Purdue’s summer commencement ceremonies confer more than 1,700 degrees

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University awarded degrees to more than 1,700 graduating students during two summer commencement ceremonies at Elliott Hall of Music Saturday (Aug. 3).

Alumna Jennifer Rumsey, native of Columbus, Indiana, and chair and CEO of Cummins Inc., delivered a keynote speech at both ceremonies. Purdue President Mung Chiang was in attendance, and each ceremony featured a student responder.

Of the 1,711 students eligible to participate in Purdue's Summer 2024 Commencement, 634 were undergraduates, 1,065 were graduate students, and 12 were students from Purdue Polytechnic's statewide programs.

The ceremonies were livestreamed on the Purdue News YouTube channel and linked on the Purdue commencement website. A photo gallery from the ceremonies is available here.

About Rumsey

As chair and CEO of Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI), a Fortune 150 global power solutions provider based in Indiana, Rumsey oversees the strategic direction, growth initiatives and global operations for the company, which has more than 75,500 employees worldwide and achieved $34.1 billion in revenue in 2023. In her two years serving as CEO, the company's revenue has grown by more than 50%.

Rumsey has focused her 25-year career on advancing technologies and bringing products to market that power customers' success and make a positive difference in the world. She was recognized in 2020 by the Society of Women Engineers for her contributions to engineering and efforts to create environments that attract and retain more women engineers. She was inducted as a Society of Automotive Engineers fellow in 2022, and in 2023 she received the Women Business Collaborative's CEO Excellence in Gender Equity and Diversity Award, in addition to being recognized as one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women. In spring 2024, Rumsey received an honorary doctorate of engineering from Purdue's College of Engineering.

Rumsey earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue in 1996 and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998.

Shah, Gee offered student responses

Shruti Shah of Fremont, California, who received a Bachelor of Science from the College of Health and Human Sciences, was the student responder in the Saturday morning (Division I) ceremony. Shah completed internships with Berkeley Pharma Tech and the Stanford Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging. She was an undergraduate research assistant for the late Robert Proctor's human factors lab and a research team member in The Data Mine corporate partnership program. After graduation, Shah plans to explore research opportunities in neuroscience.

Mark Gee of Johnston, Iowa, who received a Doctor of Philosophy from the College of Agriculture, was the student responder in the Saturday afternoon (Division II) ceremony. Gee has served as a Purdue Board of Trustees student member and has been involved in Purdue Space Day and the Purdue World Food Prize Youth Institute. He has completed internships with Corteva Agriscience, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, and the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. As an undergraduate student, Gee was a Beering Scholar, earning three bachelor's degrees in biological engineering, biochemistry and agronomy in 2019. He earned a Master of Science in agricultural and biological engineering in 2022. After graduation, Gee plans to continue his professional career at Beck's Hybrids in Atlanta, Indiana.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue's main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap - including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative - at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Writer: Kami Goodwin, [email protected]

Media contact: Trevor Peters, [email protected]

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.