October 28, 2016

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- If you ask Giovanni Malloy about his greatest achievement on campus, the answer might surprise you. The Purdue University senior has a mountain of accolades to choose from —awards, scholarships and leadership roles, but is most proud of a project you won’t find his name on.

Every year on 9/11, Purdue students find their campus suddenly awash with red, white and blue. As they walk to class, passing hundreds of flags waving gently in the breeze, old glory beckons them to remember.

“It’s a really moving thing,” Malloy explained. “It rallies the campus together in one sentiment.”

The industrial engineering major and Honors College student was instrumental in bringing the memorial tradition back to campus during his freshman year. It had been customary for the Purdue College Republicans, but slipped away when the group suffered a void in leadership.

Not one to shrink from a challenge, Malloy stepped up as that leader. He was only in his first year on campus, but became the president of the Purdue College Republicans. Malloy quickly reshaped the club, bringing in notable politicians to offer public lectures on campus, organizing service work and forging a strong connection with the Tippecanoe County Republican Party. He has also served as the club’s political director and is currently its vice president.

“My leadership has focused on two things, bringing different perspectives and voices to the table, and not giving up,” Malloy said. “I believe you need to try every avenue you can to reach your principle goal.”

Malloy’s determination served him well as the Purdue Student Government student senator for the College of Engineering. He noticed there were academic colleges on campus without representation in the Senate, including the Honors College, and began lobbying for change. His efforts earned representation for the College of Veterinary Medicine, but it would take a constitutional referendum— PSG’s first-ever—to gain senators for the Honors College. Malloy authored the measure and served as its champion.

“If you have a vision and a powerful idea you don’t think a lot of people are talking about, it’s your responsibility to stick your neck out and say here is something we’re not doing well, or here is an area where we need improvement,” Malloy said.

“The Honors College is so proud of Giovanni Malloy,” Honors College Dean Rhonda Phillips said. “He is an incredibly active member of our community, a well-rounded scholar and an agent for change. Students need to actively use their voices to contribute their visions and ideas to shape our campus environment, and Giovanni does this. We’ve seen him work tirelessly to solve problems on campus and can only imagine what he will do next.”

Malloy says his future will involve the study of computational ways to approach health policy. The interest stems from his undergraduate research. Malloy is currently working with Mario Ventresca, an assistant professor of industrial engineering, to analyze and model Ebola spread in West Africa. They believe network science can help determine which type of policies best mitigate disease spread.

“Giovanni is an intellectually mature student who has clear goals and the discipline, motivation and aptitude to achieve them,” Ventresca said. “It has truly been a pleasure working with such a genuine, kind and happy person for the past 2+ years.”

In particular, Malloy wants to focus on neglected tropical diseases, communicable diseases that often go without treatment in developing nations.

“I think it’s a responsibility of our country to be a global partner for developing nations because it (pandemic disease) is a big economic setback,” Malloy said. “The next step is how do you bring these countries back to economic and political stability?”

Writer/Media Contact: Lindsay Perrault, lindsayperrault@purdue.edu