AAE sophomore Wellington Froelich

Wellington Froelich still remembers the moment.

He was in sixth grade, sitting in the car with his mom, listening to the radio when he heard it: Space mining.

Even then, he was intrigued.

“I said to my mother, ‘This idea is so crazy … and I like it,’” Froelich says. “I think it’s cool.”

He figures that’s probably when he realized where his career path may be headed.

“I believe what I’m supposed to do with my life is to start a space mining industry and really get it going,” he says. “I know it sounds crazy, and it’s a really far-fetched dream, but that’s what I really want to do.”

By the time he was ready to enroll at Purdue, Froelich had another growing interest: Radio. Now, as a sophomore in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he is pursing both passions.

He hosts a one-hour show called “Eddie’s Causerie” from 9-10 p.m. Sundays on Wiley Radio. The show’s name stems from Froelich’s first name — Edwin — even though he prefers to be called by his middle, Wellington, and he admits no one calls him Eddie. The second part? Well, “causerie,” seemed like the perfect word for the format of his show, which focuses on conversations.

This year’s theme of the show, which Froelich started last year as a freshman, is to interview people who have technical projects on Purdue’s campus and professionals in industries that would appeal to listeners in the College of Engineering.

Though Froelich doesn’t have a target audience, he thinks first-year engineering students could find the show particularly interesting.

“I know if I had something like this (as a freshman) where I could listen to people being interviewed about their professional life, what made them go into which field and any decisive moments they had, and especially what they do on a daily basis, making my choice would have been a lot simpler,” Froelich says. “I have a lot of advice for freshmen.”

In Froelich’s second show of this academic year, he interviewed NASA’s Bill Green. Froelich was able to snag a high-profile guest because he had an in: Froelich spent last summer as an intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where Green was his supervisor.

But Froelich has had a wide variety of guests — whether it be fellow students sharing about projects, students speaking on decision processes of how they chose their majors, or industry professionals — and he’s hoping to continue to schedule guests who can give advice and tell great stories.

He also has a portion of the show with his thoughts on topics from industry journals, which certainly could include the latest takes on space mining but just as easily could be about the latest technology in other areas that he finds interesting.

Froelich plays music during his show, too, but that’s not meant to be the draw.

“We’re just sitting on the cutting edge of life right now because of all this technology that’s being developed, and I just want to enjoy the ride and fascinate about things and inspire people,” he says. “I love to learn about everything. So I’m hosting all these different fields. It’s not just aero. Because if people want to know, ‘What could I do in the Civil Engineering department or Electrical Engineering department?’ What do they do? What’s on the cutting edge of those fields now?

“I’ve got so much to talk about.”