What is Purdue for Life?
If you have 2 minutes and 47 seconds to spare, check out the video below! And if not…
The Purdue for Life Foundation is here to help you and everyone who loves Purdue stay connected, get involved, and give back. Many on our team are proud Purdue alumni. We’re all proud to serve an institution where giant leaps happen day in and day out.
RESOURCES FOR YOU
Four times a year, you can receive our award-winning Purdue Alumnus digital magazine in your inbox—for free! Share your email to get on the list. (The magazine used to only be available to Purdue Alumni Association members, but that changed when the Purdue for Life Foundation was founded.)
And if your inbox can handle just a little more, we invite you to subscribe to Boiler UPdate, which is sent once a month, on the first of the month. Instead of telling you what you can expect, let us show you—check out our inaugural issue from August 1, 2022!
In addition to lifelong learning experiences and opportunities to volunteer, we offer more than 175 events for Boilermakers to enjoy each year. In fact, there is a Purdue for Life event taking place somewhere in the world nearly every day.
A few we hope you’ll check out include the Purdue Women’s Conference (June 17–18), Grandparents University (July), and Homecoming (September 28).
What a privilege it is to be a Boilermaker, today and every day. Purdue people persistently pursue giant leaps, and the generosity of our Boilermaker family helps support our faculty, staff, and students every small step of the way.
Thank you for all you do to advance Purdue. If you want to do even more, there are many ways to give back. Two of our favorite ways include participating in Purdue Day of Giving and showing your pride with a Purdue license plate. Fun fact: Since launching in 1991, the license plate program has raised more than $13.6 million for the Purdue Scholarship Fund.
We get it, you get it, everybody gets it. A lot of email, that is. Four times a year, you can receive our award-winning Purdue Alumnus digital magazine in your inbox—for free! Share your email to get on the list. (The magazine used to only be available to Purdue Alumni Association members, but that changed when the Purdue for Life Foundation was founded.)
And if your inbox can handle just a little more, we invite you to subscribe to Boiler UPdate, which is sent once a month, on the first of the month. Instead of telling you what you can expect, let us show you—check out our inaugural issue from August 1, 2022!
In addition to lifelong learning experiences and opportunities to volunteer, we offer more than 175 events for Boilermakers to enjoy each year. In fact, there is a Purdue for Life event taking place somewhere in the world nearly every day.
A few we hope you’ll check out include the Purdue Women’s Conference (June 17–18), Grandparents University (already sold out for July, but you can get on the list to learn more for 2025), and Homecoming (September 28).
What a privilege it is to be a Boilermaker, today and every day. Purdue people persistently pursue giant leaps, and the generosity of our Boilermaker family helps support our faculty, staff, and students every small step of the way.
Thank you for all you do to advance Purdue. If you want to do even more, there are many ways to give back. Two of our favorite ways include participating in Purdue Day of Giving and showing your pride with a Purdue license plate. Fun fact: Since launching in 1991, the license plate program has raised more than $13.6 million for the Purdue Scholarship Fund.
PURDUE FOR LIFE SWAG
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us! The opportunity to enter for a chance to win Purdue for Life swag closed on May 31, 2024.
As a thank you for taking the time to learn more about us, we invite you to complete the form below to enter for a chance to win Purdue for Life swag.
The information collected will only be used to notify winners. Ten winners will be randomly selected to receive one item of their choice ($70 limit) from the Purdue for Life Apparel Shop. All participants residing in the United States are eligible to win. The odds of winning depends upon the number of entries received. For questions, or to request the names of the winners, please write to: Purdue for Life Foundation, Marketing and Communications, 403 West Wood Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
I’m walking with Grandparents University tour group near the steps of Hovde Hall. It’s a Thursday morning in July, and the only students around are between the ages of 7 and 14. I catch a snippet of a conversation between a grandmother and her grandson as she details the pranks she pulled with her friends around this area.
I smile because just a few months ago I was doing the same thing.
Grandparents University (GPU) is a two-day event where grandparents and their grandchildren embrace Purdue and all it has to offer.
Participants choose a specific major to study and attend a class taught by Boilermaker experts. The majors aren’t exactly like the ones we have here at Purdue, but they do get to do cool activities like creating hot sauce, designing monsters, flying drones, and cooking in a Purdue kitchen. It’s a great opportunity to see wisdom and curiosity combined in the classroom, as grandparents and their grandchildren collaborate on these projects. They’re equally willing to learn from the instructors —and from each other—while creating lasting memories.
They might not know it yet, but this Purdue experience at such a young age will help with their college decision in a few years.
My mother started working at Purdue when she was pregnant with me, so I’ve been familiar with the university my whole life. Many of my childhood memories are associated with different parts of campus, and these memories played a big part in my decision to attend Purdue. I was going to a place that I knew—a place I already considered a home away from home. In the same way, when these children make their college decisions, they will already have built connections with Purdue through Grandparents University.
It will also help they already have a Purdue degree!
At the end of GPU, the kids graduate just like regular students by walking across the stage of Elliott Hall of Music. They even have their own caps to decorate and keep—which is great because robe rentals would be a nightmare.
I had been to nine commencement ceremonies before my own in May, so I’m well-versed in Purdue graduations. Nevertheless, it was still fun to watch this one.
These children had learned so much more than what was taught in their major. They learned more about their grandparents and strengthened their connection with them. They learned about the university and what’s in store for them when they (hopefully) become Boilermakers. And at the Block Party, they befriended students they had never met before and hung out on Memorial Mall—just like regular college students.
It was almost exactly what I experienced throughout my college career. Yes, I got my degree and now have a job as was intended on this life path. But I also made lifelong friendships and went outside my comfort zone in ways that helped me grow as an individual.
Purdue shaped me and continues to shape me. I credit a lot of my growth as a person and a professional to my college career here, and a lot of what I know to the professors and instructors I had throughout my education.
Through Grandparents University, you have the opportunity to provide the same transformative experience for future Boilermakers. You can be the Purdue instructor that inspires a path that lasts a lifetime.
Patsy earned a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition in business from Purdue in 1969, in addition to an MBA in food marketing from Michigan State University in 1970. She retired from Kraft Foods in 2006 after 36 years in corporate food marketing and marketing communications management.
A community volunteer, Patsy serves on the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana Advisory Board and the Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council, in addition to the President’s Council Advisory Board. She is a former member of the Health and Human Sciences Alumni Board. Patsy held several offices from 2006 through 2013, including president and treasurer. She serves her community’s Discover Indianapolis Club in Fishers, holding several leadership roles for over 10 years.
Patsy has received several honors, including the Purdue University Nutrition Science Department Hall of Fame recipient in 2009 and the Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016. She also received the college’s Gold and Black Award in 2016, an honor reserved for donors who have moved the college forward by committing exceptional financial resources.
In addition to endowing two scholarships, the Patsy J. Mellott Scholarship and Patsy J. Mellott HHS Scholarship, she established the Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award in the College of Health and Human Sciences in 2013. In 2015, she endowed the Patsy J. Mellott Women’s Tennis Coach Performance Award. She is a lead donor in the Christine M. Ladisch Faculty Leadership Award and the Purdue Women’s Network Virginia C. Meredith Scholarship for the College of Health and Human Sciences.