Hi! I am Bhavin Shah.
and I am a third generation Tanzanian of Indian origin.
I was in your shoes in early 2023. My son got admitted to Purdue University as a First Year Engineering student. With no local support (there were only 2 Tanzanians at Purdue at undergraduate level the year before!), we were, probably as you are now, a bit overwhelmed with what to do next! So I set out, researching for his Big Move!
After countless sleepless nights spent deep-diving on the internet, I gradually pieced together the information that prepared and launched him successfully towards his first year at Purdue.
The WOW welcome book from Purdue was a starting point but one I found barely scratched the surface for an international freshman and their families. So I scoured the internet, going down rabbit holes of hyperlinks. I jumped from official US immigration and customs sites to those of Purdue and hundreds of others. I shot off numerous emails to Purdue admissions, ISS and his faculty to get answers to our queries.
Joining Reddit, I discovered a community of Purdue students who, as they discussed their daily issues and FAQs, had left behind a trove of information we could use. The relevant information is all there- somewhere on some site or discussion forum if you spend the time to sort out the nuggets from the irrelevant trivial stuff. But it needed to be collated, and updated so as to be coherent. Slowly, I started making sense of it.
After a few months of going it alone, I got to know of, and joined a WhatsApp group of over 350 parents of freshmen Boilermakers of Indian origin. There I found many parents in the same boat I was in. It was an awesome resource for sharing and pretty soon, I was made an Admin- with peers leaning on me to have ready answers for most FAQs.
Our Purdue Experience
Armed with this preparation, we prepared to set off to Purdue in August 2023. The day before our flight, I fell & sprained my right ankle really badly. Against my doctor’s advice, knowing we could not delay going, we set off. I hobbled the first week at Purdue with a cane, a sports brace, and lots of painkillers. That’s my foot on my first day there. I had literally poured body & soul into his Purdue move! 😅
After experiencing the city and campus during BGRi, I had to stay behind longer so that I could celebrate my son’s 18th birthday with him. This meant I had extra days at Purdue, which I used to further set him up for his second year, visiting five off campus property owners and few storage sites amongst other things. I loved Purdue- and so did my son. I left knowing that we had taken the right decision sending him there.
Over the first year at Purdue, my son kept updating me about his progress and I helped him solve the most common problems a student would face as a Freshmen. As the weeks went by, and as he settled in and made friends, I could feel his confidence and independence grow. As I write, he has just landed today, back for his summer holidays and I am so proud of what he is becoming!
The Birth of this Blog
Following my return in 2023 from the US, my wife and my peers on the WhatsApp group kept pushing me to put everything down on paper for future Boilermakers and their families to benefit from.
I kept putting it off, knowing the time commitment it would entail. Also, I had never set up a blog or written a post. That would mean learning everything from WordPress blogging to hosting from scratch. If I do something, I like to do it at a high standard- and this seemed too massive an undertaking.
But the pressure to make this blog kept building. My wife was an incessant source of inspiration. Then, a new batch of students were admitted to Purdue (for 2024-2025), and I started getting PMs from parents seeking advice.
I realised I had to start building this blog to give back to the Purdue community. If not now, it would be never. It was hard work- my notes were not all in one place.
Some were scribbled down on paper, some on my laptop and a lot in my head. Many of my posts were on WhatsApp chats with my son & the Parents group. Luckily I had my chat histories, so I could download them all and copy my information over.
Then came the hard part. Learning to blog, putting all of it together & across coherently, and burning the midnight oil over many, many late nights. Gradually, it all came together, and I sincerely hope it’s of use to YOU!