Córdova: Purdue Grads Thrive Globally

Purdue’s France Córdova explains what’s so great about being a Boilermaker:

  • Tell us something that not enough people know about your college or university that makes it such a special place.

Three points come to mind immediately. First, the Purdue brand is a global one; Purdue’s star shines brightly no matter how far one travels from Indiana. As president I have had the opportunity to meet alumni across the globe, and I’ve seen that Purdue graduates are highly successful leaders in business, government, education, and cultural and civic affairs worldwide. Their contributions have been transformational. This makes Purdue special—its graduates have traveled as far as the Moon, and made an impact wherever they have landed.

Second, Purdue focuses on its students. Purdue is a large university, but its colleges, residence halls, and student organizations allow students to enjoy the benefits of a large university and, at the same time, feel the closeness of a smaller institution. Alumni tell me that what they remember most about their Purdue years is that faculty, staff and friends encouraged and challenged them, and would not let them fail. When they graduated, they had confidence and knew they could compete with anyone. 

As Purdue enters a new decade, we are implementing a strategic plan that is focused on launching our students to be tomorrow’s leaders. We are examining the entire learning experience, beginning with admissions standards to ensure proper preparation, thematic learning communities, and orientation programs to build social networks and enhance retention. We have developed technology that alerts students if their grades are slipping so that they can modify behaviors before it’s too late. We are also expanding our scholarship program, with a blend of need-based and merit-based awards. We give our students the skills, experiences and high-quality education to become leaders, scholars, entrepreneurs, and well-informed citizens.

Finally, we connect our students to Purdue’s storied past. Our alumni have remained close to their alma mater, and they help our students both enjoy the college experience and reach for big goals, just as they did. We connect our present and past students through our many traditions. First-year freshman or 40-year alumnus, we are all Boilermakers.

Hail Purdue! 

Tomorrow: Indiana State’s Daniel J. Bradley

Córdova: Financial Aid, Lack of Direction Challenge Today’s Students

Today on higher education week on our blog, we feature guest posts from Purdue University President France Córdova. She answers:

  • What is the No. 1 change you would like to see in Indiana’s higher education system that would help serve students better?

Indiana is blessed with a rich array of opportunities in higher education. Students can attend community or regional colleges near their home, outstanding private four-year institutions, or world-class public research universities. The choice depends on their career plans, financial means, academic preparation and personal preference.

In spite of the choices, I’m hearing some common challenges that prospective students face when it comes to higher education: (1) the admissions and financial aid processes can be daunting, especially for those who are the first in their families to attend college; (2) students often do not know which college or university, or course of study, can best help them reach their educational and career goals; and (3) for a variety of reasons many students do not pursue their degree aggressively and fail to stay in college to degree completion.

At Purdue, we’re helping to answer these challenges in several ways:

  • We are employing more transparent online financial aid tools for students and their families. Also, we have launched a campaign to raise more scholarship funds for students who have demonstrable need for financial assistance, as well as for those who apply themselves in the classroom and show leadership potential.
  • To help students with college preparation and course selection, we are investigating the benefits of a campus-wide core curriculum, and we are working to simplify the transfer of courses among institutions, including from Ivy Tech to Purdue. Our regional campuses are looking at increased efficiencies in common credit transfer processes and shared resources, including a shared core curriculum to ease transfer among the campuses. Purdue’s campuses are working together to help power economic development across northern Indiana and everyone in the area will benefit.
  • Once a student enrolls with us, we work hard to help that student succeed. We have a large number of novel retention practices at our campuses, making use of experiential learning, information technology and social media.

We also encourage our students to be entrepreneurial through certification programs and through internships in our technology parks, Indiana companies and nonprofits; these learning experiences help the state keep more graduating students. 

Breakfast, Brinegar and Boilermakers

Our Breakfast with Brinegar program will make the trip north on I-65 to visit our Tippecanoe County members on Tuesday, July 8, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber, will discuss Chamber programs and services and you will have an opportunity to network with other local Indiana Chamber members. Dr. France Cordova, president of Purdue University, will kick off our breakfast. A Q&A session will be held for Kevin, as well. 

We considered hosting the event inside of the world’s largest drum; however, we decided to choose the Holiday Inn Select City Centre for acoustic purposes. We hope to see our members from surrounding communities, like Crawfordsville, Delphi and Frankfort.
 
The breakfast is free for Indiana Chamber members and $19 for non-members. Please contact Abby Hamilton at (317) 264-3793 or ahamilton@indianachamber.com to RSVP.
 
I was hoping I could offer a set of game-used Brian Cardinal knee pads as a door prize, but I haven’t had any luck to date.