Krannert welcomes new director of undergraduate student recruitment

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Krannert welcomed A.J. Frigo in August as director of undergraduate student recruitment, bringing with him nearly six years of experience working in Purdue central admissions, most recently serving as senior assistant director of admissions.

In this latter role, Frigo focused on Indiana Relations. “My job was to oversee and understand the landscape of Indiana,” he says. “Did you visit every high school? Did you build relationships? Did you build pipelines? What are the goals for enrollment management? It was really just understanding the context of what an Indiana student looks like now, what Purdue's relationship has been with Indiana in the past, and what we hope it's going to be in the future.”

That led to Frigo running niche programs like the veterinary nursing program, the veterinary nursing distance-learning program, the Pathway to Purdue Agriculture program, and the Purdue Fast Start program.

Frigo is an Indiana native who initially planned to enlist in the Air Force. When his mother vetoed that plan, he enrolled in Saint Joseph’s College, where he majored in theater arts and communications. In 2019, he earned a MS in Higher Education and Leadership from Purdue University Global. He was attracted to the job at Krannert because of the school’s unique strengths.

“Like a lot of areas on campus, admissions is in a bit of a silo. I had a strong liking to what recruiters were doing, and all of the college fairs I went to had a business school as a staple of its academic programs,” he says. “With Krannert consistently being ranked among the top 25 business schools in the nation, I was excited to see how I could move it forward.”

While he is used to being a “one-man show,” Frigo is eager to work with his new team and forge collaborations across different units. “I’m trying to bring in a new perspective,” he says. “There's been a lot of disconnect in what admissions does and doesn't do. I think that’s an information gap that exists between every college.”

Frigo’s top priorities include informing admissions more thoroughly about Krannert’s talent pipeline and the programs offered through the school. “A lot of the programs and centers, from the Business Opportunity Program to the Brock-Wilson Center for Women in Management, are amazing and do great things for students,” he says.

At the same time, Frigo wants to use the campus community as a similar draw. “We need to make sure that we're all representing Purdue and really valuing what the University has to offer students,” he says. “We are a small business school compared to our peers. Let's act like that. Let's recruit students more proactively that way and utilize our resources and our tools better than anyone else.”