he’s had a good experience here. It’s because he values strong relationships with the people he’s involved with that he’s set up to be a great coach.”

Blaze agrees with Ersland but admits it will take time to get used to Ramos being on the other side of the ledger. When Blaze was a recruit, Ramos sold him on being part of something special at Purdue.

“He’s going to have a hard time yelling at us at first,” Blaze jokes. “Probably the first time he yells, it will be, ‘I guess we can’t mess with Matt anymore.’ We will have to do what he says.”

Looking ahead to the winning process

Ersland and men’s basketball coach Matt Painter were early adopters of using DISC assessment through Purdue Athletics’ “culture-building partner” Profile Behavior. It’s essential to what Ersland envisions his program to be.

“Matt and Joey are special because they understand that wrestling puts a premium on having the right people,” Ersland says, “The sport goes home with you every night. You must be disciplined in all areas, from weight management to all aspects of training. We have all the resources with terrific dietitians, strength coaches and trainers who all assist these young men, but that need for focus and discipline has a way of wearing on you. It is not easy.”

But Blaze, Ramos and Ersland enjoy the hard way. And they know the road to titles and championships will never be easy in the Big Ten. But there are hopes and dreams.

Ramos and Blaze share aspirations of someday making the U.S. Olympic team. Blaze, who has an affinity for retail clothing marketing in today’s NIL world, wants a national title and has two more years to do it. After his Purdue days, he wants to try professional mixed martial arts, like Ultimate Fighting Championship. Making the Olympics will require more, but the love of the sport and respect and admiration for each other can help carry them to new heights.

“Because of Joey and Matt’s success, people can have that kind of dream at Purdue,” Ersland says. “It elevates the room and shows elite talent the path to their dreams, which is never bad in recruiting.”

But it is the culture of love and gratitude that Ersland hopes will elevate his program to the next level.

“It’s the way of always having a positive perception of the discipline required,” Ersland says. “Matt has always had that, and that was really big for Joey this past season.”

From the looks of things, good days are in the future for Blaze, Ramos, and, ultimately, Ersland’s program as a whole.

Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com

Guild and Team USA help U.S. Olympic hopeful Nicole Stout-Berliner earn an MBA with Purdue Global to aid her advocacy efforts

U.S. Olympic hopeful and Purdue Global MBA student Nicole Stout-Berliner is a champion fighter — and now, through the Guild and Team USA Learning Network, she’s earning her MBA from Purdue Global. 

As a judo athlete, she’s grappled with countless opponents, whether on the mat or along her life’s journey. Although she’s always fought her way to the top, it’s become her long-term dream to be an advocate for other athletes. 

Immediately after high school, Stout-Berliner suffered the loss of her familial support. Focusing on her dreams of making Team USA, her parents feared, would leave her with no education upon her retirement. She wanted to pursue both her bachelor’s degree and a spot on Team USA judo. Her parents thought it was a doomed endeavor and refused to support it.  

Ultimately, Stout-Berliner and her parents parted ways. 

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But she dug in her heels and refused to let up. She worked. She trained. She powered through coursework. Then, in 2021, she earned a bachelor’s degree and started making a name for herself in the judo community. 

Stout-Berliner now celebrates her seventh consecutive year as the No. 1 athlete, with 13 national medals and 22 international medals to her name.  

Although she sees the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games (when she’ll be 30) as her last shot to qualify, Stout-Berliner is more of a force than ever. But it’s not just a fight for one Olympic dream anymore. She’s devoting her time to making the world better for the athletes who come after her, too, because she believes no one should have to give up on any of their dreams. 

That’s why she didn’t waste a moment applying to Purdue Global for an MBA. 

An opportunity to plan for the future 

“I’ve been wanting to earn a master’s degree since I graduated with my bachelor’s, but I couldn’t afford it,” Stout-Berliner says. “I just couldn’t justify moving money away from my judo career when, technically, I could do a master’s degree later.” 

But all that changed when Guild and Team USA Learning Network presented U.S. Olympians, U.S. Paralympians and Team USA hopefuls with the educational opportunity of a lifetime. She couldn’t wait to get started.  

“I imagine a lot of athletes are in the position where we can’t work a full-time job that would offer this kind of benefit,” she says. “The options are one, pay out of pocket; two, pull more loans; or three, don’t go. Those options suck. They’re the options I’ve had for years, and it wasn’t until this year that there was a new option. I jumped on board.” 

Finally being able to pursue my master’s degree helps me set up (what’s next), and it makes anything I might have turned down to pursue my judo goals completely worth it.

Nicole Stout-Berliner

MBA, Purdue Global 
U.S. Olympic Hopeful, Judo 

The peace of mind she’s gained from being able to plan with certainty is everything to her. 

“I have to start thinking about what comes next. Finally being able to pursue my master’s degree helps me set that up, and it makes anything I might have turned down to pursue my judo goals completely worth it,” she says. 

But what she went through to arrive at this point lit an unquenchable fire within her. The MBA not only secures her own future, but also equips her to fight for others because she can’t stand the idea that other young athletes might face similar obstacles while pursuing their dreams. 

Training to fight for a new generation 

Stout-Berliner says the skills she’s learning in her classes are already making her a more effective advocate. In addition to the extensive training schedule of an elite athlete, she’s gotten involved in the governance of her sport to ensure that policies are in the athletes’ best interests. 

“Having the experience of living poor on the road, being made to pay for everything on my own in order to be able to do the sport I love really shaped my perspective that the athletes deserve more,” she says. “So, three years ago, I realized maybe I could make a difference if I joined the governance that makes these decisions.” 

Stout-Berliner played a key role in creating the first-ever athlete advisory committee for USA Judo in 2022 and was also elected to its board of directors as an athlete representative. She was reelected in the fall of 2024 (with a record-breaking number of votes from athletes, nearly doubling previously recorded numbers), and her term is set through 2029. 

Her classes have been a game changer already. She says the knowledge she’s gained has helped her understand how to operate more effectively in those roles. 

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“I’m really proud that I’ve been instrumental in introducing the most funding and support for the junior and cadet groups that they’ve ever had and some of the success we’ve had since then,” she says.  

Stout-Berliner will have a fighting spirit throughout her life. But as the years have passed, it’s become more fun. Recently married to fellow judo champion Kell Berliner, she’s finally building a life she loves with the family she’s found in the judo community, her husband and her in-laws.  

“This is the best my life has ever been, easily. I’ve got someone who loves me and all the craziness I bring to the table. I’m not dying for money anymore. I have a decent job that lets me pursue my judo dreams and still be able to eat,” she says. “I can’t wait to see what life’s going to look like next year and the year after that. I want every generation to see greater success than the one before. 

“I like the idea that my actions will affect the future rather than being remembered for my name or my career. Even if I don’t get to realize my own dreams in LA, I’ll know I had a part to play in athletes who qualify in the future.” 

Propulsion engineers Dayle and Claire Alexander helped the company’s rocket reach orbit on its first launch attempt

While monitoring the proceedings from computer consoles at Cape Canaveral, Dayle and Claire Alexander were understandably thrilled to watch Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket soar into orbit. 

Successfully reaching orbit was a critical step in Blue Origin’s advancement in the commercial space race, and on Jan. 16, the New Glenn team got there on their first launch attempt. As senior propulsion engineers responsible for New Glenn’s upper-stage BE-3U engines, the Alexanders had contributed to this massive accomplishment. 

“It was the first time for that rocket, this team and for the company — the first time that Blue Origin got into orbit, so it was a very big deal,” explains Claire (BSAAE ’16, MSAAE ’22). 

And yet the thrill of the moment was not a new experience for the Alexanders. 

Prior to joining Blue Origin a couple of months apart in 2023, they had separately taken part in milestone space events. While working as a NASA propulsion flight controller in Houston, Claire supported the Artemis I launch in 2022 and several additional flights in partnership with SpaceX. Meanwhile, Dayle was on console for three flights at Virgin Orbit and twice was a member of the flight crew for the company’s modified Boeing 747, “Cosmic Girl,” that it used to conduct mobile air launches. 

“There were a lot of similarities and a couple differences, but it didn’t feel brand new,” says Dayle (BSAAE ’16, MSAAE ’18). “This was a way different rocket, a more complicated rocket, than I’d worked on before. But it felt like I was prepared to be there.” 

She just never expected to be there alongside her identical twin sister.

During one of the times at Space Camp, I remember hearing the term aerospace engineering, and I thought, ‘Oh, we can do this for a living?’ And so that was where it was like, ‘All right, that’s what we’re gonna do.’

Claire Alexander (BSAAE ’16, MSAAE ’22)

On how she and her sister Dayle decided to pursue their future profession

‘That’s what we’re gonna do’ 

As one might expect, Dayle and Claire basically did everything together while growing up in Marietta, Georgia. That includes developing a mutual interest in space during an elementary school field trip to a Challenger Center museum, only to have that interest become a passion over each of the next six summers while participating in Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. 

“During one of the times at Space Camp, I remember hearing the term aerospace engineering, and I thought, ‘Oh, we can do this for a living?’” Claire recalls. “And so that was where it was like, ‘All right, that’s what we’re gonna do.’” 

That’s how they wound up enrolling in the world-class aeronautical and astronautical engineering program at Purdue, where their paths began to diverge somewhat before their unanticipated professional reunion at Blue Origin. 

College is often a time during which students establish their identity. Claire especially felt that it was important that she and Dayle begin experiencing the world as individuals while at Purdue. 

They both performed in the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band — Dayle played baritone and Claire, tenor saxophone — and participated in multiple musical ensembles and organizations. Dayle even met her husband, Matt, in the band. But they also formed their own friend groups and scheduled different classes even though they shared the same major. 

“I needed to see what life was like when I didn’t have my sister with me all the time,” Claire says. “I thought maybe I could become a stronger person if I had a little more individuality.” 

But that doesn’t mean the Alexanders stopped being each other’s biggest supporters. The sisters cheered each other on as they navigated a challenging path through rigorous engineering studies, opportunities to conduct research at Purdue’s prestigious Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories and a shared internship that helped launch their careers.

A useful internship

Never underestimate the power of band networking. 

Like many Purdue engineering students, the Alexanders vividly remember the frustration of failing to land a co-op or internship in their first couple of years as Boilermakers. They would attend roundtables and career fairs like most of their classmates, but the competition for these slots was fierce. 

But then Dayle connected with a propulsion engineer from a small company called XCOR Aerospace who also happened to be a Purdue graduate and band alum. While she was at it, Dayle shared her sister’s resume, and they both were hired for a six-month internship that provided a wealth of hands-on learning opportunities. 

“That connection just gave us a little leg in the door, a little familiarity, and it was a really great company for us to work with — very small,” Dayle says of the now-defunct aerospace organization. “We interns were designing flight hardware on a rocket, which I’m not sure would have been true at most other companies.” 

Claire agrees with her sister’s assessment, adding that she credits much of her early career success to the experience she gained during that internship. 

“We were able to put so much on a resume,” she says. “We would sit on the CAD model and design something. We do the element analysis; we would do the drawings; then we’d go to the shop and make it and test it. We’d be from the beginning to end part of these little pieces that we were building, so we could put all that on our resume. And it’s just not something that happens if you intern at a bigger company for three months.” 

Working at Zucrow 

The XCOR Aerospace internship was also important to the Alexanders because it helped them get a foot in a very important door — to professor Timothée Pourpoint’s research lab at Zucrow — once they returned to West Lafayette. 

“I get a dozen emails a week from students who want to work in Zucrow with me, and I know my colleagues get the same number,” Pourpoint says. “We get a lot of requests, and that’s great, but we can’t accommodate all these students, so we have to filter them. One of the filters that I use is what the students do before contacting me, and the sort of internships that they’ve had and experiences they’ve had in a professional setting. When I looked at Dayle’s resume the first time she contacted me, it impressed me — working at aerospace companies, doing relevant aerospace work. 

“It’s not easy to get those internships. They really had a passion for this community, for this work that we do.” 

The sisters worked as undergraduate research technicians in Pourpoint’s Hypergolic Propellants Laboratory, where their responsibilities included handling highly volatile chemicals that ignite upon contact. The lab’s website features a side-by-side video that compares the time it takes for a human eye to blink to the much faster ignition that occurs when a single droplet of red fuming nitric acid contacts a pool of monomethylhydrazine. 

The blinking eye in the video belongs to Claire. 

“Having Purdue on your resume is big for this industry, but also having Zucrow on your resume is big,” Dayle says. “Zucrow is a really well-established lab, and you can do stuff there that you can’t do anywhere else, like the hyperbolic and monopropellant work that they do there. So many university facilities are just not equipped for that.” 

The sisters went their separate ways after completing their bachelor’s degrees in 2016 and thought it seemed unlikely that they’d work together again.

Claire accepted a position at NASA and went to work on the governmental side of the space industry, while Dayle stayed at Purdue to continue her studies in graduate school. She also continued at Zucrow as a graduate research assistant, working under professor Stephen Heister on a project in which she designed and built an experimental thermoacoustic engine for research sponsor Rolls-Royce. 

Her efforts laid the groundwork for considerable success that would follow as the project progressed. 

“Dayle was very adept from the start,” recalls Heister, who recently retired after three decades spent developing Zucrow into one of the world’s premier academic propulsion facilities. “She obviously had some previous mechanical experience. She came into the lab knowing what some of the things were and came up to speed fairly quickly. She was an experimentalist, but she also was a very good analyst, and could analyze her own data, write code and do the other side of engineering. She was comfortable doing both.” 

Once Dayle completed her master’s program in 2018, she found that working on the commercial side of the space industry was a better fit. That is, until Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in April 2023, leaving her temporarily out of work. 

But it just so happened that Claire had recently accepted a new position at Blue Origin, and this time she was the one who was able to help her sibling land a gig. 

“I guess it’s the ultimate networking, having a family member in the industry,” Claire says. 

Working together again 

Dayle didn’t need much help, however. Claire’s manager at Blue Origin had previously worked with Dayle at Virgin Orbit and was interested in hiring both sisters from the start. When Virgin Orbit went out of business, the question wasn’t whether he wanted to hire Dayle. He wanted to know how the sisters felt about working on the same four-person team — all of whom are Purdue and Zucrow alums. 

The Alexanders were excited about the opportunity, but it also came with its share of early growing pains. Thanks to her three-month head start, Claire was already well versed in the team’s activities, forcing Dayle to play catch-up while searching for ways that she could contribute. 

“I was the last person to join the team, so I felt behind already,” Dayle says. “It took time for me to feel comfortable about it. I guess I felt a bit competitive since she had already been so well established there, and that part felt weird. I had never really felt that before. But I don’t think it caused any problems. We get along great, and we do work well together because we’re so comfortable with each other.” 

That comfort was another consideration as they worked together for the first time in a professional capacity. They had to learn how to interact as colleagues and not as siblings or best friends. 

The sisters made the necessary adjustments, though, and found that the positive aspects of working together outweighed the occasionally awkward moments. And now they have collectively contributed to one of Blue Origin’s greatest accomplishments — a functional heavy-lift launch vehicle that will someday shuttle the cargo necessary to sustain human presence on other celestial bodies. 

“The things that we can accomplish 10 years from now and then 20 years from now, I think it’s going to be really cool,” Dayle says. “We’re just going to be establishing new stuff in space that nobody’s seen before to start the foundation of what everybody has always imagined in sci-fi movies: people living on space stations, people living on different planets. You’ve got to start somewhere, and this is the start of that. New Glenn is going to enable that, essentially.” 

Like its competitors with SpaceX’s Starship, the New Glenn team intends to develop reusable technology that will help pave the way for the advancements Dayle describes. 

“If both New Glenn and Starship are flying frequently, it will transform the whole space economy,” Heister says. “We will have space hotels, and with the cost to fly things to orbit dropping as a result of the payload capabilities of these vehicles, whole new businesses and whole new industries will spring up. It’s an exciting time for aerospace in general.”

The people becoming astronauts and making a difference in the industry are now our peers. And seeing this happening around us makes us feel a part of it — like we’re also contributing to the growth of the industry and Purdue’s legacy in it.

Dayle Alexander (BSAAE ’16, MSAAE ’18)

On the astronaut dream she shares with her sister, Claire

Astronaut dreams

While the sisters never expected to work together like they do now, there was always one professional pursuit that they hoped to someday share. In fact, it remains a dream to this day. 

They’d love to become astronauts. 

They know the odds are stacked against them. Heister calls it “probably the most selective position you could ever think of,” adding that he’s never had a student or colleague accepted into the astronaut program, although some have come close. 

But defying steep odds is by now a common feature of the sisters’ story. Only about 3% of American live births are identical twins. What percentage of those kids wind up gaining admittance to the same elite university, sharing the same rigorous major, working in the same world-renowned laboratory and finally joining the same team that helps launch a company’s first rocket into orbit? 

“It’s not something that was a likely thing to happen, for sure,” Claire says of their Blue Origin reunion. “We’ve always joked that if we became astronauts, eventually we’d end up working together, but we never thought it would happen in the in-between.” 

Perhaps someday they will explore space together, as well, following alumnae like NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and commercial astronauts Sirisha Bandla, Beth Moses and Audrey Powers who have joined Purdue’s Cradle of Astronauts in recent years. 

“It’s not just people flying for NASA anymore. Now it’s people flying for Virgin Galactic and for Blue Origin. It’s just going to keep growing, and that makes you feel like you can do it,” Dayle says. “The people becoming astronauts and making a difference in the industry are now our peers. And seeing this happening around us makes us feel a part of it — like we’re also contributing to the growth of the industry and Purdue’s legacy in it.” 

“Our stories are not complete yet. We’re hoping to be one of those people someday.”

Purdue partners with alumni-founded apparel company to bring branded Boilermaker athleticwear to all

Purdue University is embarking on a first-of-its-kind partnership with Boilermaker-owned athleticwear brand Vitality that emphasizes inclusivity, balance and community-building.  

Owned by alumni sisters Taylor Chamberlain-Dilk and Chloe Chamberlain, Vitality’s brand mission closely aligns with Purdue’s spirit, and the partnership is looking to take giant leaps in collegiate collaborations.  

“We’re proud to partner with Purdue University — the place that defined our college experience and provided us with the knowledge to pursue our dreams. This collaboration is a meaningful way for us to reconnect with a community we’ve always felt proud to be part of,” says the Vitality founders.

We’re proud to partner with Purdue University — the place that defined our college experience and provided us with the knowledge to pursue our dreams. This collaboration is a meaningful way for us to reconnect with a community we’ve always felt proud to be part of.

Vitality team

Launching April 12, Purdue x Vitality will feature a variety of Purdue-branded apparel geared toward both women and men. The clothing line features black-and-white sports bras, tank tops, leggings, shorts, T-shirts and long-sleeved shirts in the spirit of Purdue’s classic brand colors. These items will be sold online and in -person at the Purdue Team Store.  

Vitality’s success

Sisters Chloe and Taylor didn’t necessarily plan to start a movement when they founded Vitality in 2018 with Taylor’s husband, Steve Dilk. 

At the time, the three Purdue graduates weren’t even sure what they wanted their new family business to sell. 

“We didn’t know what it would be at first, but we knew we wanted to start one as sisters and as a family,” says Chamberlain (BS organizational leadership ’20), the company’s chief of design. 

Initially, they might not have imagined that their new business would develop a cult following on social media or that they would someday show off collections at New York Fashion Week, but that’s exactly what happened. And their rapid success is not simply the product of being in the right place at the right time during the athleisure boom of the past few years.

The company strategically found a niche with its embrace of inclusivity and sustainability, creating stylish and comfortable apparel that flatters all body types — with sizes from XXS to 4XL. Their commitment to fostering community within their customer base has clearly paid off, as Vitality’’s loyal fans eagerly grab new collections the moment they launch online.

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The company’s website explains, “We’re a society of mutual support, where doers, the daring, and dreamers can draw from — and give back to — the energy of a purposeful collective.” Industry analysts and insiders have taken note of the company’s success. 

Forbes Magazine selected Chloe, Taylor and Steve for its prestigious 2022 30 Under 30 list honoring top young professionals in the North American retail and e-commerce market. In the blurb honoring the three Boilermakers, Forbes marveled at how their company’s sales skyrocketed from zero to $36 million within three years. 

In 2021, fashion platform Runway 7 invited Vitality to participate in its New York Fashion Week showcase for independent designers and renowned brands. Chloe created the company’s Panorama collection to debut at the prestigious event at New York’s Sony Hall. 

The family business that started in their Denver garage with their personal savings has quickly become an incredibly successful story of DIY entrepreneurship. It’s a story rooted in their experiences at Purdue. “Purdue helped us become balanced people,” Chloe says. “We became communicators, leaders and entrepreneurs with the help of our educations. We want to continue to impact others’ lives and the community we’ve created. We always are working to be better versions of ourselves and to find our own balance in work, business and life. We hope others can find the same.” 

Purdue helped us become balanced people. We became communicators, leaders and entrepreneurs with the help of our educations. We want to continue to impact others’ lives and the community we’ve created.

Chloe ChamBerlain (BS Organizational Leadership ’20) Chief Of Design

From Boilermaker beginnings

The sisters grew up in a household that valued fitness. Their mom was a Denver Broncos cheerleader. Their dad was a bodybuilder. 

Wanting to follow in their footsteps, Taylor (BS nutrition and dietetics ’15) eventually chose a health-related major. 

“Fitness was ingrained into our lifestyle ever since I can remember,” says Taylor, Vitality’s chief executive officer. “Seeing my parents compete in bodybuilding sparked my own passion to pursue that. I enjoyed learning about nutrition and thought, ‘Why not become a dietitian?’” 

While in college, she launched a social media channel to inspire others through her own fitness journey, sharing recipes and training clients. She ultimately earned a personal training license, becoming a trainer at Purdue’s France A. Córdova Recreational Sports Center. In time, Taylor and her sister attempted the giant leap of building a health-related style business, by women, for women. 

“After we both graduated, I started to become a fitness influencer on Instagram, and knew I had a passion to create some sort of business that could make an impact on countless people,” Taylor says. “Chloe and I saw a gap in the athletics industry for high-quality, reasonably priced athleticwear that would fit all shapes, sizes and backgrounds.” 

They evaluated other athleticwear companies and knew they could make the industry more inclusive, so they decided to introduce a workout brand that appealed to all body types. 

“We came up with the mission to unite men and women of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds to form a culture of inclusivity and help people find their own balance in life — whatever that may be for them,” Chloe says. That mission is embedded in their brand.  

“Evolution is taking intentional steps toward being better every single day,” Steve (BS biochemistry ’15) explains. “Whether it’s a large step or a small step, what matters most is you are moving forward. We know that if we are taking steps every day, collectively as a team, and as long as we are holding each other accountable to take those steps, we are going to evolve. Vitality embodies this evolution and elevation as a brand, and we are in a magnificent position to take everything to the next level.” 

Judging by the massive following the family has built for their brand, their message has connected with its intended audience and with the Purdue brand of persistence and innovation, where the sky is the limit from here. 

In his Purdue-themed workout room, Travis Iles displays numerous race mementos, including his 2009 winner’s trophy

The typical Purdue fan cave likely features a few staple items. Old sports memorabilia. Campus photographs that hold personal meaning for the owner. Lots of old gold and black. 

The Boilermaker-themed workout room in Travis Iles’ home in Columbus, Ohio, has all those things, but with a twist. Most of the adornments relate to a specific campus event that greatly impacted his Purdue experience and postcollege life: his four years spent driving a Sigma Chi go-kart in the Purdue Grand Prix. 

Iles (BS industrial management ’10) is tremendously proud of the oversized winner’s trophy displayed in the corner of the room, a prize he received in 2009 after leading for the final 120 laps of the 160-lap race. But he also looks at the display box full of race mementos and celebratory photos with his parents and fraternity teammates and thinks back on the life lessons and long-standing friendships he gained through those years competing in “The Greatest Spectacle in College Racing.” 

“I was involved in a lot on campus, but I would say the Purdue Grand Prix was definitely something really special to me,” Iles says. “If I think about the guys that I’m still friends with today, it’s almost like a subset of the fraternity. We’re all Grand Prix guys who spent so much time dedicated to a common goal. 

“We learned a lot and raised the money and busted our knuckles. We just had a bunch of guys that were real passionate about it, and that’s why we’re still close today. My crew chief (Sheldon Alt) was the best man in my wedding, and I was his.” 

Iles and his Sigma Chi teammates completed a successful four-year run at the Grand Prix, improving from an 11th-place finish while operating on a shoestring budget during his freshman year to becoming true championship contenders in each of the next three. He was leading the race as a sophomore before blowing an engine. (“Six-dollar part,” Iles recalls with a laugh. “That’s how it always is.”) He stalled on the grid as a junior before racing his way back to fifth place. And then fortune finally turned in his team’s favor in the 52nd running of the race. 

“We were really fast all those years. My senior year, everything just kind of went right,” he says. “We took the lead on lap 40 or something and just never looked back.”

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By winning the race, Iles earned an opportunity to serve as an honorary starter for an Indianapolis 500 practice session on May 15, 2009 — and he got to invite his dad and some friends to join him at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that day. 

That was one of many post-Grand Prix bonding experiences for the group of friends, who frequently returned to campus in the years after graduation for an informal homecoming on Grand Prix weekend. Because the race was such a cherished memory, they also worked to pay it forward to the next generation of Sigma Chi racers. 

Their race team had to rent shop space during Iles’ junior and senior years while their fraternity house was being renovated, which created numerous logistical challenges. So he and his crew chief, Alt, decided to spearhead a campaign to build a permanent facility for the Sigma Chi team and help with other fundraising efforts even today. 

“That actually is even more of an important legacy for me, that our names are on the outside of the garage. I’ve got a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, and when we go back, we can show them, ‘This is Daddy’s go-kart shop,’” Iles says. 

While most of the memorabilia in Iles’ Purdue-themed room centers around his Grand Prix experience, it’s not entirely race-related. For example, there is a plastic photo cutout of his daughter Georgia that was displayed alongside thousands of other Boilermaker fans’ photos in the bleachers at Ross-Ade Stadium during the pandemic-impacted 2020 football season. There is also a plywood Motion P logo that his dad made as a decoration for the 2013 wedding between Travis and his wife, Tracey (BA public relations and advertising ’10), whom he began dating at Purdue.

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Boilermaker ties run deep on both sides of Travis and Tracey’s family, as Travis’ mom and Tracey’s parents, sister and grandfather are also Purdue alumni. In fact, Tracey’s mom, Lisa (Ross) Todd, was once the Girl in Black featured twirler in the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band and serves as a band board member today. These connections only deepen their affection for their alma mater. 

“Both my wife and I and our entire family have strong and warm emotions about the time there,” he says. “When so much life happens on a piece of ground, I think that you have this immediate kind of connection to that place.” 

And then there are the practical lessons he gained at Purdue that helped him build a career as a district sales manager at Abbott. Iles acknowledges that he certainly benefited from the world-class education available at Purdue, but he also recognizes how his time in West Lafayette helped him build essential skills for a career in medical sales. 

He learned how to engage with people from many different walks of life as a Boilermaker student. And all those hours spent scraping together the roughly $10,000 his Sigma Chi team needed each year to keep their kart running? It turns out they helped him land his first job. 

“I’ll never forget my interview for Abbott, which was in the Purdue Memorial Union. The interviewer’s question was something like, ‘What makes you think you can go and sell?’ and I was like, ‘Once you’ve been selling fraternity go-kart racing to small businesses in Lafayette, you can sell anything.’ And he kind of got a kick out of that,” Iles says. “But that’s the truth. Being persistent and being somebody that people are willing to meet with, that’s a big part of it. And that’s what we were doing when we were 20 and 22.” 

Both my wife and I and our entire family have strong and warm emotions about the time there. When so much life happens on a piece of ground, I think that you have this immediate kind of connection to that place.

Travis Iles

BS industrial management ’10 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum’s tour operations manager, a Purdue alum, shares what to expect after renovations

Visitors to the new and improved Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum will receive a musical welcome from an ensemble that Boilermakers know well. 

Just as the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band helps kick off the Indianapolis 500 each year by performing “Back Home Again in Indiana” moments before the race starts, the band will now help museum guests begin their visits in an immersive video sequence that places them at start of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” 

“The Purdue band features largely in that new video,” says Brian Bobay (BA social studies education ’07), the IMS Museum’s tour operations manager. “There are planes flying overhead. It has three IndyCars, patterned after the front row of that year at the start of the 500 — so every year, there are actually going to be different liveries on those cars as the front row is displayed. It has a gigantic screen overhead with various things and activities that start on race day. It’s basically like you’re experiencing the start of the Indy 500.” 

And that’s just one of the many exciting changes that visitors will encounter when the museum reopens April 2. The museum closed for renovations in November 2023 as part of an $89 million campaign that significantly expanded its exhibition space and allowed for much-needed technological upgrades that create an exciting, interactive guest experience. 

Now the museum is ready to once again greet visitors from all over the world, and Bobay is here to share what guests can expect from the revamped facility. In this abridged Q&A, the Purdue alum discusses must-see museum additions and how he has a perfect job for a history buff and racing enthusiast:

Q: Is it accurate to say the primary reason for the renovation was to bring the museum up to date? 

A: Very accurate. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the museum as it was. As a kid, I can remember going in and seeing all the cars there. But part of the problem was what I remember as a kid is exactly how it was in 2023 when we closed. Lots of cool cars, but not a lot of interactive stuff. And for little kids, there was only so much you could do. 

Whereas now in the new, updated museum, there’s a boatload of stuff for anybody of any age to do. A lot more interactive stuff. There’s a specific area for little children to do hands-on stuff like slot-car racing. There’s an interactive pit stop challenge. We’ve got racing simulators. A program with an interactive, almost simulation-based thing, where scenarios play out before you. You’re essentially the crew chief: You select a scenario, and it tells you whether your car decreased position or increased position, and then you move to the next scenario. 

And we still have a bunch of cars displayed in an awesome way. Everything was kind of flat in the old museum, but some of the cars now are on a 9-degree banking, like the track. Others are at about a 45-degree banking, displayed so you can see more of the cars in different perspectives. 

Q: Are there other ways the museum will be different now? 

A: A whole bunch of ways. (IMS owner) Roger Penske has a special area in the back of the museum dedicated to his racing team and his successes at Indy, which have been numerous.  

There’s now a mezzanine. It used to be just one floor: the cars on display, and that was it. The ceiling was so high, so they built in a mezzanine that you can walk up and see the cars below you. Below the mezzanine is where the Borg-Warner (Indy 500 winner’s trophy) is displayed. Also, the basement is being utilized in the museum’s primary display area, where it used to be this gigantic off-limits thing where all the cars were packed. 

We’ll have about the same number of cars on display as before, just a little bit more spread out, and different angles, different perspectives that you didn’t get to see before. There are going to be, typically, two temporary exhibits. One right now celebrates the NASCAR Brickyard 400 with eight winning cars from that race. And then another temporary display is based on the four four-time winners of the Indianapolis 500. 

A lot of the other things are dedicated to the winning cars of the 500, and those are going to be more permanent on display. As far as artifacts, you’ll see a whole bunch more than you did before. A lot of that is located on the mezzanine level. 

Also, there’s a section dedicated to just about every major race that has been here. There’s a section dedicated to Formula One, some to sports cars, the Red Bull Air Race that was here for a couple years, to the USAC BC39 race that we have on the small dirt track out there. Before, the museum was geared almost 100% to the Indianapolis 500, but now we have space and the means to celebrate everything that was taking place here, not just the 500.

We get visitors, literally, from around the world. I’ve probably met someone from just about every single country in my 10 years here.

Brian Bobay (BA social studies education ’07)

Tour operations manager, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum

Q: If a museum guest were to ask you where they should go first now, where would you send them? 

A: In the old museum, people came in and said, “Where should I go first?” And it was like, “Well, your choice.” You’d walk in and you had all the cars in front of you — winning cars over to the right, special exhibit off to the left, and so on and so forth. 

Now it’s more of a guided path. You come in and the very first thing you see — and this is a neat thing right off the bat — is it shows the evolution of Gasoline Alley and the garage area. There are seven different garages with cars in them, and each one is period-patterned so you can see how the garages evolved as you’re walking through this exhibit. And as you look down, because the track surface went from something called taroid to brick to asphalt, the floor below you changes from era to era. 

That’s what you’re immediately greeted with. Then you walk around the corner, and that’s where the Purdue band is featured in the video that simulates the start of the 500.

Q: What are some of your favorite items to show guests at the museum? 

A: The Borg-Warner is always one of the more popular ones for people. And the Marmon Wasp, the winning car in 1911. 

My favorite thing is to show the evolution of the cars. It isn’t one specific thing — it’s that all together you can see what came after this 1911 Indy car. It’s amazing to tell people that it didn’t have seat belts or anything, and it’s still going highway speeds at that time period. So just think of the bravery of those drivers. 

I also like to tell people that the first rearview mirror is said to be on that 1911 car. The story behind that was, back in those days, cars always had a driver and a riding mechanic. Ray Harroun was the pilot of the Wasp in 1911, but it was a solo-seat car, so people complained that he didn’t have a co-pilot on board to look around and alert the driver if there’s a car around. To counteract that, Harroun installed what is thought to be the first rearview mirror up in the Marmon Wasp. 

Now, if you remember, the track in 1911 was completely brick. If you’ve ever been on a car riding on bricks, the rearview mirror was probably pointless because the ride was so bumpy. But it was there, so that gave the other drivers some comfort.

Q: What would you say is the primary role of the IMS Museum? 

A: We’re the custodians of the history of the place. Why is it important? Well, it’s a vital part of Indiana history. We get visitors, literally, from around the world. I’ve probably met someone from just about every single country in my 10 years here. They fly into Indianapolis, and even if they know nothing about our city, the one thing they know of is the Indianapolis 500, so they make their way here. 

Also, we’re the point of contact for people for most of the year. There are four or five major racing events at IMS, but every other day of the year when people come to the track, it’s us that they’re dealing with. So even though we aren’t exactly associated with the Speedway per se, we’re the face of it at times. So it’s our job to make a good impression and to emphasize why this place is important. 

Q: What does being the museum’s tour operations manager entail? 

A: Essentially, I make sure the trains run on time. I’m in charge of basically about 40 to 50 tour guides and drivers. So I make sure we have the proper schedules for guides. If need be, I create tour routes and work closely with IMS. 

A lot of people in Indiana don’t realize that the museum is actually separate from the Speedway. When people think of the museum, they think basically Roger Penske is running the museum. That’s not quite accurate. So a large part of my job is working directly with my IMS counterpart and seeing when we can have track access. If we can’t, what can we do beyond that? And then kind of taking that information and planning out the day from there.

Q: How long have you been interested in racing? 

A: Basically from birth. Obviously, being from (Fort Wayne) Indiana, the Indy 500 is on every single May. My dad started taking me to time trials when I was really young. My brother (Chris, BS civil engineering ’92), played trombone in the Purdue band from 1988 to ’92, so he was always there, because the Purdue band is always there. We were always looking on TV, saying, “Hey, where’s Chris?” And he always used to bring me back a little toy car, too. So all those factors played into my love of it. 

And then as I got older, I got into history, which is why I went to Purdue. The history of the entire facility is fascinating, dating back to 1909 — and some of the characters behind IMS, the history dates back even way before that.

Q: Leading IMS tours seems like a perfect job for someone who’s interested in racing and history. 

A: Oh yeah. People ask if I’m working my dream job, and I say, “Yeah. It’s still a job at times — all jobs are — but yeah, I’m definitely pretty lucky.” I originally thought I was going to be a high school teacher for the rest of my life. I did that for three years and decided it wasn’t exactly for me before I eventually came here. And now a decade later, here I am.

Purdue’s Academic Success Building in Indianapolis will enhance hands-on learning and innovation

For students like Aurelia Chelfannisa, the benefits of Purdue University’s new Academic Success Building (ASB) in Indianapolis will make a meaningful impact in more ways than one.  

The first-year biomedical engineering student is already taking advantage of a research opportunity with her professor. And she is excited that the new space will create more student research opportunities — plus offer a home away from home where she and her classmates can not only work and learn, but live and support one another.  

Originally from Singapore, she chose Purdue for the world-class engineering education she could receive in Indianapolis while attending college in a big city that reminded her of home. 

She is eager to have a space to strengthen the close-knit campus community. 

“This building will be a Purdue campus center to hang out and meet up for group projects,” she says. “Campus living also helped me feel welcome. This new addition will help a lot of students adjust to campus life.”

When it opens in May 2027, the ASB will further expand Purdue’s footprint in Indianapolis. It will be an innovative, all-encompassing central hub for students. The building will include areas for housing and dining, seven large classrooms, a makerspace, two chemistry laboratories, conference rooms, community venues, and retail spaces.   

“This is the first major new building in Indianapolis that will serve the long-term need for a real Purdue hub,” says David Umulis, Purdue’s senior vice provost Indianapolis. “A place for students to call home, participate, advance training, socialize and partner with the community.”   

Increasing access to partners 

The ASB embodies Purdue’s investment in its current and future students.  

Nestled in the heart of the city, the facility will be surrounded by a historic neighborhood and near corporate and nonprofit partners like Elanco, Elevance Health, Eli Lilly and Company and The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.  

 Zachary Lear, a sophomore double-majoring in mechanical and motorsports engineering, says that this proximity will continue to prepare him for a career in the automotive design world.  

Lear, who dreams of becoming an automotive engineer for a race team, already benefits from industry access in his classes and through exposure to the motorsports club in Indianapolis. He is thrilled about the flexible, tech-forward spaces the ASB will provide. 

“I feel that everyone can benefit,” Lear says. “Tech is evolving, and we need hands-on experience in working with 3D printers and the fabrication and design that’s important for engineering.”

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Enhancing hands-on training

Experiential education at Purdue focuses on seven main pillars, including work-integrated learning, research and scholarly projects, and engaged campus experiences.  These pillars extend to university programs like EPICS, a service-learning design program, and The Data Mine.   

Kate Caward, assistant director of the Office of Experiential Education in Indianapolis, says that the ASB will directly support these core offerings, creating more opportunities for undergraduate research, partner collaboration, industry mentorship and events like career fairs and industry interviews.  

“The ASB will provide space for us to grow and offer better services to our students,” Caward says.  

Those efforts will open doors for students like Ishita Mukadam, a freshman in biomedical engineering who founded the Purdue in Indianapolis Medical Association to increase student networking with the medical and health care industry.

Mukadam is driven to pursue and highlight health care on campus, and she’s confident that the resources available in the ASB will help students like her reach their goals. 

“I think a lot of people on campus feel a sense of community because we all chose Indy for a reason, which in a way unites us,” says Mukadam, who has already landed an internship at Neurava, a medical device startup focusing on epilepsy research. “Having a building of our own is going to be really valuable.” 

And this is only the beginning. Designed to provide both formal and informal educational opportunities in a centralized location in downtown Indianapolis, the ASB represents a giant leap toward realizing Purdue’s vision for its expansion into Indiana’s capital city. 

“Though this is Purdue University’s first major development in Indianapolis, it certainly won’t be our last,” says Evan Hawkins, Purdue’s senior director for administrative operations in Indianapolis. “We look forward to the positive impact our facility will bring.”

This is the first major new building in Indianapolis that will serve the long-term need for a real Purdue hub. A place for students to call home, participate, advance training, socialize and partner with the community.

David M. Umulis, Senior vice provost

Purdue University for Indianapolis

Student with Type 1 diabetes relishes meeting Purdue alum who leads R&D at the company whose CGM system changed her life

What would you say to someone whose work makes your life better?  

And what would it mean if that person attended the same university you do, knowing that their efforts allow you to live independently? 

When Purdue student Morgan Malaski met Girish Naganathan (MSME ’99), chief technology officer at California-based Dexcom Inc., she was thrilled to have an opportunity to answer those questions. 

“I’m really grateful for that experience,” she says. 

Morgan — diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 6 — doubts she would have been able to leave her home in Portage, Indiana, for college if not for Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system that she wears each day. 

Without a normally functioning pancreas producing insulin at sufficient levels to reduce the amount of sugar in their bloodstream, people like Morgan with Type 1 diabetes are at risk of developing life-threatening health complications. But thanks to the real-time feedback that Dexcom’s CGM technology provides, Morgan has been able to manage the chronic illness and thrive in her freshman year at Purdue. 

That’s one of the primary reasons that Morgan’s parents, Mindy (BA education ’99) and Matt, were also excited to meet Naganathan. Armed with the real-time feedback the device transmits, Mindy and Matt’s lives also changed for the better once Morgan became a Dexcom user at age 8. 

“Dexcom saves us,” says Mindy, who used to get up every two hours each night to check on Morgan before the FDA approved Dexcom for children’s use. “I could cry. The two years that we lived without Dexcom with her, it was frightening as a mom. I’m sure my cortisol levels were through the roof, just awake all the time, worried about my kid, worried that she wouldn’t wake up. But with the Dexcom, I can sleep and get through the night. It’s amazing technology, and it keeps getting better. We just love them so much.” 

Naganathan, who spearheads Dexcom’s research and development efforts, spent most of his career in the consumer electronics sector, so he was unaccustomed to hearing such passionate customer testimonials before accepting his current position. That changed almost immediately after joining Dexcom, when thank-you notes began rolling in from families like the Malaskis. 

“I had so many friends or colleagues write to me on LinkedIn talking about how it changed their life or how they don’t have to worry because of Dexcom,” Naganathan says. “All the stress of what goes on behind the scenes to make all this happen just fades away when you’re thinking about how the end result of what you’re working on has got this profound impact. 

“It was truly humbling. I realized I’m on a path doing work that really matters at Dexcom.” 

Indeed he is, and Morgan’s story is just one example of the good that can come from exceptional Boilermakers like Naganathan tackling the world’s toughest challenges. Diabetes increasingly fits that description, as approximately 30 million Americans have been diagnosed (Type 1 and Type 2 combined) with this condition that puts them at higher risk of heart disease, stroke and many other complications that can result in premature death. 

A normal life at Purdue

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Dexcom’s CGM technology is that it enables users to do the everyday, average stuff that would have been much more difficult without it. With the sensor attached to her upper arm, Morgan can more easily live 90 minutes away from home and enjoy the lifestyle of a typical college student. 

She’s studying biology and supports the College of Science as a student ambassador. She and her roommate signed up to play intramural soccer. And she joined the Higher Ground Dance Company, which allows her to participate in a favorite activity since childhood. 

She’s able to do all of that with a relatively low degree of stress because she knows her Dexcom CGM system will check her glucose levels every five minutes and alert her if it’s too low or too high. 

“The biggest advantage, and what allows that freedom, is just having that information,” Matt says. “Whether you’re actively looking at it or not, if it’s not where it’s supposed to be, it’s going to beep. Then you know you’re not in the right place. And so just having that information prior to going into a dance session where you know you’re going to be dancing for 45 minutes, an hour straight — ‘If I’m getting low, I should have something to eat before I start this.’ Knowledge is power.” 

“And it’s just nice to have backup in that situation,” Morgan adds. 

This fall, she’ll take part in her guaranteed internship with Eli Lilly and Company through the Lilly Scholars at Purdue program in another twist in her story as a Boilermaker with diabetes. The internship at the Indianapolis-based company will give her an opportunity to evaluate a longtime career goal of working in R&D in the pharmaceutical industry. And it will allow her to do so at the company that was the first commercial manufacturer of insulin. 

“That’s like a God wink,” Mindy says of the meaningful connection between the internship program and her family’s journey with the chronic illness Lilly is best known for combating. 

“It will be a full-circle moment,” Morgan agrees. “Since I was little, I knew I wanted to give back to the people who have developed and researched and manufactured things that either make my day-to-day easier or literally keep me alive.” 

There is another notable way that work being done at Purdue might someday make Morgan’s daily routine easier, and it might not seem especially obvious. 

A Dexcom monitor relies on two primary semiconductor devices to operate effectively: the analog front end that deciphers minuscule changes in a person’s blood glucose levels, plus the Bluetooth chipset that transmits the readings to a mobile device. The groundbreaking semiconductor research being done at Purdue could someday help Dexcom engineers create devices that are smaller, more accurate, more comfortable to wear, more feature-packed or that benefit from any number of additional innovations. 

“Semiconductors are critical,” Naganathan says. “Without semiconductors, the system cannot work.”

Since I was little, I knew I wanted to give back to the people who have developed and researched and manufactured things that either make my day-to-day easier or literally keep me alive.

Morgan Malaski

Purdue freshman and Dexcom user

‘You get used to beeps very quickly’ 

Although the Malaskis previously had no family history of diabetes, Morgan is actually not the only person in their household to be diagnosed with the disease. Her 14-year-old brother, Myron, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 10 and also uses a Dexcom CGM today. 

Their parents by now are accustomed to smartphone notifications, either from Morgan’s insulin pump or from the Dexcom Share feature that allows them to view the activity on each child’s glucose monitoring devices. 

“Around our house, you get very used to beeps very quickly,” Mindy says. “It gives us a little insight into what’s happening in that situation so that even now with Morgan being down at Purdue, if we get an alert on our phone, then we can see it and hear it. Because when she beeps, we beep.” 

Morgan began using the insulin pump during high school, thereby introducing another layer of precision to her daily fight against diabetes. The pump syncs with her Dexcom system and can respond autonomously, administering the exact insulin dosage necessary according to the monitor’s readings. 

“That’s another part of Dexcom that was a great next step for us,” Matt says. “We had the knowledge. Now we have something that could be done with it more actively, more precisely than we could do with the normal method of delivery, which was an insulin pen and needles. You have a certain amount of inherent being off when you’re doing it that way because you have to either give (insulin) in a full unit or in a half unit, whereas this gives such small doses that it can do zero-point-whatever that the algorithm determines is necessary to get within the range it’s supposed to be.” 

That range is a constantly moving target, however. 

Morgan is able to occasionally indulge in a sugary dessert or a carb-heavy meal like pizza, but she does so with the knowledge that diabetes never takes a break. While she can take proactive steps to counteract the effects of whatever she consumes, the need for vigilance is ever present. 

That constant battle is why Dexcom frequently refers to its customers as “Dexcom Warriors.” 

“Dexcom is the ammunition for them to truly fight against it,” Naganathan says. “It informs them. It gives them protection. It gives them alerts. It wakes them up. It indicates to them when they’re going to go high or low. And they can go about living their lives without thinking about the disease because there’s a device that’s working on their behalf, thinking about the disease, that’s the most accurate device in the world.” 

We want to support all of our patients. But when you bring it close to home to say it’s enabling somebody to go to the same school that you attended, it removes one more degree of separation and brings that closeness.

Girish Naganathan (MSME ’99) 

Chief technology officer, Dexcom, Inc.

Tough conversations, important tests 

Sending children away for college is a high-stress time for any parent, and that was especially the case for the Malaskis. 

They credit participation in a study at Chicago’s Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital — where their kids were treated for diabetes — for giving them the tools necessary to help Morgan and Myron become more independent. The Malaskis say the Transition Readiness: A Family-Centered Experience (TRACE) study provided space to have tough conversations with their children about being away from home and managing their own medical care. 

“The study provided us more meaningful avenues to have those conversations where it wasn’t adversarial,” Matt says. “It was just ‘Here are our thoughts. What are your thoughts? Where can we come to a consensus of what these next years are going to look like?’” 

One result of those conversations is that Matt and Mindy agreed to wait 15 minutes after receiving a Dexcom notification before reaching out to make sure Morgan addressed the situation. After the 15-minute mark, they are free to repeatedly contact her until they know she has taken corrective steps. 

“It gives them peace of mind that they can see it too,” Morgan says. “If they need to call me, they call me.” 

Sleepaway dance camps at Ball State University each summer also helped settle the Malaskis’ nerves, providing short-term opportunities for Morgan to prove she was ready for the responsibilities of college. 

“That was entrusting Morgan with ‘You want to go away for school, here’s your chance. You know what you need to do. You need to text us. You need to keep us in the loop.’ And she was very good about it. So we did feel confident when she was ready to go away to Purdue,” Mindy says. 

Morgan has always been a responsible kid, so her parents weren’t surprised that she passed another independence test with similar success at Purdue, largely thanks to the Dexcom technology. 

And when she and her family had a chance to meet Naganathan and thank him for the system that changed their lives, they seized the opportunity. 

“It’s really cool to meet one of the people who helps make my life so much easier,” Morgan says. 

Naganathan always enjoys the warm-and-fuzzy feelings that come from hearing about a Dexcom user’s positive experiences. However, he acknowledges that these testimonials seem extra meaningful when they have personal connections — like with a certain Boilermaker who thanks to Dexcom is better prepared to fulfill her potential and live a happier, healthier life. 

“We want to support all of our patients,” Naganathan says. “But when you bring it close to home to say it’s enabling somebody to go to the same school that you attended, it removes one more degree of separation and brings that closeness.” 

Purdue historian discusses legacies of Amelia Earhart, Lillian Gilbreth, Mary Matthews, Helen Schleman and Dorothy Stratton 

Most Purdue people know Amelia Earhart was a Boilermaker. 

But what about the other trailblazing women whose influence changed Purdue for the better? Do alums know about the former dean of women for whom Schleman Hall is named? Do students know why the Veteran and Military Success Center is named for Dorothy Stratton or that Matthews Hall is dedicated to the first female academic dean on campus? 

These are the stories that historian and author Angie Klink (BA communication ’81) especially loves to tell. 

“Amelia Earhart gets a lot of press, and we love her, but there are so many other stories to tell that go untold because people don’t even know they exist,” Klink says. “I’m always trying to get the story out there that’s fresh and new and that no one knows about. That’s important.” 

As is the case with several of her other works, Klink’s new book — “Purdue’s Female Founders: The Untold History of Trailblazing Women Faculty,” which Purdue University Press will publish in fall 2025 — shares the stories of Purdue women and their persistent pursuit of their ambitions. It covers multiple generations of important historical figures, from artist and professor Laura Anne Fry in the late 19th century to Christine Ladisch, who became the inaugural dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences in 2010. 

Many Boilermakers don’t know these women’s stories, but they should, Klink says. 

“That’s why it’s important to write these stories down, because other generations have no idea whose shoulders they’re standing on,” Klink says. 

As Purdue women icons, no shoulders are any broader than those of Earhart, Stratton, Lillian Gilbreth, Mary Matthews and Helen Schleman. For those who want to learn about their monumental impact on the university’s evolution, Klink is happy to share why these are five women every Boilermaker should know. 

AMELIA EARHART 

The iconic aviator’s time at Purdue was relatively brief — from 1935-37 — but her influence is evident across campus even today. 

There’s Amelia Earhart Residence Hall, which features a statue of the pilot outside the front doors. There’s the Amelia Earhart Faculty-in-Residence Program that allows participating faculty to mentor students while living in a Purdue residence hall, as Earhart did nearly a century ago. There’s the Amelia Earhart Scholarship for students who exhibit special leadership and determination. And who else could Purdue have named the new terminal building after when it brought back commercial air service to the Purdue University Airport? 

After all, Klink says, it was the airport that helped convince Earhart to accept a position at Purdue. 

“Purdue was the only college in the country that had its own airport, and that was what drew her here,” Klink says. “Plus, she wanted to influence careers for women. She really saw it as an opportunity to help women students.” 

For a few weeks each semester, Earhart lived on campus in Duhme Hall and worked as a career counselor for women students and advisor to the aeronautical engineering department. “Career counselor for women” was not exactly a job that existed anywhere else in 1935, but Earhart had already proven what women could accomplish when they pursued their dreams — and her ideas resonated with the women she befriended at Purdue like Stratton and Schleman. 

“The women students were in awe of her,” Klink says. “Who wouldn’t be? She was an international celebrity.”

(Amelia Earhart) wanted to influence careers for women. She really saw it as an opportunity to help women students.

Angie Klink (BA communication ’81) 

Purdue historian and author

Purdue’s airport was home base for Earhart’s preparations for the around-the-world flight attempt in 1937 where she went missing. The Purdue Research Foundation even financed Earhart’s purchase of a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane — she called it the “Flying Laboratory” — that she piloted during her ill-fated flight. 

After her disappearance, Earhart’s husband, George Palmer Putnam, offered a collection of her personal papers to the university because of her love for Purdue and Putnam’s appreciation of its support. 

The Amelia Earhart Collection is housed at Purdue Archives and Special Collections. Featuring nearly 5,000 items, from her flight helmet and goggles to her pilot’s license and will, it is the world’s largest collection of Earhart-related papers, memorabilia and artifacts.  

LILLIAN GILBRETH 

When describing Gilbreth’s place in history, Klink prefers to wait until the very end to mention the most common way she’s known to the general public. Leading with it feels … cheap. 

Klink would much rather share how Gilbreth became the nation’s first female engineering professor when she accepted a position with Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering in 1935. She became a full professor five years later and contributed to the departments of industrial engineering, industrial psychology and home economics, and she also consulted on careers for women through Stratton’s dean’s office. 

Klink would rather discuss Gilbreth’s landmark time-and-motion studies first conducted alongside her husband, Frank, and then well after Frank’s death from a heart attack at age 55. 

She’d prefer to share that Gilbreth was a pioneer in the field of industrial management, injecting psychological considerations into management theory and thereby demonstrating tactics that companies could employ to become more productive and efficient. 

But if all else fails and the other party is still unaware of Gilbreth’s story? 

“If they’re still looking out into the stars like they don’t understand, I’ll say, ‘Or have you heard of “Cheaper by the Dozen”?’” Klink says with a chuckle. 

That’s right; not only was Gilbreth “America’s First Lady of Engineering,” but her family was the subject of two semi-autobiographical books written by children Frank Jr. and Ernestine — “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “Belles on Their Toes” — that shared what it was like growing up in a household with 12 kids and two parents who test their efficiency theories at home. Both books were turned into movies in the 1950s, and “Cheaper by the Dozen” was remade in 2003 with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the lead roles. 

“To be that organized and have that many kids, the woman had a lot of energy,” Klink says. “She had a lot of drive. She knit and crocheted and made lace and walked so many steps a day. She was just an amazing person. Obviously, she used her time-and-motion studies on her own personal life.”

(Lillian Gilbreth) was just an amazing person. Obviously, she used her time-and-motion studies on her own personal life.

Angie Klink (BA communication ’81)

Purdue historian and author

In 2018, Purdue’s College of Engineering introduced the Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship program to prepare recent PhD recipients for careers in engineering academia through interdisciplinary research, training and professional development. 

MARY MATTHEWS

Matthews and her adopted mother, Virginia Meredith, are both important figures in Purdue’s history. 

Meredith, known as the “Queen of American Agriculture” in the late 19th century, became the first woman appointed to Purdue’s Board of Trustees in 1921. The university’s Meredith Hall is named in her honor. 

Her adopted daughter became the first female academic dean at Purdue in 1926 when she launched the School of Home Economics. She opened the first nursery school in the state of Indiana that same year at Purdue. 

Matthews’ commitment to sharing the latest home science with women at Purdue and beyond defined her tenure at the university. 

Klink’s book “Divided Paths, Common Ground” shares the story of Matthews and Lella Gaddis, whom Matthews hired to lead Purdue’s home economics Extension service and share knowledge about nutrition and food safety with rural women who had no connection to a college campus. 

“A lot of these things were vital for public health,” Klink says. “Mary was teaching it here on campus and Lella was taking it out to the countryside. A lot of the women were isolated on farms and they just learned from what ancestors handed down, and they’d been learning things that aren’t benefiting society at that time healthwise and efficiencywise.”

A lot of the women were isolated on farms and they just learned from what ancestors handed down, and they’d been learning things that aren’t benefiting society at that time healthwise and efficiencywise.

Angie Klink (BA communication ’81)

Purdue historian and author

After arriving at Purdue in 1910 as an Extension home economics instructor, two years later Matthews became head of the Department of Household Economics in the School of Science with 50 students under her guidance. By the time she became founding dean of the School of Home Economics in 1926, the program had 369 undergraduate students spread across five departments. 

When Matthews retired as dean in 1952, Purdue offered 150 courses in home economics (it had four in 1926) and boasted the second-largest enrollment of any U.S. home economics school. 

Constructed in 1923, the original home economics building now known as Matthews Hall was named in her honor in 1976. 

HELEN SCHLEMAN

One could reasonably argue that no individual did more for Purdue women than Schleman (MS liberal arts ’34). 

She remains influential to many Boilermakers with whom she interacted across the generations, even if she didn’t garner the national celebrity of an Earhart or Stratton — her close friend and mentor who brought Schleman aboard as her right-hand woman while leading the women’s reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II. However, Schleman’s persistence — and absolute refusal to accept the status quo — during a 20-year stint as Purdue’s dean of women (1947-68), and later in retirement, created a legacy that is unmatched in the university’s history. 

As a Purdue administrator in the 1950s and ’60s, Schleman sometimes faced pushback within university circles for staunch feminism that conflicted with the conservatism of postwar America. But she was the driving force behind numerous activities that chipped away at the traditional gender dynamics in place at Purdue and across society in that era. 

“She was always ahead of her time,” says Klink, whose book “The Deans’ Bible” details the special bond that existed between Schleman and four other Purdue deans: Stratton, Barbara Cook, Betty Nelson and Beverley Stone. “She said she was born too early, but really she wasn’t. She was born saying and doing these things when it was really, really needed to try to wake people up.” 

Schleman won out in a long fight to eliminate Purdue’s curfew for female students, making Purdue the first Big Ten university and one of the first in the nation to do so. She also led the fight for equal hiring, pay and benefits for Purdue’s female faculty and administrators, and she was ultimately successful in a court case that ensured participants in the university retirement plan would not be discriminated against on the basis of gender. 

While serving as dean of women, Schleman invited all incoming freshman female students to her office, where she would offer an individual welcome and encourage them to complete a degree that would allow them to be self-sufficient if necessary.

(Helen Schleman) said she was born too early, but really she wasn’t. She was born saying and doing these things when it was really, really needed to try to wake people up.

Angie Klink (BA communication ’81)

Purdue historian and author

“She’d say, ‘You need your degree. Because what if, God forbid, your husband dies, or you get a divorce? You don’t think you are now, but what if that happens? You need money to fall back on, a “Go to Hell Fund,” because of those catastrophes that can happen,’” Klink says. “That was unheard of in the day, to ask a woman that, or even to expect a woman to really have that little nest egg of her own put away for emergencies.” 

In 1968, Schleman founded and led Span Plan, which supports undergraduate nontraditional students — such as parents who delayed enrolling in college until after their children started school — as they enter the world of higher education. The program remains active at Purdue to this day. 

DOROTHY STRATTON

During her nine-year stint (1933-42) as Purdue’s first full-time dean of women, Stratton saw women’s enrollment nearly triple. This was in part due to her efforts to create opportunities for Purdue women. 

She managed construction of residence halls for women, pushed for women’s restrooms in all campus buildings and created a women’s employment placement center. She also attempted to implement a liberal arts-style curriculum geared toward women that would provide an alternative to studying home economics. 

However, her activities away from Purdue provide the first several paragraphs of her biography as a national historical figure. 

After America entered World War II, Stratton joined the U.S. Naval Women’s Reserve with encouragement from her dear friend Gilbreth, whom she called “Dr. G.” When the U.S. government created the women’s reserve of the Coast Guard, Stratton was transferred to become the program’s first director and the first woman commissioned as an officer in the Coast Guard. 

“They contacted her and said, ‘We need a woman to head up the Reserve of the Coast Guard, and you’re going to do it,’ maybe because she’d been dean of women,” Klink says. “She was very courageous and smart.” 

Stratton led the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, which she named SPAR (an acronym for the Coast Guard fighting motto “Semper Paratus, Always Ready”), through the end of the war and eventually achieved the rank of captain. Responsible for recruiting, training and utilizing women in SPAR — which was racially integrated from the beginning, not a military norm at the time — Stratton led more than 10,000 women who enlisted during the war. In 1946, she was awarded the Legion of Merit for her contributions to women in the military.

One of (Dorothy Stratton’s) adages she often repeated was ‘To be interesting, do interesting things.’ Well, she did, fearlessly.

Angie Klink (BA communication ’81)

Purdue historian and author

In 2008, the Coast Guard named a national security cutter the USCGC Stratton in her honor. It was the first national security cutter to be named after a woman. First Lady Michelle Obama christened the ship in 2010, saying, “As a woman, and as a mother of two daughters, as an American, I stand in awe of her life of service. And after all these years later, whether you’re a woman or a man, Coast Guard or another service, whether you’re military or civilian, every American can be inspired by her example.” 

In 2023, Purdue added Stratton’s name to its Veteran and Military Success Center. 

Stratton’s societal contributions didn’t end when she left the military. In 1947, she became the first director of personnel at the International Monetary Fund. She spent three years in that position before serving for the next decade as executive director of the Girl Scouts. Stratton was also the United Nations representative of the International Federation of University Women (now known as Graduate Women International) and served on the President’s Commission on Employment of the Handicapped. 

In the 1980s, Stratton moved back to West Lafayette and shared a home with Schleman, her dear friend of more than 50 years. She died in 2006 at age 107. 

“One of her adages she often repeated was ‘To be interesting, do interesting things,’” Klink says. “Well, she did, fearlessly.” 

It’s important to write these stories down, because other generations have no idea whose shoulders they’re standing on.

Angie Klink (BA communication ’81)
Purdue historian and author

Mimicking Indy’s iconic Yard of Bricks, Purdue’s track now features a row of original IMS bricks at the start/finish line

Out of the hundreds of racetracks in the U.S., only two have racing surfaces that include original bricks from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

One, of course, is IMS, where the start/finish line features the legendary Yard of Bricks — the only portion of the brick-covered track installed in 1909 that remains part of the current racing surface. These bricks hold such a special place in racing lore that winning drivers traditionally bend down to kiss them after a successful run at The Brickyard.

The other is the Purdue Grand Prix track, thanks to a generous donation by Doug Boles, president of IMS and IndyCar, and three Boilermaker alumni who facilitated the brick donation and installation last fall. 

“How cool is that, to be the only other track to have the original Culver brick in it?” asks Al Wurster (BS building construction technology ’85), a Grand Prix alum who first approached Boles with the idea three years ago. “The rich history of the Motor Speedway and what that brings to Purdue is pretty cool.” 

Luckily, Boles was receptive to Wurster’s pitch, agreeing to donate some of the track’s few remaining original bricks to form the start/finish line at the Grand Prix track. On March 12, Boles attended a ceremony where representatives of the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation installed the final IMS brick in the row.

“For me, this is just a way to remind people that the Indy 500 doesn’t exist without Purdue University and the people that have graduated from Purdue University,” Boles says, citing the many historical connections between Purdue and one of the world’s most famous auto races. “This is just one more way to say we belong together, Purdue and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

Although they are no longer visible except along the Yard of Bricks, the vast majority of the original 1909 bricks are still in place on the IMS track. They’re buried beneath several layers of newer racing surface from when the track was paved with asphalt in 1961 and resurfaced numerous times since then. 

The bricks now at Purdue came from the small stash that IMS keeps in storage, adding a powerful new link between the Grand Prix track and its big brother in Indianapolis.

For me, this is just a way to remind people that the Indy 500 doesn’t exist without Purdue University and the people that have graduated from Purdue University.

Doug Boles

President, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar

Old rivals reunite

Way back in the 1981 Purdue Grand Prix, race leader Bill Shumaker’s go-kart collided with Dave Fuhrman’s during a pass attempt, launching Shumaker’s kart end over end five times before it crashed into the fence that separated the spectators from the track. Fuhrman went on to win the race, while Shumaker was fortunate to be OK following one of the more violent Grand Prix wrecks that had occurred to that point. 

“During the ’81 race, he was faster and I was luckier,” recalls Fuhrman (BS aviation technology ’81), now president of the Purdue Grand Prix Alumni Organization. “His kart tumbled into the crowd, and he was out of the race at that point. That was the defining moment of the race, when we came together, and he couldn’t continue, and I did.” 

On an October afternoon more than four decades later, the former racing rivals found themselves side by side on the Purdue track once more. Only this time, they were creating a much happier form of race history, helping to install a single row of IMS bricks across the track at the start/finish line — leaving one central space for the final brick that was installed March 12. 

Fuhrman first had the idea several years ago when the alumni organization raised funds to have the Grand Prix track resurfaced. 

“I thought it would be a perfect opportunity with the new pavement down to try to request that the Speedway provide some pedigree bricks to put at the Purdue start/finish line to replicate the Speedway’s,” he says. 

So he took the idea to Wurster, who served as chair of the 500 Festival in 2006 and still maintains connections with Boles, the iconic racetrack’s head honcho. 

Fuhrman also approached Shumaker (BS building construction technology ’81) and his brother John (the 1983 Grand Prix winner), owners of Globe Asphalt Paving Co. in Indianapolis, about lending their expertise to the project. 

“They were the people that originally paved the new Grand Prix track that we’re on now,” Fuhrman says. “Over the years, they’ve also been instrumental in repairing damage and things like that on the track. Bill was all excited and volunteered and donated the materials and the expertise and the equipment to actually lay the bricks into the track.” 

Adds Shumaker, “They reached out and asked if I’d be willing to do it. All along I said I would and that ‘if you get the bricks, I’ll put them in.’” 

Sure enough, they did. But it was a process that required patience.

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Retrieving the bricks

Believe it or not, the guy who oversees the world’s largest sports venue has a jam-packed calendar. 

When Wurster first brought the brick donation idea to Boles a few years ago, the racetrack’s president agreed to help. However, like a rainy practice day in May, there were several starts and restarts before they were finally able to find a time where Boles could meet Wurster at the secret bunker where IMS keeps its stash of remaining original bricks. 

Because of the historic (and monetary) value of the room’s contents, only a select few have been granted access. 

“I’ve been told by Mr. Boles that that location is undisclosed,” Wurster says with a chuckle. “As well as how many bricks they have. I can’t disclose that either.” 

In 1909, the track owner hired Wabash Clay Co. in Veedersburg, Indiana, to install 3.2 million bricks — enough to cover the entire 2.5-mile oval. Wabash’s bricks, known as “Culver blocks” after patent holder R.D. Culver, made up roughly 90% of the bricks installed at IMS. The remaining bricks came from subcontractors that Wabash needed to help fulfill the IMS order, which took 63 days to install. 

All the bricks installed at Purdue are Culver pavers, some of which were unusually shaped or warped — likely because of the combination of their age and the inconsistency of the brickmaking process in the early 20th century. Wurster grabbed a couple extra just to make sure they had enough that would lie flat across the start/finish line. 

“In today’s age, when placing bricks on any project, you expect all the bricks to be exactly the same size,” Shumaker says. “But these things definitely aren’t. I’m not sure when they were made — turn of the century or something back then — but we had to leave a little more room for them in the concrete brick bed. They may not sit perfectly flat across the top, but we tried to average everything out so when cars go across them, it’s still pretty smooth.” 

Fuhrman selected a special brick out of the batch to sit at the center of the row. Because of the diamond-cut surface on the brick, he believes it once fulfilled an important purpose at IMS.

“As far as I know, the only place at the Speedway that the brick had diamond cut was at the start/finish line,” Fuhrman says, “so I think it has an actual pedigree to the start/finish line at the Speedway.”

Extending the Purdue-IMS partnership 

Purdue’s relationship with IMS and its signature race, the Indianapolis 500, stretches back more than a century. 

The Purdue “All-American” Marching Band has been the race’s official band since 1919, known for performing “Back Home Again in Indiana” moments before the race begins each year. The garage is well stocked with Purdue engineers who learned their trade at the only ABET-accredited motorsports engineering program in the country. And there are countless other Boilermakers who work behind the scenes to make “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” a success. 

The Grand Prix’s slogan even mimics that of the Indy 500. 

“When you talk about synergies, (the Grand Prix is) allowed to use the term ‘The Greatest Spectacle in College Racing’ for our race,” Wurster says. “So that tells you how deep that goes, in my opinion, with the Motor Speedway.” 

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Purdue student Wil Rohrbach, president of Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, believes the timing of the Grand Prix race each April helps it complement the monthlong festivities that take place in May for the 500. 

“It is pretty unique to Indiana to see people connected by racing and remembering where they’re from, their hometown roots,” says Rohrbach, a junior from Fort Wayne, Indiana, majoring in agricultural economics. “A lot of people go to the race at Indy every single year. And then especially if they grew up near Purdue, they would come here first in April and then go down to the Speedway in May. I view it like we’re an appetizer to the big race at the Speedway.” 

Now, because of the behind-the-scenes work by three Grand Prix alums, the connection between the appetizer and main course is further blended — adding a new layer of tradition for future Boilermakers who will also view the Grand Prix as one of the highlights of their college experience. 

“It’s an affirmation that the Purdue race does have significance in the state,” Fuhrman says. “Obviously, the size is significantly different, but the emotions and the competitiveness are very similar to the 500. Our state has a lot of iconic places, and the Speedway is at the top of that list. And if the Purdue Grand Prix can be part of that, even better.”

How cool is that, to be the only other track to have the original Culver brick in it? The rich history of the (Indianapolis) Motor Speedway and what that brings to Purdue is pretty cool.

Al Wurster (BS building construction technology ’85)

Purdue Grand Prix alum and chair of the 500 Festival in 2006