 Hi, I'm JD Arland, and welcome to Boiler Bites, an up-close look at what's happening at Purdue. Shelby Gruss grew up on a farm where she developed a passion for basketball. In the state of Indiana, that's a fairly common story. But Shelby's story is anything but common. It's actually quite remarkable. When I got injured in 2010, the last thing on my mind was becoming a world-class athlete or getting my PhD here at Purdue. I grew up playing sports all the time. I had three little brothers, so I always wanted to keep up with them. And so my goal was not to just keep up, but to beat them. I've played basketball since I was in fourth grade. It was my favorite sport. I was very defensive-oriented in high school. One of my old coaches' favorite memory of me was when I took out a set of bleachers to try to save the ball. And I saved the ball and then ended up getting stitches before the next game. That's just kind of the player I was. On January 9th, 2010, I had gotten out of a basketball practice and went home and my brothers were like, hey, there's a midnight ski run. It was over in Ohio. We probably got there probably like nine o'clock or so at night. Did a few runs and it was just kind of having a good time. And they had these big-air jumps set up just for like a small competition they had. And so we're like going up this ski lift and we're like, yeah, I think we should try that. Like that'll be fun. We got up to the top and my brother's like, I don't know, maybe we shouldn't. And I was like, well, if I do it, you have to do it. And so we tried it a couple times. And just went up wrong once and caught an edge and my feet went up and I fell wrong on my back. Initially, I didn't know. I was just in shock. I couldn't like move at all. So I was just like, okay, just give it a sec. Let me breathe. I'll be okay. And then after I started like catching my breath and stuff, I realized something was wrong. I broke my TA and dislocated my T9. So it's a spinal cord injury complete and I had a couple broken ribs as well. The prognosis was I was paralyzed from the waist down permanently. I dealt with the prognosis a lot better than most people would expect it. I'm kind of like one of those people though that are like, well, I guess it's another challenge. I don't want to live in a hospital the rest of my life. So like, let's get going. Let's get myself my physical therapy going. Let's get everything moving so I can get out of here. When I was at the rehabilitation hospital of Indianapolis, a guy came in to talk to me about wheelchair basketball. They had heard that I was a basketball player beforehand and so I was like, all right, I'll try it. But there was a learning curve. Definitely. Sitting down and shooting and not having your legs to power the ball. I was interesting and then defense. I was really frustrated with defense because I was always used to sidestepping. We're in a wheelchair. The direction you're going is either forwards or backwards. I wanted to like sidestep in my chair and I was like, that's not going to work. So the way you play defense is different. I joined a team with a bunch of guys that were way older than me. I thought it was a lot of fun and they were able to give me advice on how to be disabled. They're like, oh, you ran into that issue. Well, I ran into that issue like 50 times. This is how you fix it or this is how you do it. So it kind of built a community for me there. I was thinking about in high school doing a career in conservation and wildlife. I had worked in Yosemite National Park for a summer before my senior year and I just fell in love with the park. I was planning on going to Montana State University. I'd been planning on going for about a year and then I was kind of like, well, that's actually a really dumb idea. Like I can't fully do the job I want to do and I'm not somebody that likes to do something halfway. And so I was like, that'll just frustrate me. And so I went back to IPFW and my brother's like, hey, why don't you try agronomy? You love agriculture. You grew up on a farm and you've always enjoyed it. And I was like, yeah, you know what? That's a great idea. So I looked into it and that's kind of how I got the shove. One of the coaches was like, hey, how serious are you about basketball? And I was like, honestly, like anywhere can take me now. I'm in like, I love the sport. And he's like, you should look into University of Illinois. There's a great coach there and there's a women's team. And I looked into it. They had my degree for an agronomy. And I was like, all right, let's go. The coach kept saying, yeah, this girl was so raw when she came in here. She had a lot of basketball talent. I got most improved player that year. When I saw what I could do and how far I could go with it, I am like the person that's like, I want to be the best. Playing basketball, well, it got me to University of Illinois, which was at that time is what I needed. I needed to have a group that was going through the same thing I was going through on campus. It's also kind of given me the idea that like I can do anything I want to do. Was that Illinois? And a guy that was in the industry was like, hey, have you thought about your PhD? I know some people at Purdue would like to talk to him. And I was like, yes, I would love to. And so when that opportunity came up, I was just like, I can't turn it down. Purdue has been a school I've always wanted to go to. My research is focused on sorghum, but it's actually a compound in sorghum called durin. When it's broken down, it releases hydrogen cyanide. So it can be toxic. And so my research is focusing on characterizing what durin is actually doing in the plants. Doing research in this field, you've got to be able to get in the field, be able to examine your plants. I've been doing a lot of greenhouse work currently. So I hadn't been out in the field yet, and we're working on getting adaptive equipment so I can't be in the fields. The economy apartment at Purdue has been very supportive. Through the greenhouse doors, there's a set of doors that are super heavy and they established a push button that I can just open it up with. My professor, Mitch Tarnstra, has been great with me. He's any kind of adaptation he's been really willing to make. Playing wheelchair basketball, it's kind of my outlet. When everything else is going kind of wrong in my life, I got wheelchair basketball at U of I. I had a great coach there, her name was Steph Wheeler, and she is actually the one that kind of pushed me for the USA team. She was just like, yeah, like just try it out. You can see what the competition level is you need to be able to make a team. I participated in the World Championships of August 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. I was selected as captain on the USA team this year. The experience was amazing to be able to play at a World Championship. Anytime I have USA on my chest, I'm just honored and proud that I was able to experience that. We got six, it wasn't the best showing, but we're a very young team and developing a lot so we have a lot of potential. I want to go to Tokyo Paralympics 2020 and hopefully win gold when we get there. I have talked to younger people before or somebody that's been recently injured and just kind of told them about my life and how I overcame it. You need to put your heart into what you want and so that's kind of what I want to portray as a person. I love agronomy, I love basketball and so that's what I put my heart into. I'm just trying to live my life and if I inspire somebody on the way, that's great. My family and friends are super proud of me and how I got here. I was just actually talking the other day to my roommate, she's been one of my friends since about sixth grade. She was just like, I just don't know how you keep going like every time somebody's like you want to do this, you're like yeah let's go, let's do this. I just want to live my life like that's just, it is what it is like you can't let it stop you. After Shelby completes her PhD, she plans on working in the agriculture industry in the area of communication. That'll wrap up this edition of Boiler Bites. Remember that you can catch up on all our past stories at BoilerBites.com. We'll see you next time.