Kevin and Laura Kapala could be found at Ross-Ade Stadium for almost every Purdue football game in 2024.

It didn’t matter that the season proved to be a difficult one for Boilermaker fans. It also didn’t matter that they’re not even Purdue alums.

“It might seem like Laura and I adopted Purdue,” Kevin says. “But, really, Purdue adopted us.”

Kevin and Laura, both graduates of Millikin University—a small private school in Decatur, Illinois—joined the Boilermaker family when their son, Alex, a senior in the Mitch Daniels School of Business, was accepted in 2021.

“Even though many things were still virtual during that time, every interaction had such a human feel to it,” Kevin says. “Through Zoom, we could tell that this is a supportive university that cares about its students.”

“Then three years later, Purdue was the first choice for our daughter,” Laura says. “As soon as she got in, we were really all in. We bought all of the stuff, and we wear our Purdue shirts all over the place here in Chicago!”

Inspired by their positive experiences with the university and the Purdue for Life Foundation, Kevin and Laura made the transition from excited parents to enthusiastic fans to engaged donors. As cornerstone members of President’s Council, the couple supports the Boilermaker Alliance, the Marshall and Susan Larsen Leadership Academy, the Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises, and the Daniels School of Business, where they recently agreed to fund a named space.

“We just really believe in Purdue and its mission,” Kevin says. “We’ve seen the equity that’s being built in the brand of the school and what that means for our kids today and for future students. Even though we’re parents and we’re paying for the education our students are experiencing, we want to give back so that other kids can also have fantastic experiences.

“It’s not about creating a legacy or anything like that. It’s just about supporting a really good university with really good people and a really good mission statement.”