MVP Ukari Figgs reflects on NCAA championship 20 years on For Ukari Figgs (me’99), the 1999 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game got off to a rough start. She went 0–8 on her shots in the first half. Worse yet: Purdue trailed Duke by five. Figgs, however, was undeterred. She had been through too much in […]
Dr. Cornell A. Bell Business Opportunity Program marks 50th anniversary Tim Coleman (M’90) never planned to attend Purdue. An outstanding student in high school, the Indianapolis native had his eye set on Northwestern University, where he later earned an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management. But one conversation with the venerable Cornell Bell (PhD […]
Fifty years after his season of glory, the legendary football star reflects on his impact on and off the field Leroy Keyes laughs at the question. “Did I know where Purdue was when I was back in high school? I had no idea,” he says. Keyes (HHS’69) laughs again. It’s a big laugh, the kind that […]
How athleticism delivered Donald Winston from a life of poverty, hardship When a teacher asked Donald Winston what the most important thing in his life was, the freshman at Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis had a one-word answer: Football. Winston (T’00, MS T’01) was a non-Catholic and an African American in a predominantly white […]
From the honey-inspired to the technically inclined, these Purdue alumni are building businesses in their own likenesses. Given a couple of the strong suits of their alma mater, it’s not surprising that of all the former Boilermakers flexing innovative muscles in the marketplace, many earned degrees in science or engineering. Indeed, five of the six […]
For Nick Davis (LA’83), TV production is a path he was set on since his middle-school days. His uncle ran a summer TV-production program in New York City, which two of his older siblings attended. After hearing their stories, he was hooked for life. “I grew up watching and loving TV,” Davis says. “Production allowed […]
For Kara Ford (M’12) — or, as she’s more commonly known, DJ Kara — music is the heartbeat of her life. Although she majored in management at Purdue, Ford’s lifelong creative passion led her to Los Angeles, California where she found her calling as a DJ. “Sharing music is something I’ve done naturally ever since […]
Stephen McKinley Henderson (MA LA’77) has had a busy year. He appeared in two Oscar-nominated films, Fences and Manchester by the Sea, additions that are not too shabby in an already impressive résumé. Henderson started out as a math and political science major at Lincoln University, drawn to the precision of mathematics. But soon poetry […]
Mother’s poignant words led Frank Brown to the Pinnacle Frank Brown’s mother was illiterate. As an African American woman who lived in the first half of the 20th century, Amanda Brown was not afforded an education. “She couldn’t read, but I didn’t know this,” Brown (PhD S’69) says. “She critiqued and praised my schoolwork. She […]
A week after Abigail Ekeigwe’s (MS T’16) friend Nkechi gave birth by caesarean section last November, she was not healing, and she was experiencing severe pain and high fevers. “It was clear that she had a serious infection, although she had been on antibiotics. The doctor extended use for another two days, yet she had no […]
