Hello, Boilermakers. I'm Andrea Chavez,
a proud graduate of the aeronautical and
astronautical engineering program
at Purdue. There's a big day coming up
and it has me thinking about how my time
there has helped me meet the challenges
that have come my way over the years
both personally and professionally. Of
course I have lots of fun memories from
my time there
but like most things it was the tougher
days that made me stronger.
One of those was the day of the Space
Shuttle Challenger accident
a devastating event for our nation and
particularly heartbreaking for those of
us in the program at the time.
Students faculty staff we all came
together
to process that event and to persevere
and be ever more dedicated
to unwavering integrity responsibility
and excellence in our endeavors. Those
values are timeless and I lean on them
every day as I lead our national defense
operations and planning at Ball
Aerospace. And today we're all in a tough time. This
COVID-19 pandemic
is presenting new challenges of its own
and we have throngs of Purdue students
energized to get back to campus with big
ideas and hopes and dreams
and faculty and staff that are fired up
to help them achieve them. That is also timeless. So I'm asking you
to join me
to help them meet the challenge on
September 9th, the Purdue Day of Giving. Let's
contribute
to encourage them to be strong be
resilient
and ever committed to making the world a
better place. For the aeronautical and astronautical
engineering department a heartfelt
congratulations on 75 years of
excellence. I can't wait to see what the next 75
bring and to Boilermakers everywhere
be well be safe mark your calendars for
September 9th, the Purdue Day of Giving and Boiler up
