AAE senior Pulkit Parolia is the winner of the SGT Outstanding Senior award. The award has been given out annually at Purdue University since 1976 to a senior in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics who has proven himself or herself academically while maintaining a reputation for outstanding character among their peers.

SGT president Mac Goggin says the top ten seniors by GPA are selected and sent to the faculty for review. He says the names of those who pass the review process are then provided to all AAE seniors to vote for a winner.

“Pulkit won by a substantial margin during this voting,” says Goggin. “As a member of SGT, he will be nominated for the regional and national awards. In the last 40 years, Purdue nominees have won the national award four times, and the regional award fifteen times.”

Parolia says he is honored to receive this award.

“Within Purdue, Sigma Gamma Tau has been a big motivating factor for me, allowing me to meet some of the brightest minds who are more than willing to give back to the aerospace community” says Parolia. “I hope that I can do justice to this recognition by reaching out to more people and helping them realize the magic of flight.”

Parolia will be recognized at SGT’s all-member meeting in March. He is now a candidate for the Sigma Gamma Tau Great Lakes Regional Undergraduate Award. The winner of the regional award is eligible for the Sigma Gamma Tau National Undergraduate Award.

Parolia is set to graduate in December, then go to work for Rockwell Collins as a Systems Engineer. Parolia has worked a five-session co-op for the company for Systems Engineering on the Mitsubishi Regional Jet during the course of his undergraduate degree.