"What was a GIANT LEAP in your life?"
For 150 years, Purdue alumni and faculty have left footprints, making the world and our lives better — even reaching the moon. Such pursuits often begin with an act of bravery, a new path taken or a passion ignited. In celebration of the University’s anniversary, we ask "WHAT WAS A GIANT LEAP IN YOUR LIFE?”
Share your own Giant Leap. Write to us at HHSLife360@purdue.edu.
Responses.
One of the most impactful Giant Leaps I took happened in summer 2004. I had just finished my sophomore year at Purdue University and was embarking on a six-week study abroad experience in Florence, Italy. I was nervous, excited, and somewhat prepared. Little did I know, that experience would launch my interest in global travel, international health research, and intercultural development. Flash forward to today, I am now creating these Giant Leap opportunities for my own Purdue University students as an Assistant Professor and Study Abroad Leader. I hope we (me and my students) continue to take Giant Leaps while leaving footprints behind in Florence, Italy for many years to come.
– Andrea DeMaria, Assistant Professor of Public Health
Two Giant Leaps come to mind. The first was when I left Australia to come to Chicago and set up an office for Tourism Queensland, the tourism marketing organization for Queensland Australia. In the years that followed, I traveled across the United States, Canada and South America, and gained great experience in marketing in the United States. The Giant Leap came after I began after I became an academic and moved my focus from tourism marketing to sustainable tourism. That leap gave me new insights into how tourism can be used as a tool for good in an ever more crowded world.
– Jonathon Day, Associate Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management
In 2004 (without much of a game plan) I left my acute care nursing position and moved to West Lafayette to live with my twin sister while she finished pharmacy school at Purdue. I actually thought nursing wasn’t for me and I enrolled in the College Pharmacy. Luckily at the same time I was working as a R.N. at the Indiana Veteran’s Home and fell in love with gerontology and community nursing. Soon after that I earned my master’s degree in community health nursing. The giant leaps continued…..I then applied for a staff position at the School of Nursing but when they saw I had a master’s degree (in an area where they needed faculty) they encouraged me to apply for a teaching position and I am FOREVER grateful for that opportunity and where it has lead me.
– Elizabeth (Libby) Richards, Associate Professor of Nursing
My “Giant Leap” was applying to, then starting a PhD program. I was a first generation college student and I didn’t know anyone with an advanced degree. I had no idea what to expect and quickly found that I was underprepared for the expectations of a PhD program. I was fortunate to be guided through the adjustment by Dr. Ginger Yang, an amazing researcher and mentor at the Ohio State University College of Medicine!
– Laura Schwab Reese, Assistant Professor of Health and Kinesiology
My “Giant Leap” was when I (along with soon to be wife) decided to leave a comfortable job to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree. We left jobs in our field of biology/environmental science in a place we loved, Sarasota, Fl, to go to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to pursue a new educational area to us, nuclear engineering. This “Giant Leap” truly changed our lives and brought us to where we are today at Purdue!
– Jason Harris, Associate Professor of Health Sciences, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Online Education