Supporting the Persistent Pursuit of the Purdue Experience
In 1894, against insurmountable odds, David Robert Lewis walked this campus and became the first African American to receive an engineering degree at Purdue University. His years at Purdue coincided with the tumultuous Jim Crow era when African Americans could not live on campus, and had to be on the other side of town and off the streets by sundown. His senior thesis, titled “Highway Road Construction,” expressed a dream that he had when interstate highways didn’t exist in the United States of America. His topic was a prophetic gesture. Little did he know that his pioneering accomplishment would become a highway for future generations of engineers. We stand on the shoulders of giants!
His image proudly displayed in the School of Civil Engineering has been an inspiration to many students to stay the course, graduate, and celebrate a great accomplishment. After graduation, Purdue Engineers reap tremendous benefits of being a Boilermaker. They pursue successful careers as engineers, professors, entrepreneurs, inventors, doctors, corporate executives, and leaders who impact the world!
For today’s students, college affordability is a major factor for not choosing Purdue and we are losing some phenomenal students to schools with more competitive scholarship offers. We appreciate Purdue alumni who have pledged their active support to increase scholarship offerings at Purdue. Increased support for the 2021-22 academic year had a tremendous impact on scholarship offers and yield. We were not only able to provide support for incoming First-Year Engineering students, but we were also able to support continuing engineering students who without intervention would have withdrawn from the university.
We are inspired by the inscription on the Unfinished Block P sculpture, “... treasure all that Purdue has blessed us with and to keep the Purdue experience close at heart, not only for ourselves but for all that we loved here and for all those students who, for various reasons, did not get the opportunity to complete the Purdue experience.” Your gift to the Minority Engineering Program improved college affordability of Purdue for underrepresented students and students with need. It has opened up new opportunities for students to complete and experience the benefits of a Purdue degree.
Less than 2% of underrepresented alumni actively support MEP through charitable gifts. With over 3,000 underrepresented alumni to appeal to for support, there is no limit to what we can accomplish as an organization. We need the support of our alumni and friends, like you, to help students that otherwise would not have access to our programs. My aspirational goal is for 500 Purdue alums to give a perpetual, monthly gift to the Minority Engineering Program.
Boiler Up!
Virginia Booth Womack, and the Staff of the Minority Engineering Program
To support our programs and students go to: connect.purdue.edu
