 Hi, I'm Kate Young, and you're listening to This is Purdue, the official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know firsthand about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking. Who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these boiler makers? Join me as we feature students, faculty and alumni taking small steps toward their giant leaps, and inspiring others to do the same. Ready to roll. My job is quite cool. I'm fully aware of this. I've interviewed Olympic athletes, Mars scientists, and of course we have a few more Purdue icons being featured on This is Purdue in the coming months. But this project, the work that went into creating this episode, well, this is one I'll never forget. I guess I should go back to the beginning though. In May, Purdue University came up with a creative plan to encourage students to get vaccinated as part of the Protect Purdue Initiative, the old golden ticket vaccination drawing. The prize, the golden ticket, $9992. The equivalent of a year's undergraduate tuition cost for an in-state boiler maker since 2013. And 10 lucky boiler makers who submitted valid proof that they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 15th would win that golden ticket. The drawing was open to current and admitted students enrolled for the fall 2021 semester on the West Lafayette campus. All undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree seeking students, regardless of residency were eligible to enter and win. And so here we are. This episode highlights the behind-the-scenes details of the Purdue marketing and communications team pulling off these ultimate surprises from finding students on campus to crossing state lines, to getting families in on the celebration. Really, though? Oh, golden ticket. Are you serious? Gathering the 10 winners and figuring out how we would talk to them without spoiling this massive surprise was complex to say the least. The other issue, we had less than a week to pull this off. So we got to work immediately. We'll start at the beginning. Our first winner was actually fairly easy to track down. He happened to be part of Purdue's Summer Start, a five-week summer module designed to jumpstart students' college careers. He also picked up on my very first phone call. This, this was huge. So what was our ruse? I simply asked the student if he was interested in being interviewed on the This Is Purdue podcast. And he said, sure. We organized a surprise on a Friday at the Engineering Fountain, and it was just another casual 90-degree humid summer day in Indiana. I met Quinton Betts of Indianapolis, Indiana outside of his math class, and we walked together to the fountain. Before he knew it, he was greeted with a crowd of people holding balloons, the Purdue fight song glaring from the Boilermaker special, and Purdue Pete holding an old golden ticket. How are you feeling right now? A little shocked, I guess. Yeah. Wait, so you're surprised? Yeah. Yeah. Quinton is heading into his freshman year at Purdue and is studying finance. He also attended Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indianapolis, commonly referred to as PPHS, this high school was created to build new K-12 pathways that lead to Purdue, especially for Indiana students who are underserved by traditional high schools and underrepresented in higher education. If you haven't checked out our PPHS episode with Principal Chateau Award, please go back and listen to that after you're done with this episode. Quinton tells us about his time at PPHS. Ultimately, I'm glad I went there. I did a lot of things that put me on my comfort zone. Made me a better person. I did football, all types of sports. Ultimately, I'm going to Purdue and I love the school. So I spent like a summer here before, and it was, that's kind of like convinced me to go to college. Like I thought about enlisting before coming here, but they introduced me to ROTC here and that's kind of what made me want to come here. So $9,992, that's a full year of tuition in state. Like what are you thinking right now? God is good. Definitely, yeah. That's probably what I'm thinking. I didn't think I was going to win, honestly. I just kind of entered, kind of magic tricked me. I would've worked something better. Quinton also touches on what this tuition money would mean to his mom. She might cry. She did a lot of things for me going to college. Probably the only reason I really came to college to be honest with you. Like I didn't know how to, she applied for like FAFSA and stuff like that for me. She's been really good influence on me, yeah. After FaceTiming his mom during a Boilermaker special ride, he teased her. See, aren't you glad I didn't go to IU? Our next stop, Fort Wayne, Indiana, about two hours northeast of campus. This was our first time being able to surprise a student at their house. And this one was fun because this winner's parents were in on the surprise. We rang the doorbell at Isabella Peglione's house. Hi. Hi. Are you Isabella? I am. Nice to meet you. Do you mind stepping out here? Mom and dad can come out too. Thanks for agreeing to do this. Yeah, of course you're welcome. We actually have a special surprise for you. Do you know the old golden ticket vaccine you're on? I do. You won! Really? We kind of tricked you. You will be okay. You will be on the podcast. Tell us how you're feeling. This is insane. I never thought that I would win, but that's awesome. After the shock wore off a bit, Isabella, an incoming freshman majoring in biology at Purdue, discussed the importance of the Protect Purdue initiative. Why was it important to you to get vaccinated? Oh, it was super important. Just the pandemic like hit us a lot. My dad, he was more high risk so I had to always be super careful. So when the vaccine became available, I wanted to get it as soon as possible to keep everyone in my family protected. And why do you think it's important for boiler makers overall to get vaccinated and keep everyone healthy around us? Just to keep the campus safe, you know, I don't want COVID to spread through and ruin our in-person classes again. So $9,992 in state tuition for a full year. Oh my goodness. How does that sound to you? It's crazy because I was always like worried about like student loans and stuff. So just having like one year covered is insane to me. That is awesome. This was also our first reveal that involved the winner getting showered with gold confetti. That was our senior brand manager, Bailey's idea, after we bought some black and gold balloons that deflated way too quickly after our first reveal. That confetti was amazing, by the way. We were nervous it wasn't going to go well. I spoke with Isabella's dad, Mark, to arrange this surprise and he couldn't help but gush about his daughter. They were so proud of her for choosing to go to Purdue. She can do anything, he said. And when it came to Isabella getting the vaccine to keep others safe, he was proud about that too. Yeah, I think this is awesome that Purdue is doing this. Anything that can keep students and faculty safe. We're all really proud of Isabella for stepping up and taking that step. A few days later, Mark texted us. Thanks again for doing what you do and making that day one that we'll always remember. Okay, two down, eight to go. Our next winner happened to be a student who grew up in West Lafayette. Our crew surprised her at her house and I pretended that I had a special package that I needed help with. We have a special surprise. You scared me. I got one, it's the old one that's taking a drive. Surprise? Yeah? What did your mom and dad tell you? We've been conspiring about it. Oh really? I haven't heard anything about it until yesterday. They were like, you have a special delivery coming tomorrow, make sure you look decent. That's all I knew. I still just can't really believe it, like to think of how many students are at Purdue, how many students got vaccinated and entered this and like it's me, like that's insane to me. Hunter Skelton, a pharmacy major who also plays the mellophone in Purdue's All-American Marching Band is the oldest of five siblings. And this full year of in-state tuition money will go a long way for her and her family. Yeah, it means a lot. You know, I have four more years of school left and Rachel's just went up because I'm in like graduate school now. So this means so much to me and my family, like I'm the oldest of five. So they got, you know, my parents got a lot coming and me too, you know? It just means a lot, you know, for starting my future and getting to where I wanna be. After pulling off this surprise, we cruised around her neighborhood with her siblings and the Boilermaker Special. Let's just say it wasn't a typical Tuesday morning for anyone involved. Hunter sums up the Boilermaker community perfectly. I love Purdue. I, you know, I'm a townie and my whole life, I was like, I'm never gonna go to Purdue, you know? Like, gotta get out of here. But then once I started, you know, searching, I was like, it's just perfect. It's just everything I need. What does the Purdue community mean to you? You're in band, you know? You seem really active, you're in pharmacy. What does this community mean to you? It means a lot to me. When I say I'm a Boilermaker, like, that means a lot to me. It's a big part of who I am now and it just, like, these are the times I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. You know, being in band this moment right now, you know, pharmacy, just a lot of big moments that are impacting who I am every day and, you know, changing, changing me who I am to be, you know, the pharmacist I hope to be someday. So it really means a lot to have this great community of people around me. Straight from Hunter's house in West Lafayette, we crossed the state line into Illinois with the Boilermaker Special in tow. Our next stop, Naperville, Illinois. When I first called this student's dad, he was so thrilled to hear his son was chosen to be interviewed on the This Is Purdue podcast. Hi, Kate, good afternoon. Thank you for trying to reach me. I'm Jeremiah's dad. This is a big regards to the message that you left that you want to talk to him about the podcast interview. Hey, I was never really lying to anyone. This whole thing did turn into a podcast episode. We had a great chat and the interview was set up for a Tuesday afternoon at their home. This approach was done a bit differently, though. I introduced myself and my crew and we started the podcast interview that the student and his dad were expecting. What did you think about the Protect Purdue initiative? What did that mean to you that you were able to go to classes in person? I had heard a lot about it because even though I'm a out of state student, it's very close by. So I would hear a lot about it in the news and I thought it was a really good concept to get kids to really take social distancing seriously and it stressed the importance of social distancing is wearing masks as well. Did you get vaccinated this year? Yes, I did choose to get vaccinated and I chose to do it mainly to protect myself from the virus and also protect my community from the virus and hospital variants as well. That's great to hear. Are you familiar with the old Golden Ticket vaccine drawing? Yeah, I am familiar with the old Golden Ticket. Do you know why we're here? Did I happen to win one? You won! Oh, that's awesome, thank you. So we actually have another special surprise for you outside, so we're gonna go on outside, okay? Thank you so much, guys. Jeremiah Montero is a sophomore in industrial engineering at Purdue. He's also interning at FlexCo in Downers Grove, Illinois over the summer. During a cruise in this special around Jeremiah's neighborhood, we discussed what the Purdue community means to him. It was great to be in person and just get to meet a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds. There's a lot of international students as well, so it just felt like a good thing to get to meet a lot of different people on campus. And what does this tuition money mean to you? It means a lot. Obviously, out-of-state tuition is expensive, so this will definitely go a long way to help make for a year. And why do you think it's important to get vaccinated because you're not only protecting yourself from the virus, you're also protecting the community as well. Decide to get vaccinated. That was a big way to protect yourself from COVID. The day we surprised Jeremiah also happened to be his grandfather's 94th birthday. After our special ride, we facetimed his mom and grandfather in India and took this surprise international. And to put a cherry on top of this particular visit, Jeremiah's dad, Mervyn, cooked our whole team a homemade lunch. We were so touched by this. Mervyn tells us how much he appreciates all of the Protect Purdue communication from the university. I think you write off the back, like when the whole thing started, the communication coming from the school, the graduates, and how you take care of the students, saving up to come back and now champions. All you get is choice. That was good. From Naperville, we had one more surprise planned for that evening. Okay, so we hit the road again in our minivan. We've got how many of us? We've got five of us in here. We just stopped in Naperville with Jeremiah and his dad, Mervyn. And Jeremiah's dad made us lunch, like a homemade cooked lunch. And it was just so special. Team, how are you feeling? We have one more surprise to go. I am feeling great now that I have a full belly thanks to Jeremiah's parents. We've got a few hours in the car caravaning with the special. So if you saw the special on the road, then you know where we're headed. Becky, our wonderful photographer, what do you think about our road trip so far? It's been really fun. It's been exciting to see the reveals and the students' reactions. We've been having fun on these trips. And it's been great. And Will, our man behind the lens, he's used to being behind the camera, but I'm going to put him on this podcast. Hello. No, things are great. It's fun editing in the back of a van that Bailey's driving. Finding and reaching out to the students' family was quite the journey. Her mom, Marie, was really hesitant when I first called. And rightfully so. I was a stranger saying we wanted to surprise her daughter for a podcast interview. Anyway, after a quick phone call, she told me she would Google me and this podcast just to make sure. Two hours later, this email landed in my inbox. Hey, Kate, I checked the Purdue website. You are indeed real, LOL. Here's Emily's dad, Alan, explaining what he thought of our podcast ploy. Well, you know, everybody gets a lot of goofy calls. So it's like, really? Who are you really? From there, we went into full-on planning mode. It was our first very public surprise on the Monon Trail in Broderickle in Indianapolis. Hello, this is Kate. Hey, Marie. How are you? Okay, you're driving now, so I can't test you. Sure. Can you hear me all around? I can hear you. Yep. Can you hear me? Yep. Great. Okay. Oh, just put a little wrinkle in, lock. Okay. I don't really know where Brick's ice cream is. Is this visible from the trail? Marie even emailed our team a diagram of exactly where they usually walk on the trail to help us with our setup efforts. We approached Emily Harvath, who's in her last year as a pharmacy student at Purdue, while she was on a leisurely walk with her mom. Oh, I'm going to take it. Are you serious? Her dad, Alan, plus her brother and sister-in-law, both Purdue grads were there on the Boilermaker special, holding up the old golden ticket as confetti swirled in the air. Emily is currently in rotations at IU Health Methodist in Indy. She worked as a contact tracer for Protect Purdue last year, and in January, Emily helped administer some of the first COVID-19 vaccines in Indiana. Well, yeah, you can imagine, as a pharmacy student, vaccine advocacy is something that I'm incredibly passionate about. So for all of this, it's been really important to me, and I've been glad that Purdue's advocating for vaccine and everything as well. So I really can't talk enough about how proud I am that Purdue handled everything so well with COVID, especially since last year was my last year on campus full-time. I really was thankful to be able to be back and have one last year with my friends and participating in a lot of those organizations that I'm passionate about. So I talk about it a lot, and this is definitely something I'm passionate about, so I'm kind of blown away that this is happening right now. So tell us what this tuition money means to you. It's a full year of in-state tuition. I mean, after six years of school at Purdue, like it's definitely a huge game changer. It makes life a lot easier, that's for sure. I'm really like, I don't think it's like something yet right now. What does it mean that your family's here and that they were in on this? That's amazing. I don't know, I'm excited. I thought it was just regular Tuesday night going on a walk with my mom. Emily's mom Marie also expressed her appreciation about students being able to go back to school in person last year. I was so thankful that Mitch and the team put together a plan that kept school open in person. After that surprise in Indy, we hit the road again. It was time to head back to West Lafayette. Okay, we just got done with our third reveal of the day. It is 7.30. Have we been on the road for 12 hours? 11 hours? Yep, just about 11 hours. Yes, it's so fun. It feels like we're making, we're obviously making people's days, weeks, lives with these surprises. So it feels really good. It does. Reactions have been amazing and it's just awesome to be able to be there and to see that and broadcast it to everyone. So the suspension is still real because we have five more tickets to give out and we've logged over well, almost a thousand miles so far. So we still have a few more students to surprise and we're really excited. We made it home. We did. We have posted everything for today. It's on social. It's live and we're pulling in. Over and out. It's our little... So our major travel day was complete, but of course not all of our winners lived within driving distance. So on our fourth day of reveals, we set up some virtual podcast interviews in our team's studio. First up, Min Kyung Lee, a first year Ph.D. student from South Korea studying industrial engineering. And we got the graduate school dean, Linda Mason, in on the surprise. I actually have a special guest here. It's Dean Mason. I want to introduce her to you and she's going to just chat with you really quick. Okay. Hi, Min, how are you? Hi, good. How are you? I'm doing awesome. Thanks for having the opportunity to chat with us about Protect Purdue. We're really pleased that you were vaccinated. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my experience. Yeah, the vaccination is really important. We know so that you can have the normal part of Purdue, right, that you want for the fall and for all of us. Well, I think you probably are familiar with all the things that go on at Protect Purdue. When one of them was for the students to upload their vaccination card that they had right, so that we would all know who's vaccinated and you uploaded your vaccination card. So thank you so much for doing that. We really appreciate it. And I just wanted to let you know that guess what? Oh, we're going to get a check for $9,909. I didn't expect it. We're so excited for you. And we hope that this will help you with all the things associated with graduate school and expenses and really appreciate your efforts for going above and beyond and getting vaccinated and protecting all of us at Purdue and all the students in your lab and your professors and all that. So congratulations. Thank you so much. Glad you're surprised. That's the whole point. What are your thoughts? Well, I didn't expect this. Well, good. Then the surprise worked. Min was so incredibly shocked and thankful. So actually, after the COVID pandemic, my dad lost job. My family is not supporting anymore. So I've been having some financial issues. It means a lot to me. It truly never got old changing these students' lives with these $9,992 old golden tickets. After Min, we had two more virtual reveals. Saria Salem, a sophomore from Plano, Texas is a computer science major and Cranart School of Management minor. We had College of Science Dean Patrick Wolfe join us for this surprise. Why do you think it was important to get vaccinated and to help protect fellow students, professors? I think the sooner everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner we can return to a normal state of business and also help people meeting others as well as their teachers so they actually interact with the teachers rather than sending them a message on Zoom or other forms of classes. I agree. I actually have some news for you. You're the winner. Oh, really? Yes, really. Thank you so much. How do you feel? Are you surprised? Yes, I did not expect to win. So it really helped with a lot of things. Yeah, what does this tuition money mean to you? It'll help ease some of the burden on my parents because I know they're helping me through with college. So this will mean a lot to them. And I'm also trying to make my own money so that after college, I can hopefully pay them back. So. Storia, congratulations and thank you, not just for helping to protect Purdue, but for undertaking this and for the general benefit of public health. We're very, very grateful and very proud of everything that everyone at Purdue has done. After Saria and Dean Wolfe discussed what he wanted to do after graduation and got a little networking in. Give me a call sometime. We can get lunch. I have a friend who went to work for one of their competitors and is heading up their program. So I'm happy to chat with you offline about the, I mean, it's a hugely exciting area. Saria told me about one of his favorite memories from his time at Purdue so far. There was one time where me and my friends, we as initiation into our friend group, we had this really spicy ramen that we got. And it was like the two times spicy. We had people eat like a whole bowl and like try to finish it in under a minute. And they couldn't drink milk or anything for like five minutes after. So they would just be like rolling on the ground trying to like not pass out from the spiciness. Okay, so I won't be participating in this spicy ramen contest, but it was fun to hear more about his experiences at Purdue. Our final virtual reveal of the day was Kaylee Cook from Maineville, Ohio. She's an incoming freshman majoring in engineering. In-person learning is super important, especially with like your first time experience. My mom's a teacher, so we talk all the time about how the learning experience online is so different and how the academic curve of online versus in-person and being able to get help from the teachers and the people and being able to talk face to face, it's a total difference in the education. And why did you choose to get vaccinated? I got vaccinated just because I cared about protecting the people around me. One of my neighbors is a leukemia survivor, so they can't get the vaccine. Being able to protect those I love and care about is really important to me. That's awesome. I actually have a special surprise for you. Are you aware of the old Golden Ticket vaccination drawing? Yes. You won! What? Oh my gosh. You won $9,992. That is amazing. Thank you. Kaylee's reaction was so genuine. Are you surprised? Yes, very, very surprised. That's the goal. That's the goal. What does this tuition money mean to you as an incoming freshman? Well, especially as a freshman, I haven't really had a chance to start really saving for college and having this opportunity to like towards some of my books or my tuition is really, really important. I'm still in shock. Purdue was already the top of my list, and this just makes it so much like you guys are my favorite people. Kaylee says she's looking forward to meeting new friends and starting this new chapter of life at Purdue this fall. Now it's time to clean up the studio and head to our last in-person reveal, which is truly bittersweet. All right. We are on day four of our reveals. We have had four reveals today, and we are living off caffeine. I would say that's safe to say, right? Yes, and candy. And candy. We've had some Starbursts, some Sour Patch Kids. Sour Patch Starbursts swept a lot of confetti. Yes, lots of confetti. Today we did some virtual ones, and that was really fun. We had a couple deans in on the surprise, so that was a special element to add. And now we are heading to our last in-person one. It's kind of bittersweet because this has been so fun. Yeah. I'm really excited to see this student's reaction tonight. We've got his family in on the surprise. They're coming from out of town from Illinois to surprise their son for dinner and be a part of the special reveal. So really looking forward to that. Our social media manager, Ashley, explains what it was like to be live posting these incredible photos and videos on Purdue's social media channels throughout these surprise reveals. You don't normally get to be present for all of the cool stuff that you post on our social media channel. Yes, that's very true. It was awesome to be here. I can't imagine doing this not being present with everything that had to happen on the fly and all the information that we were able to get and just feeding off of the excitement that we've all been feeling and the people that we've been revealing to, the winners of the Golden Ticket and the excitement that they've had has been awesome being able to meet them and the families and stuff. We headed off to surprise Alex Vusco, a mechanical engineering student from New Lenox, Illinois. I had left a few voicemails on Alex's parents' cell phones before I heard anything. You guys were funny on the phone the way you tried to kind of tell us but not really tell us. It was cute. We had to tip off Alex's parents about this surprise, but they were excited to help us plan. In case this was Dan Vusco when he got to Alex, so we found out and we can meet you Wednesday at 5.30. I think you guys can probably pick the location. So we had Alex's girlfriend lead him out of his on-campus apartment, thinking he would be grabbing a casual dinner with his parents. Seriously. Tell us how you feel. I kind of don't believe it. Like, what are the odds of that? Like, really, it's just one of the odds. I don't know how to react. I basically don't know how to move my body right. Alex is part of GEAR, Global Engineering Alliance of Research and Education, and he explains why being in person last year at Purdue was so important to him. I personally learned much better in person, so that was very, very nice. And just being in person is always great to see everyone else's faces, and there's a more community feeling. Here's Alex's mom, Lisa, weighing in on the Purdue community. It's funny because he's our second to go to college, and when he came here to look at the school for the first time, I remember I texted Dan, and I said he's definitely going. It was such a fit for him. It was the community. It was the students, the professors. It was the perfect fit for him. After the surprise, Alex's parents and girlfriend took a Boilermaker special ride, complete with the mini monster from Silver Dipper. And last, but certainly not least, we had our 10th winner revealed virtually as this student lives in the UK with her family. Hi, I'm so sorry for not responding sooner. I really, I thought it was a scam at first because I've gotten like a lot of things that are like, hey, can you respond to this? And I didn't realize I should have looked it up. I'm sorry. So as you heard, Nandini Krishna thought my emails and phone calls were spam. And we can't blame her. We're happy we finally got ahold of her. She's a junior computer engineering major who would like to go into software engineering after she graduates from Purdue. She tells us what this tuition money means to her. It's it's a lot of money. It's going to pay for like a lot of my tuition. Obviously, I'm an international student, so that helps quite a lot. Wow, what a whirlwind. Throughout these reveals, I couldn't count how many people mentioned what an amazing job that I have. And they're right. Getting texts from parents about how special we made their kids feel, witnessing tears from the winners, seeing the utter shock, it made everything so worth it. But it wasn't just me. Yes, I was hosting and I had the honor of revealing the surprise to the winners. But Bailey, Ashley, Becky, and Will, the Wonka crew, they were right there next to me, driving our rented minivan, popping the gold confetti, operating the drone, grabbing that perfect candid photo, and so much more. This crew made delivering life changing tickets to 10 Boilermaker students sweeter than Charlie's chocolate bar. Check out the videos of our winners. Trust us, you'll want to see these reactions on Purdue's YouTube channel. Just head over to purdue.university.winners. That's purdue.university.winners. Thanks for listening to This is Purdue. For more information on this episode, visit our website at purdue.edu.slashpodcast. There you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review. And as always, Boiler up.