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BRAGGING RIGHTS
U.S. News & World
Report ranked Purdue
No.6
among most innovative universities in the
United States.
says Evens. “The response was so overwhelming that we
had to merge teams and allow up to six participants per
team to accommodate everyone. These students did not get
paid to participate, nor did they receive credit. They simply
came together to support a community they love.”
Over the five-week experience, 67 teams sought answers
to four scenarios. Scenario 1 considered how best to maintain health and safety practices on campus given that twothirds of the Purdue community leaves campus each day
to return to off-campus housing. Scenario 2 challenged students to suggest ideas for creating and building a sense of
community given the remote and hybrid educational environment currently demanded by the pandemic. Scenario
3 asked students to suggest ways in which the University
could safely preserve the residential student experience.
And Scenario 4 queried participants for ideas on providing
a robust cocurricular and career development experience
to students studying on campus and remotely, particularly
with respect to professional development and leadership
development. For each scenario, 28 corporate and alumni
judges selected a top team, an honorable mention team, and
a Boilermaker Spirit Award team.
Participant Noor Abdullah, a junior biology and global
studies major with an interest in premed, says she was
drawn to ProjectX after realizing that her summer studyabroad plans were no longer viable. “My friend Kareem
Harb is a finance major in the Krannert School,” she says.
“When I saw the notice about the experience in a group
chat, I reached out to him, as it seemed like a great opportunity.” Abdullah joined Harb and teammates Gwynelle
Condino, Jack Sharba, and Calvin Huang on Scenario 1 to
address the challenge of promoting safe practices in the
off-campus population. The Suclean-Theorists, as they
dubbed themselves, ultimately took top team honors for
their solution, an online app called Purdue Pass that controls people’s access to campus via a link to their Purdue
ID card.
// DIVERSITY & INCLUSION //
Equity Task Force
The Purdue Equity Task
Force, launched in August, will work to develop
a plan for all campuses
with specific actions to
ensure that all members
of the University community have the opportunity
to equitably experience
everything Purdue has to
offer, focusing on structural and environmental
barriers to the success
of students, faculty, and
staff of color and specifically the experience of
10 PUR D U E A LUMNUS
Black Boilermakers.
Charged by and reporting directly to the Purdue
Board of Trustees, the
task force will be led by
trustee Don Thompson
(ECE’84). The initiative
will incorporate the
diverse perspectives of
the Purdue community
and will include representatives from faculty, staff,
students, and alumni. A
Abdullah found herself energized by the experience. “Our
team dynamic flourished,” she says. “We come from diverse
majors, and each of us asked different questions, which
enabled us to come up with solid recommendations.” Working with alumni coach Cody Mullen (M’12) was fun, too, she
observes. “Cody was insightful and encouraged us to develop
our ideas and plug holes in our concept. He was really helpful.”
Alumni coach Jennifer Liu (M’98) also found the experience rewarding. The program management office director
for OBXtek, an information technology and professional
services company, served as the sounding board for Quaranteam, the group of four students who took top team honors in Scenario 2. Liu lauded the consulting experience, both
for the exposure it offered the students and for the opportunity it offered her to give back to the University. “I think
it’s important for the students to have contact with individuals they could be working with after they graduate,” she
says. “Initiatives like ProjectX teach them to ask the right
questions and develop their thoughts. And I would like to
think that as their coach, I posed some provocative questions; for example, ‘How do you incentivize people to use
your app? What’s in it for them?’”
Given the positive feedback from students and alumni
alike, Evens is confident that ProjectX will not be the last
university-sponsored consulting experience involving students. “There’s no doubt it’s going to live on in some form,”
she says. “The framework we constructed for this experience will work in numerous situations.”
Evens concedes that the pandemic has presented challenges, but she is confident that by working together, Boilermakers will prevail. “We’re a strong community, and our
students and their ideas are valued,” she asserts. “During
the ProjectX consulting experience, the students worked
together to contribute to a community they love, and we all
emerged as winners. The school wins with every idea that’s
implemented, and the students win by building on their
experiences, ideas, and friendships.”
dean’s advisory group and
a separate planning group
will advise and support
the steering committee in
its work.
“Each and every member of this task force is
coming from a different
place, a different life experience, and with different
perspectives. And all are
personal and relevant,”
Thompson says.
“We intend that what
we do this fall will forever
change how students,
faculty, and staff experience Purdue University. I
truly believe this can and
will be one of the most
impactful and important
initiatives I have been
part of as a member of the
Purdue community and a
Purdue trustee.”
—PURDUE UNIVERSITY
