IUPUI has a way of connecting you with the unexpected. There are two people I will always be connected to as a result of my time at IUPUI. First is my husband, Andrew Fulton. Our story feels like the outline of your standard romantic comedy: girl meets boy, girl wins over boy, girl marries boy and lives happily ever after.
My husband and I both chose to live on campus our first year at IUPUI–Andrew in Purdue House and myself in Sewall. Thanks in part to general education requirements, we found ourselves in the same Honors English course where we met and were able to get to know each other. About halfway into the semester, as a result of proximity and his chivalrous nature, we often found ourselves walking back to the Riverwalk Apartments together, creating a friendship that we could not have predicted would evolve. It was the definition of being in the “friend zone,” which we both would argue is not a bad place to be, and laid the foundation for our marriage. We would watch movies, attend apartment events, or do homework in the same vicinity, providing a sounding board, or in some instances actual items such as blankets, sweatshirts, or anything else that could serve as ballast for his pumpkin drop design project.
We would watch movies, attend apartment events, or do homework in the same vicinity, providing a sounding board, or in some instances actual items such as blankets, sweatshirts, or anything else that could serve as ballast for his pumpkin drop design project.
Rachel Fulton, School of Engineering and Technology Staff, Class of 2010
Fall ended and spring began. We found ourselves, through no planning of our own, in the same Introduction to Public Speaking course. Our friendship evolved into a relationship that March, and we have not looked back since, except to laugh at how young and naive we were. We both graduated from Purdue schools at IUPUI in the spring of 2010. Our careers eventually led us to where we are today. Andrew is working in the engineering field as a director. I am working as an academic advisor in the school from which he graduated, preparing to teach the course in which the pumpkins drop. Our IUPUI story has come full circle.
The second relationship is with my now-colleague James Eckerty and speaks more to my professional evolution at IUPUI. James and I went to high school together in Evansville, Indiana. Despite being a class ahead of me, we knew of each other through a beloved teacher at the school. Until my orientation day, I had forgotten that James had come to IUPUI. From that day forward, James was in my IUPUI life for good. He was my orientation leader and Summer Bridge mentor. He was a returner on OTEAM during my first year as a leader. While in graduate school with an IUPUI cohort of the Indiana University Higher Education Student Affairs (IU HESA) program, he was the academic advisor for the Summer Bridge and FirstYear Seminars for which I mentored. After my own graduation from the same undergraduate program, time working in the field as an academic advisor, and my own subsequent enrollment and graduation from the IU HESA program, I am honored and proud to call him a colleague and partner on the IUPUI campus as we work toward student success in our respective schools.
IUPUI has a way of connecting you with the unexpected. The person next to you could be your future spouse. The mentor in your first-year seminar could be your future colleague. I am glad that the undergraduate version of me had these experiences, as I would not be the person, spouse, and advisor I am today without them.
Story courtesy of:
Rachel Fulton
School of Engineering and Technology Staff, Class of 2010
