![]() As a sophomore, not yet starring on the basketball team, a Purdue newsletter quoted one of her lifelong dreams of becoming an astronaut. Inspiration came from an unlikely source. Her advisors suggested an easier major, but she wasn't deterred. At the same time, Ukari faced the monumental task of going through the rigors of a Mechanical Engineering curriculum, while simultaneously devoting her time to basketball. Purdue went through three head coaches during Ukari's tenure. We both wanted to come to Purdue and win a championship."Įarly on, those prospects seemed dim. "Stephanie and I are like sisters we're still the best of friends. "I chose Purdue, not only because I wanted to win a national championship," she says, "but also because I knew they would allow me to pursue my engineering degree." She also wanted to team up with one of her new classmates, Stephanie White - Indiana's Miss Basketball and National Player of the Year. As a senior, she was named Kentucky's Miss Basketball, and a high-profile college career seemed a sure thing. She excelled at the sport - not only playing against boys, but playing on the varsity high school team by her eighth grade year. "I said, 'No, I want to play basketball.' And they said, 'There aren't any girls in the basketball league.' And my dad said, 'There are now!' " ![]() "My dad and I went up to the table, and they gave me the cheerleading application," she remembers. She played organized sports as early as age 6, even though there were no girls' teams in her hometown. "The more I studied and learned about math and physics, the more I was drawn to engineering."Īt the same time, another interest bubbled up: basketball. I'd watch my grandfather try to fix his tractor or hay baler with whatever tools were in the box." Ukari applied this hands-on love of fixing things to her school work. "That's what sparked my desire to learn how things worked. "I grew up on my grandfather's tobacco farm," Ukari says. For Ukari Figgs, this unique path led to an equally unique career. ![]() Trace a path from the tobacco fields of Georgetown, Kentucky to the engineering classrooms of West Lafayette, Indiana to a basketball arena in Los Angeles, California and then finally back to Kentucky, this time at a 7-million-square-foot automotive factory. ![]()
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