WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana — Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, has a letter he wants to share. “I just received it the other day from a high school student,” he said, leaping from his chair in the corner of his office that overlooks the sprawling Midwestern campus.

Daniels explains it is from a young man named Matthew who is entering his senior year at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in Buffalo, New York. “It’s not the first of these that I’ve gotten,” he said.