Jared Brunson (right) with Brittany Madden, student office coordinator and staff supervisor for Purdue Village.
Jared Brunson, a student office coordinator at Purdue Village, has been recognized with an Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Award, which honors students whose actions make a difference at the university and contribute to excellence within Student Life. The awards are bestowed four times throughout the academic year. Each winner receives a $300 award.
Brunson began working at Purdue Village in May 2021. He had initially applied for a position with University Residences Conferences Services but was recommended for and accepted the position in Purdue Village.
The environment at Purdue Village is typically different than that found in other University Residences locations since it predominantly houses graduate students, including families, and is the only University Residences community located south of State Street on the west side of campus. This year, Purdue Village also serves as quarantine and isolation housing for students who have tested positive for COVID-19. This has created unique challenges for the staff as they have had to coordinate with different departments on campus to ensure that students in quarantine and isolation have their needs met.
“We always say ‘P-ville is P-ville’ because it’s slightly different than everything else in University Residences, but that’s created a bond among everyone who works here,” Brunson says. “We call ourselves family and that’s something that I really enjoy because we’ll always stick up for one another and help each other out. It has a real friendly and family-like atmosphere.”
Brunson is pursuing a double-major in chemical engineering and pre-med with the goal of becoming a pediatrician, though he is also considering management. He says he has found his work at Purdue Village, particularly in relation to quarantine and isolation housing, to be valuable in building skills for his future career.
“Quarantine changes day by day sometimes, so I’ve really had to learn patience, how to do a lot of different things and coordinate,” Brunson says. “I’ve learned a lot about working with different organizations, which I find extremely beneficial and helpful.”
As student office coordinator, Brunson serves as a leader for the rest of the student staff by planning, organizing and running monthly student office staff meetings. One of the ways he has worked to make things easier for the student staff is by creating videos that demonstrate how to perform different tasks. When a procedure is changed or a new office policy is added, Brunson will often make a video of the procedure or the steps needed to complete the new task. He then posts these videos in a shared file that is accessible to all members of the student staff.
Brittany Madden, student office coordinator and staff supervisor for Purdue Village, says Brunson’s videos have made a positive impact.
“If the students forget how to do something or they have not done it before, the videos he creates provide clear and detailed instructions,” Madden says. “It also helps for them to have a visual idea of the procedures, documents and where office items are located. This not something we asked Jared to do for the staff – he did this on his own.”
Brunson says thinking about how he learns best and his desire to make things easier on the student staff were part of the reason he created the videos.
“I’m a visual person, so I like to physically be somewhere, take things apart and put them together,” Brunson says. “If I can’t do that, I’ve always noticed that if I can watch something being done, I usually learn it better. I just thought I’d give all the resources I can to my staff and they can use it however they want.”
Whatever challenges may arise in the unique environment of Purdue Village, it’s clear Brunson will have a hand in helping lead the student staff in meeting them.