The president of the Purdue Black Alumni Organization uses her technology management background to make connections.
PRO _ FILES
the purdue bond
career strikes right chord Loving what you do has at least one drawback. “I’m up to about 40 guitars now,” said Josh Hurst. “But I only play that one guitar, my favorite.” As a senior designer at Fender Guitar in Corona, Calif., Hurst is able to support his guitar habit easily.
Whether it’s as HR manager at Toyota Financial Services or president of the Purdue Black Alumni Organization (PBAO), Candice Nash has found that her Purdue classes and experiences prepared her for a wide variety of challenges.
Hurst, a 2001 graduate of the mechanical engineering technology (MET) program, has worked at Fender for seven years designing electric guitars, from the shapes to the electronics. His focus is primarily on the aesthetics. In the past year, Hurst designed 30 guitars instead of the normal three or four. The difference? The company’s new CEO, who took over in August 2010, has asked for a modernization of their products.
Nash, who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organizational leadership and supervision, was recently elected for her second term as PBAO president. She sees her role as connecting current students and alumni, as well as being a voice for all underrepresented Purdue constituents.
“The new year is all about innovation,” Hurst said. “We are looking at brand new shapes and a lot of new electronics. The electronics that are in our guitars now are from the 1940s and 50s.” Most of his recent designs won’t be unveiled until later this year or early 2013. At the end of 2011, Hurst received the company’s President’s Award for Innovation. He believes the honor stemmed from his ability to move a new design series from concept to prototype in two weeks, just in time for an industry trade show. He said he can trace that work ethic to two of his first MET classes: Computational Analysis Tools (MET162) and Applied Statics (MET111).
“A strategic initiative of PBAO is to bridge the gap between students and alumni. We host a student rap session once a semester,” Nash said. “We get students involved, they understand who we are and they hear from the leaders.”
“MET 162 was so structured in logical thinking, and it put you in that mindset. MET 111 reinforced the discipline in finding an answer using a logical thought process,” he said. “Now, whether I’m fixing a dryer or designing a guitar, I can point to the lessons I learned in those classes. You had to find a way to figure it out.” Hurst can impart some of this same knowledge when he helps Professor Mark French with his annual guitar-making workshops. Since 2007, he was returned to Purdue each summer to assist with design software, guide some of the manufacturing steps, and then answer questions about the guitar business. “Fender is a phenomenal company. They allow me to be the engineer that I’m supposed to be,” Hurst said. “They allow me to be creative, think outside of the box, and they let me run with it.”
Josh Furst shows off the Fender Voyager (working title), which is one of his new designs at the guitar manufacturer. (Courtesy photo)
The feedback they gather at the rap sessions is shared with the University’s vice president for student affairs and the chief diversity officer. As part of its mission to attract African-American students to Purdue, as well as keep and
graduate them, PBAO also administers a scholarship program for first-year students, which meshes with her passion for giving back. “My mother instilled a pretty strong value of reaching back and giving back,” she said. “My time at Purdue was a good time in my life. I wanted to give back and impact students the way that I was impacted.” Impact for Nash came in the form of supportive professors, beneficial extracurricular activities and relevant curriculum. She learned several lessons about leadership as a resident assistant and on the student government appeals board. These were supplemented by class assignments and discussions. As a human resource manager for Toyota Financial Services in Chicago, Nash relies on this background to do her job. She provides HR support to 12 offices across the Midwest. She provides consultation and coaching, and she helps them understand company policies and procedures. The company also relies on her office to keep abreast
of local, state and federal laws that affect employment issues. Throughout her life, Nash has found that the plans she makes for herself rarely match the reality of her life. She is thankful to have taken advantage of opportunities she couldn’t have planned for. And that’s what she wishes for today’s college students who are facing stressful decisions about their future. “Life lessons are the most important,” she said. “We have so much technology that we expect things right now. It’s really important for people to pause, to have a plan and a thought process and not to get set back when things don’t work out the way they think they should.”