Eric Buenger ’12
You won’t find his name in any record books or box scores, but Eric Buenger registered an assist for the 2010 Butler men’s basketball team.
It was on the plane home after the win over Kansas State in the Elite Eight. Buenger, who played baritone in the Basketball Band, was sitting across the aisle from Coach Brad Stevens. Stevens asked his wife if she had any sour cream and onion potato chips. She didn’t. But Buenger did. He gave his chips to Stevens, which prompted the coach to say, “You’re the man!”
“‘You’re the man,’” Buenger said, still reveling in the memory. “Brad Stevens just called me the man—after all that just happened on the court. But no, I’m the man.”
That’s just one of many happy Butler memories for Buenger, who chose Butler because it offered the major he wanted—Actuarial Science—taught in small classes. He said he made up his mind after coming to campus to interview for a departmental scholarship. Afterward, he received a handwritten card from the people he interviewed with saying how excited they were to potentially have him as a student.
“With that level of connection I felt in the interview and then that follow-up afterward, I thought: ‘These are going to be people who care about me and my progression and my career.’ That’s really what drew me in. And then the faculty was great once I got there.”
During Buenger’s time at Butler, he worked as a Resident Assistant in Ross Hall for three years, which helped him develop interpersonal and conflict resolution skills as well as the ability to communicate in front of a large audience. “All of those things definitely helped me moving forward in my professional life.” He also played in the Marching Band, was a member of the national honorary band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi, interned with Prudential on the East Coast, and met his future wife, Lauren, a Pharmacy major.
After graduation, Buenger worked for Torchmark Corp. in Texas before moving back to Indiana to work for Anthem. He said Butler prepared him well for his career. While in school, he even passed his first two actuarial exams (out of upwards of a dozen milestones he'll have to pass).
“That,” he said, “really helped me with my job search. They saw that I had two of these exams down, and that was definitely a good starting spot.”
Eric Buenger ’12
“These are going to be people who really care about me.”
Pharmacy Alumni: We Are ‘Clinical Activists’ During COVID-19 Pandemic
PUBLISHED ON Apr 13 2020
Matt Budi ’15 and Erin Budi ’15 met in the Butler University Pharmacy program, worked hard through rigorous classes, and fell in love. They graduated together and later married after establishing themselves as well-trained pharmacists in Indianapolis.
Today, they are among the thousands of healthcare professionals serving Central Indiana during a global pandemic.
While the Budis work at different pharmacies, their experiences are similar. Both have seen their over-the-counter medication shelves wiped clean. They’ve had to ramp up efforts to ensure their customers and staff members stay safe—cleaning every hour, maintaining six feet of distance from one another, and frequently washing hands. Counters, labs, and offices are thoroughly disinfected, and staff members working registers must wash their hands after taking money or health insurance cards from customers.
The precautionary measures have been in place since early- to mid-March, when President Donald Trump enacted travel bans and when Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb first announced the shelter-in-place order.
“We’ve learned a lot since we graduated, but this has been a different experience the last couple months,” says Matt Budi, Manager at a Kroger pharmacy. “That first week, especially, was one of the busiest weeks that I and my wife had ever worked in pharmacy. There was a very high increase in demand. Since then, it has kind of leveled off, but we’re still at a high volume.”
Matt Budi keeps his team up-to-date with the latest COVID-19 information. And with healthcare facilities loaded with patients suffering from the coronavirus, he welcomes questions from customers over the phone.
A Staff Pharmacist at a Walgreens, Erin Budi recommends customers—especially elderly patients—use the pharmacy’s drive-through, if possible. She says she’s used to busy shifts, but the nature of the virus has added some stress to the job.
“Not knowing what you may have been exposed to throughout the day and being in contact with many, many people at the pharmacy counter, we have to take extra precautions,” Erin Budi says. “When we come home, we wash our hands, sanitize the door, and wash our work clothes. Although we’re not actively taking care of sick people, customers may be carrying the coronavirus and not knowing it.”
Matt Budi’s pharmacy has a walk-up window, and Kroger has worked with FedEx to offer free prescription deliveries. During the pandemic, shipments have increased, and customers now receive free shipping.
Matt Budi recommends that anyone needing regular prescriptions take advantage of 90-day doses. Not only will it eliminate trips to the pharmacy, the option is less expensive in the long run through insurance plans and discount cards.
“We’re trying to limit customers’ exposure and save them money, especially with some people now out of work,” he says. “It’s like buying in bulk, as opposed to three 30-day fills, and it gives our staff more time to focus on clinically-oriented tasks.”
While a COVID-19 vaccine is still being developed, Matt Budi’s customers still require vaccines for hepatitis, whooping cough, pneumonia, shingles, and other common diseases. When administering the shots, staff must wear medical masks, as do the customers. He says while the coronavirus is rightfully dominating headlines, his customers still need care for their other maladies. He and his staff are making more calls to customers to check in on their health, especially with immunocompromised patients.
“Other conditions don’t go away,” Matt Budi says. “We’re trying to move away from just the dispensing role, instead moving more toward being clinical activists for our patients, looking out for their therapy management.”
Both Matt and Erin have utilized their Butler Pharmacy training in professional practice, from compounding medications and dosage forms to accurately taking blood pressure and applying methods to put patients at ease. Their overall experience at the University has especially come in handy this past month.
“We were taught to critically think and apply the knowledge outside of just what we learned in class, which has definitely been helpful,” Matt Budi says. “That’s just the culture at Butler: hard work, determination, and taking care of other people.”
Photo courtesy of Matt Budi
Media Contact:
Katie Grieze
News Content Manager
kgrieze@butler.edu
260-307-3403
Pharmacy Alumni: We Are ‘Clinical Activists’ During COVID-19 Pandemic
Indianapolis pharmacists Matt and Erin Budi have maintained patient care through more deliveries, 90-day supplies
Indianapolis pharmacists Matt and Erin Budi have maintained patient care through more deliveries, 90-day supplies
Ed Carpenter '03 Wins Indy 500 Pole for 2nd Straight Year
PUBLISHED ON May 19 2014
By DAN GELSTON
AP Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS - Local driver Ed Carpenter has made himself at home on the Indianapolis 500 pole.
The last of nine qualifiers to take the track, Carpenter bumped James Hinchcliffe from the top spot, posting a four-lap average of 231.067 mph to win the 500 pole for the second straight year.
"I felt that it was harder," Carpenter said. "It was just a different position because when I made my run last year, we didn't really have anything to lose. This year, being the last guy to go out, I think there was a little bit of pressure to not mess it up."
He didn't mess it up, not at all.
Carpenter's No. 20 Chevrolet was the car to beat all weekend, and the hometown favorite showed no signs of rust in his first IndyCar Series race of the season. He owns Ed Carpenter Racing and decided in November to run only on ovals, where he excels. He turned his car over to Mike Conway on road and street courses, and skipped the first four races of the season.
He knew he had the pole secured when he nailed the final two corners on the last lap.
"I could really just kind of enjoy it knowing that we were going to be on the pole for the second year," he said.
Hinchcliffe will start second after sustaining a concussion last weekend in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Will Power will join them on the front row.
Carpenter, the stepson of former speedway executive Tony George, was 10th in last year's Indy 500. He is 11th driver to earn consecutive 500 poles and the first since Castroneves in 2009-10.
"It's all about the race," the 33-year-old Carpenter said. "Hopefully, we can close the deal this year."
As a single-car team last year, Carpenter was unable to get help on data and much-needed setup information. He didn't want a repeat this May, so he hired Hildebrand to drive a second car at Indy for Ed Carpenter Racing. Hildebrand nearly won the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2011, but he crashed exiting the final turn and was passed for the win by the late Dan Wheldon.
"I wish we could have got him up on the front row with us, but the shootout's tough," Carpenter said. "The conditions were hard today, but having him go first today also helped me because we were able to make an adjustment."
Carpenter thrived in the first year of a new Indy 500 qualifying format. He posted the top qualifying speed Saturday when the fastest nine drivers advanced to Sunday's shootout for the pole.
Ed Carpenter, The Man of May
PUBLISHED ON May 23 2019
The Month Man of May
May in Indianapolis. The month that Ed Carpenter ’03 lives for. The month that drives him.
In Carpenter’s world, everything—his marriage, his family, his friendships, his livelihood—revolves around May.
And the arrival of May this year brings the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 and Carpenter’s 16th attempt at what he hopes will be the culmination of a lifetime of hard work, determination, and the realization of life-long reverie.
Carpenter has made it his job to win the very race that has made everything possible for him. The very race that is, well, more than a race to him. A task derived from a single burning desire.
One man’s mission to master one month.
Bulldogs Aren’t Born, They’re Made
Carpenter wasn’t born a racer, nor was he born in a racing family. He was acquired by one.
Born just across the Indiana state line in Marshall, Illinois, Carpenter caught the racing bug in grade school. The year was 1989, and Carpenter’s exposure to the sport came when his family moved to Indianapolis and his mother, Laura George, married Tony George—a name also synonymous with May in Indianapolis.
George is the son of Elmer George, a late 1950s and early 1960s era Indy 500 driver, and Mari Hulman George, the late matriarch of the Hulman George family which has owned the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1945.
With the George’s racing connections, and Carpenter’s desire to try his hand at his new family’s business, young Carpenter quickly discovered he had a knack behind the wheel.
So, Carpenter spent his formative years on local dirt tracks and backwoods ovals, turning circles and honing his craft, all while attending school at Park Tudor School in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, 16th & Georgetown became Carpenter’s playground, spending the May months of his youth amidst Gasoline Alley, and occupying his summers by cleaning golf carts at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course.
“I was just having fun as a kid in Indy,” Carpenter says. “I wasn’t fully processing what it could be or what it takes to get somewhere like that. I always enjoyed being at the Speedway, but I don’t think I realized what it could be until I got a little further along in my career. As I moved through the ranks, then I really started to get it in my head that I could do that.”
Carpenter’s progression moved steadily. Racing quarter-midget cars led to midgets cars, then Silver Crown, and then sprint cars as Carpenter climbed the USAC ranks. And as the racing became more serious, so did Carpenter’s focus. From then on, his sights were set on the Indianapolis 500.
But, there was school, too. The parallel trajectories of racing and education would come to a head as Carpenter finished high school.
Carpenter was ready to continue racing. His mother had other ideas. They both got what they wanted.
Butler Bound for Indy Crown
“My choice in Butler was really just a matter of logistics,” Carpenter says. “It was the closest to my race shop. I wish there was a better reason as to why I chose Butler, but I’m still really happy with the decision.”
So in fall 1999, just a few miles from his childhood home and the historic speedway, Carpenter moved into his new home, Ross Hall.
The marketing major made quick work of his studies and homework so he could spend as much of his free time on racing as possible. Still, the classroom served its purpose for Carpenter, perhaps initially in the form of discipline and a worldly perspective, and later in the form of preparation for a career in racing beyond driving.
“Beyond just the learning that took place in the classroom, Butler really prepared me for the dual role situation that I’m in now,” he says.“I was a professional student and a professional racecar driver, so I had to learn how to manage both of those things stay on top of school work, the racing, and everything else I was doing. I don’t think I would’ve been able to sustain the type of career I’ve had without that experience.”
Carpenter raced all throughout his time at Butler and by May 2003, Carpenter’s mother got her wish as her son walked across the stage at Hinkle Fieldhouse to receive his diploma. A week later, Carpenter got his wish by driving to victory in the Freedom 100 at Indy. While it was a win in the Indy Lights Series, a step below Indy cars, it was still his first taste of winning at the Brickyard.
Later that fall, Carpenter made his first NTT Data IndyCar Series start at Chicagoland Speedway. The following season, Red Bull Cheever Racing signed Carpenter for his rookie season, and he’s been driving in IndyCar ever since. As Carpenter found success behind the wheel, he also set his sights on new opportunities outside the cockpit.
The Butler Way
In late 2011, Carpenter had the opportunity to partner with step-father Tony George, and local businessman Stuart Reed to start his own team, Ed Carpenter Racing. The multi-car operation, complete with full crew, equipment, and resources, has allowed Carpenter to secure his seat at Indianapolis for the foreseeable future.
And with that, Carpenter not only became one of the few college graduates in the field, he also became the only driver/owner in IndyCar. Because of his dual role, Carpenter holds a unique position in the paddock. In one instance Carpenter may be head-to-head with his driving competitors, and the next he’s shoulder-to-shoulder with the sport’s other powerful team owners.
That can be heady stuff for a thirty-something in any profession, but Carpenter understands that racing is a people business, no matter his role. Whether as driver or owner, Carpenter is focused on how to be operate, manage, and motivate his own team. His Butler experience offered him insight into his approach.
“I think there’s a Butler influence, at least in a subconscious way,” Carpenter says. “The emphasis that Butler puts on culture, especially in athletics, is something I subscribe to and believe in. A lot of people talk about culture, but it's something that really requires follow through and trust. That’s my focus as a leader of my team.”
Carpenter’s ability to motivate and retain his crew at Ed Carpenter Racing is evident in the familiar faces that have been with the team since the beginning. That continuity has also attributed to the team’s recent success at Indianapolis which now boasts multiple front row starts and Top 10 finishes at the Brickyard.
In Ed Carpenter Racing, Carpenter has found strength in numbers. By sharing his vision for success at Indianapolis, he’s brought his team along for the ride. Each May they are serious contenders. This year more than ever.
Unleashed
Carpenter’s Front Row starting position for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 will be his third consecutive at Indianapolis, and his fifth time in seven years. Moreover, teammates Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones will start just behind him in positions third and fourth, making Ed Carpenter Racing the collective best in the field.
Results like this are proof of Carpenter’s hard work, determination, and Bulldog mentality, which is fitting for a guy that will don a Bulldog logo and other Butler marks on his helmet for this year’s race. In 16 tries at Indianapolis, Carpenter has gone from Indy 500 back-marker, to underdog, to black horse, and now perennial favorite, in more than one sense of the word.
Certainly, his speed makes him a likely winner, but it’s Carpenter’s humble and relentless pursuit of success at Indy that has endeared him to those that fill the stands on race day; to those that revere this race just like he does.
“I dream about winning at Indy all the time. So, I just stay focused on that and do the work necessary to make that dream a reality.”
Anything can happen over the course of 500 miles, including victory. That’s the only outcome that will appease Carpenter this May. And it’s just the sort of outcome to expect when you unleash a Bulldog with a dream and a really fast car.
Photo Credit: IMS Photography
Ed Carpenter, The Man of May
One man’s mission to master one month.
One man’s mission to master one month.