Dean Chiang and Athletic Director Mike Bobinski Meet with Student-Athletes
60 student-athletes were recognized on April 9 in a private reception with Athletic Director Mike Bobinski and coaches, hosted by the Dean of Engineering, Mung Chiang.
In addition to Boilermaker football quarterback Elijah Sindelar, an Electrical Engineering major who led the team at the Foster Farms Bowl in December, the College of Engineering is proud to be represented on the following intercollegiate teams by engineer-athletes:
- Women’s basketball: 2
- Football: 8
- Men’s golf: 2
- Women’s soccer: 6
- Softball: 2
- Women’s swimming: 5
- Men’s swimming: 13
- Men’s tennis: 1
- Men’s track: 9
- Women’s track: 3
- Volleyball: 2
- Wrestling: 4
All Work and Overtime Play for Engineering Student-Athletes
They work 40 hours a week, after classes are done, on the basketball, tennis, or volleyball court; the football, baseball, softball and soccer field; wrestling, swimming, golfing. These are Engineering’s student-athletes; there were 58 men and women this year who represented the Boilermakers on Division I teams. Three of them share their experiences balancing athletics and academics:
Women’s Basketball
Dominique Oden, who just completed her sophomore year in Civil Engineering, is a shooting guard for the women’s basketball team. She attends three-hour practices up to six days a week, plus games. Engineering helps with the technical part of basketball, she says, while basketball gives her a release from studies.
Oden is quickly becoming one of the highest scoring athletes in team history. She’s the first player at Purdue to hit at least 50 3-point field goals in each of her first two seasons, and at 868 points, she has scored the third-most points of any player in program history after their sophomore season.
Purdue Athletics describes Oden as someone to watch: “At her current pace, she could finish as an all-time top-10 scorer for the Boilermakers. Any improvement or increase leaves her with an extremely high ceiling, and the opportunity to do something incredibly special.”
Oden lived in New Orleans until her family was displaced by Hurricane Katrina and settled in Georgia. She has been fascinated with engineering since elementary school years when she accompanied her uncle, an architect, to a job site. She’s likely to do something special in engineering, as well as basketball.
“I hope to make sustainable structures for the world at large and build relationships that positively impact those around me,” says Oden, who will intern this summer with Purdue’s Engineering and Architectural Services Group while attending daily lifting and conditioning sessions, and hour-long basketball workouts twice a week.
Track & Field
At the age of 5, when Christopher Hunnewell watched the Space Shuttle launch, his career plans were set. Hunnewell, who competed in Javelin Throw, Hammer Throw, and Weight Throw for Purdue Men’s Track & Field, will graduate on May 13 and begin life as an aerospace engineer.
The Minnesota native says an AAE degree is a great launching pad for his career goals: “Between the commercialization of the space industry and the push to get people to Mars, the space industry is seeing a lot of expansion. I would like to be part of this boom and have the opportunity to be part of R & D efforts that develop new technologies. I would also love the opportunity to be part of the team working on the launch vehicle to send people to Mars.”
In addition to classes and athletics, Hunnewell assisted on research at Purdue’s Maurice L. Zucrow Laboratories, the world’s largest academic propulsion lab. He calls the experience a highlight of his studies.
“Getting the opportunity to apply what I have been learning in the classroom in a hands-on setting, as well as see what is on the cutting edge of our industry has been an incredible experience and one of my favorite parts of being at Purdue,” he says.
Hunnewell and fellow student-athletes say that time management is essential to survival. There is no room for procrastination and plenty of opportunity to work on problem solving. “Often on the road I did not have access to a lot of the on campus resources needed to do an assignment,” Hunnewell says. “This taught me to plan ahead and step out of the situation and ask myself what I could do to make progress on the assignment or if I could find a way to complete an assignment in maybe an atypical way.”
With practice, training and competition occupying some five hours of each day, the track athlete says he needed to get creative even to find time to eat.
“It is always difficult when you have six to eight hours of homework to do in a night and you are in practice until 7 p.m. and still need to eat. There is no trick to it, really. You just have to make the conscious decision to get it done. That can mean a lot of late nights, but as long as you don't waste time earlier in the week before the deadlines it is usually doable,” Hunnewell says.
Women’s Volleyball
Ashley Evans, a setter for the Purdue women’s volleyball team, will graduate May 13 with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. She hails from a family of engineers; her mother is a mechanical engineer who has worked for GE for more than 30 years, and her father worked for various firms as an aerospace engineer before earning his MBA and moving to the business sector.
Evans was inspired to pursue an engineering degree by both parents, who she describes as “extremely passionate about their fields of study and work,” with family meal conversations usually revolving around technical topics related to engineering. “I loved hearing about the work my parents performed and engaging in intellectual conversations around how the world operated from an engineering perspective,” she says.
The Ohio native committed to Purdue women’s volleyball her sophomore year in high school. “Being able to study engineering at one of the best schools in the nation while simultaneously playing for a Top-25 Division I volleyball team was the perfect combination that I was searching for and was blessed to find,” says Evans.
Graduation does not mean the end of volleyball for Evans. She will head to Europe in August to play volleyball professionally, but ultimately plans to work in the biomedical field. That area will allow her to combine her passion for applying mechanical and engineering principles to the human body with research and development of biomedical devices.
“One of my biggest passions is giving back and making a positive impact on the surrounding world and in the lives of suffering individuals regarding their health or wellbeing. No matter what company I end up working for, I know the work that I do will be for the betterment of society and the health of individuals in need,” she says.
During Evans’s five years at Purdue (she was a fifth-year redshirt), Evans spent on average seven hours, five to six days a week, on volleyball. This included team practice, rehab, recovery, team meetings, film sessions, individual practices, meals, weight lifting and conditioning, volunteering activities, game days, traveling, interviews and more. Like all student-athletes, she missed lectures due to team travel, learned to study on the road, and made social sacrifices. Evans did, though, find time to assist with engineering undergraduate research for two summers; serve as vice-president of the Student-Athlete-Advisory Committee (SAAC) which is the student-athlete voice on campus and the liaison between Purdue athletics and the NCAA; and lead Boiler-Maker-Wish, a student-athlete foundation that grants athletic wishes to Boilermaker fans who face physical adversity, a disability or a life-threatening illness.
“I have managed to be a Purdue athlete and a Purdue engineer by simply loving and having a passion for both,” Evans says. “Being an engineering student and a Division-1 athlete simultaneously are two full-time jobs that have incredible demands, and it is impossible to do both if joy and passion are nonexistent.”
All three Engineering student-athletes admit that their undergraduate experience has not been typical, but say the rigorous mix of classes and a commitment outside of studies is doable and a good recipe for success, no matter the student.
“Dedication, commitment, an intense work-ethic, incredible time-management and the ability to work on a team. To be successful in one requires success in the other,” Evans says. “Showing that success can be achieved in both areas while loving the daily grind serves as an example to potential students and athletic recruits that there is more to Purdue and an individual’s college experience than just academics.”