When Shorna Broussard started a dance class in Indianapolis as a stress-buster, little did she know it would lead to a job as an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader. The group makes at least 15 appearances a year away from the football field. Broussard is an assistant professor of forestry and natural resources at Purdue.

Colts cheering is stress-buster for prof

From an early age, Shorna Broussard, 31, seemed destined to arrive where she is today, juggling a career as a Purdue University faculty member and her avocation as an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader.

The Texas native arrived in West Lafayette 21/2 years ago as an assistant professor focusing on environmental conservation and management in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. She attributes her success at the university and with the football organization to her upbringing and her energy.

At the age of 8, her family moved to Long Beach, Calif., where Broussard discovered the desire to preserve natural resources for future generations.

“In southern California, I really developed my environmental ethic because everyone there was so environmentally conscious,” she says.

“That was when global warming was becoming a major issue and there was a major effort to reduce use of chlorofluorocarbons. Both Texas and California stimulated my interest in the environment, but from different perspectives.”

When it was time for college, Broussard wanted to go somewhere she'd never lived before, and she wanted to study engineering. She applied to several East Coast schools, but she knew where she really wanted to go because she had attended a gymnastics camp there — Penn State University.

She switched in her sophomore year to environmental resource management in the School of Forest Resources.

“It wasn't until I learned about the College of Agricultural Sciences that I realized all the areas open to me,” she says.

In the meantime, she continued to go to football games. “I went to every game at Penn State no matter what,” Broussard says. “I'd have my cocoa in my hand and my huge down coat on, and I'd still be freezing.”

She also continued gymnastics, ballet and jazz dance classes, and a weight-training program, and she stuck with those activities as she earned her master's degree at Penn State and her PhD at Oregon State University.