Growing up on a farm in Daleville, Indiana, Mary Findling (LA’72) didn’t have the opportunity to travel. While studying abroad as a Purdue student, however, she developed a deep passion for seeing the world and now enjoys providing others with similar experiences.
In 2014, she established the Mary Findling Liberal Arts Scholarship Challenge, which matched up to $1 million for scholarships in the College of Liberal Arts, including funds to support study-abroad experiences.
“I’ve always believed people should give back to their universities or to other charitable organizations,” Findling says. “Studying abroad in Germany was such an enlightening time for me—and probably one of the best years of my life.”
When she was 6 or 7, Findling visited her maternal grandfather and great-grandparents who were living in Massachusetts but hailed from Italy. While her grandfather spoke English, her great-grandparents did not. That experience changed her life.
“I remember going to their home, and they were speaking Italian,” she says. “I found it so interesting that they were communicating in another language.” Findling then asked her mother for an Italian-English dictionary and started learning some words. By high school, she recognized her keen ability to understand languages and how they work.
After graduating from Purdue, Findling attended the University of Michigan to complete her graduate studies in German and Germanic languages and literature. She then obtained a teaching license and became a German instructor at Muncie Central High School in Indiana.
“Some people can learn foreign languages easily, while others have great difficulty with it,” Findling says. “I happened to be someone who can pick up languages fairly quickly, and I could see that ability in some of my students as well. They had a knack or natural ability for the language and were able to learn German quickly and speak it well.”
Findling went on to earn her law degree and after nine years of teaching became a medical malpractice lawyer. She continues to work part time and will soon become a citizen of Italy, a country that allows dual citizenship with the United States.
An Indianapolis resident, Findling also loves traveling the world with her husband, John Hurt, and considers Paris her favorite destination. “We’re going to London this year, plus the Basque Country in Spain and France,” she says.
Closer to home, the couple attends Purdue football and basketball games to cheer on the Boilermakers, something Findling enjoyed doing as a student. “I never missed a game while I was attending Purdue,” she says, noting that she equally enjoyed her time in the classroom.
“The professors I had at Purdue, particularly in the German department, truly cared about instructing and helping us learn the language,” Findling says. “It was a wonderful experience.”
