Demand for an undergraduate education at Purdue University’s Mitch Daniels School of Business has never been higher. Incoming freshman classes have more than doubled in size over the last five years, and total enrollment increased from 2,400 in 2020 to 4,145 in 2024.
While a positive trend, the boom in matriculations has provided challenges to freshman orientation. How do you welcome a new crop of more than 1,000 students and create a sense of belonging for newcomers, some who are away from home for the first time in their lives?
Kelly Blanchard, associate dean for student experience and undergraduate programs, and Cara Cray, associate director of student support, decided that a large shared project might be the best avenue to achieve that goal. A conversation Cray had with friend Zoe Mayhook, assistant professor of libraries, pointed them in the right direction.
“She rattled off a bunch of ideas, and she mentioned LEGOs. I knew instantly that was what we needed to do,” Cray says. She then decided to reach out to Tyler Clites, winner of the premier season of Fox’s LEGO Masters, for help.
“We have a new building that will be opening in 2027, and I thought it would be perfect for this project,” Cray says. “Purdue is a STEM-oriented university, which is in line with building LEGOs, and we are talking about building the future of business at the Daniels School.”
Clites says he was intrigued about the idea of building a replica of the 164,000-square-foot building, which includes large classrooms, labs, study and breakout spaces, and an outdoor terrace and auditorium.
“I’ve never done anything like this for a university, especially a project that uses students as the builders,” Clites says. “Cara is the hero of the project. It was her concept and her baby, and she ran with it.”
In addition to the new building, the model was designed to include several Purdue icons, including the Bell Tower, Boilermaker Special, Amelia Earhart’s plane and a replica Saturn V rocket to honor the university’s reputation as the “Cradle of Astronauts.”
Before Clites came to campus for the actual build on the Friday before the start of fall classes, he took pictures and video images of the building renderings and modeled the project in CAD software. The project was divided into floors and sections, and QR codes were created to give students instructions on how to assemble their parts.
There were eight stations open on building day, divided by expertise of the student builders. Clites immediately recognized that the project was successful in realizing one of its main goals.
“The community aspect was apparent. These were students who had never met before, and as I walked around to provide support they were so involved most of them didn’t even know I was there,” he says.
Blanchard had the same observation, and she was able to see the sense of belonging grow.
“We had volunteers at each table who would encourage connections among the new students,” Blanchard says. “At the Bell Tower table, our volunteer asked one student what her major was, and three other students at the table spoke up to say it was their major as well. A week later, I saw those same students all sitting together at another event.”
The positive feelings generated came to no surprise to Clites.
“Very few people have had bad experiences with LEGOs, unless they accidentally step on one in bare feet. I’ve never found anyone who didn’t enjoy building with them, and it’s an activity that’s been passed down for generations. In this case, it’s a cool connection to Purdue’s DNA,” he says.
Ella Hood, an incoming freshman in marketing, says the activity provided a jumpstart to her Daniels School career.
“It was an activity for us all to put our minds and strengths together to succeed, and truly was a bonding experience for all that were involved,” she says. “This activity made me feel even more excited for the new business school building because it felt like that was the stepping stone needed for me to already make my personal mark and impact there.”
Even with hundreds of students taking part on the build day, the enormous project will take more time to finish. Cray says she will hold “LEGO lunches” this fall to give students, faculty and staff a chance to complete the project. She adds that it includes elements that will change with the seasons, and the LEGO “people” will be adorned with caps and gowns at graduation time.
The model, which is five feet wide and six feet tall, will reside in nearby Rawls Hall until the new building opens in two years. It will then be located in the lobby of the new building, a reminder of community to those who had a hand in creating it.
“We couldn’t have been happier with the project,” Cray says. “It has accomplished all we wanted and more.”
