Creative Outlets for Purdue Engineers!

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Engineering can be challenging, engaging and incredibly fulfilling. It calls for us to push ourselves to be strategic, practical and innovative. Engineers are incredibly creative beings but sometimes it's nice for us to get away from the technical stuff. Purdue offers so many opportunities for engineering students to get involved in non-engineering activities and organizations as well. Personally, having that diversity in thought and activity helps me be more engaged in school and campus life, and blow off steam when school gets busy. So, I wanted to encourage you all to find opportunities outside of the engineering realm to have a creative outlet through this compilation of activities and organizations:

Recruitment Project Committee Members at a Check-In Meeting

Singing

  • "Purdue Musical Organizations offers opportunities for students to learn, perform and grow together while engaging audiences everywhere." The organization consists of many different ensembles like the University Choir, Purduettes (all-girl choir), Heart and Soul (gospel, contemporary Christian, soul and R&B) and more. 
  • Purdue is also home to multiple acapella groups like Purdue Soundtracks, the AcaBellas, Purdue Taal (South Asian Acapella Team), etc.

Dancing

The list of dance related organizations at Purdue seem endless. There's probably a dance team here for whichever genre you are passionate about, some are competitive dance teams that perform around the country and some are cultural dance teams. Here are a few of the many dance organizations on campus that you could get involved with:

  • Contemporary Dance Company
  • Dance2XS: Hip Hop
  • Latin & Ballroom Dance Team
  • Night Train Swing Dance
  • Purdue Music Gaming Club: Music Games like Dance Dance Revolution, Love Rock Band and more
  • Salsa Dance Club
  • Many More!

All-American Marching Band

The Purdue "All-American" Marching Band performs at all home football games and various other university events. The band was founded in 1886 and now has over 350 members who partake in art forms such as percussion, color guard, dancing and twirling. Here are some of the opportunities on the All-American Marching Band:
  • The Purdue Golduster Dance Team are a group of hard-working dancers who perform in many different styles like pom, hip hop and jazz. Their high-energy performances to the band's music or other popular songs are always a hit at football, basketball and many other sporting events. 
  • The Golden Silks Color Guard show off their amazing flag and movement technique to add captivating color and flair to the marching band performances. They perform various choreographic styles at field performances, pep rallies and parades. 
  • The All-American Twirling team make twirling look effortless with their expert technique and synchrony. This talent has led them to win many national titles and is definitely a fulfilling creative outlet for those involved. 

Instruments

Other than the All-American Marching band, there are still many more options to get involved in Purdue organizations if you have an interest in playing instruments. 
  • Purdue is home to a Philharmonic Orchestra and a Symphony Orchestra. The Philharmonic Orchestra is for the students who are looking for a bigger creative challenge and have more time to commit to the art. The ensemble preforms a concert every semester on campus and around the state. Alternatively, the Symphony Orchestra encourages passionate students to get involved but maintains a more relaxed atmosphere. The ensemble uses standard instrumentation and performs on campus twice a semester. 
  • Purdue also has an extensive Jazz program that consists of 6 different bands. These include the the Purdue Jazz Band, American Music Repertory Ensemble, Lab Jazz Band I, Lab Jazz Band II, Tower of Power band, and the Guitar & Saxophone Ensemble. Each of these different opportunities allows for students to find the best creative outlet that works for them and their schedule!
  • The possibilities to get involved with instrumentation is just endless as there are numerous concert bands on campus as well. These ensembles include the Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Collegiate Band, Campus Band, Varsity Band, and University Band. Once again, each ensemble is unique in genre, expertise required to join and scheduling so any engineering student could make it work with their schedule if they wanted to.

Social Media

If you would rather spend your time involved in organizations that still pertain to engineering but still seek a creative outlet, social media could be perfect for you. There are countless engineering clubs on campus that seek members to generate creative, engaging and informative social media content for their platforms. Students can tap into their creative side while still making a larger impact for an engineering organization and being apart of a community of like-minded individuals. For example, the Recruitment Project Committee is a subset of the Women in Engineering Program and consists of a group of female engineering students who are passionate about recruiting the next generation of female engineers. They work together in small groups to create colorful, fun content for Instagram stories, reels, twitter and Facebook. Almost every organization on campus maintains social media accounts so there are many opportunities to get involved with them.

Aikya Chirra, BME '23

WE Link Leadership Team


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Purdue Women in Engineering

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