The spring 2026 pledge class hails from seven different states and the plurality of them are engineering students.
Seven of the 18 new members come from Indiana, three from both Ohio and Illinois, two from California and one each from Connecticut, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The new class are enrolled in six different schools at Purdue with six in engineering. Four of them major in business, three in construction management, three in science, two in professional flight and one in health sciences.
Seven of the newcomers graduated with honors diplomas, four were athletic team captains while another four were presidents of a club in high school. There was one valedictorian and one salutatorian in the group as well as one on a state championship golf team in Ohio and another was a state medalist in swimming, also in Ohio. And one was on student council.
All 18 are second-semester freshmen. They were chosen from more than 150 men who went through the spring recruitment period.
The group includes:
- Neel Chatterjee, San Mateo, California, first-year engineering
- Tommy Chen, Chicago, Illinois, finance & accounting
- Jake Coyle, Lake Zurich, Illinois, finance
- Samuel Cormany, Fort Wayne, Indiana, construction management
- Andrew Guidroz, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, professional flight
- Ethan Hoagland, Carmel, Indiana, construction management
- Kharai Leinbach, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, professional flight
- Max King, Traverse City, Michigan, chemical engineering
- Cam Mateyo, Cleveland, Ohio, first-year engineering
- Auggie Matushek, Whiting, Indiana, finance
- Riku Miiwa, San Francisco, California, biochemistry
- AJ Overton, Terre Haute, Indiana, finance & accounting
- Henry Pierce, Cleveland, Ohio, first-year engineering
- Drew Ryser, Warsaw, Indiana, biomedical health sciences
- Matt Vrba, Batavia, Illinois, first-year engineering
- Max Weber, Canton, Ohio, first-year engineering
- Sam White, Richmond, Indiana, construction management
- Max Zelikman, Stamford, Connecticut, computer science