IGORoamandreport: A Personal Quest to Make a Difference

Lindsay Clark, a rising star in the world of travel writing and founder of nomadderwhere.com, gets the inside story about my life-changing adventures, my application for The Best Internship on Earth, and my decision to leave the stability of graduate school to pursue a lofty, uncertain dream.  A personal friend and mentor, Ms. Clark will undoubtedly take over for Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel one day, so this is an interview you don’t want to miss!

Check it out here.

Leaving a PhD program: Part 1 – Are you crazy???

On March 19^th, 2010, I finally parted ways with the world of science and academia.  After 8 months of doubt, deliberation, and debilitation, the chains of an unpleasant and unhappy future were broken.  For the first time, I find myself in the great unknown, but my dreams are in sight.  I hope my story inspires lost souls to look up at the stars and believe it’s possible to pursue their passion.

Flash back to spring 2009.  I am 21 years old, about to graduate college, and I’m looking ahead at the fork in the road of my life.  Where to go?  What to do?  At the time, attending graduate school in neuroscience made perfect sense.  I was graduating from Indiana University with a degree in psychology and a certificate in neuroscience. I worked in a cocaine addiction lab at IU, and I also interned in the pharmaceutical industry at Eli Lilly.  I had the experience.  On top of that, graduate programs in medical sciences typically pay PhD candidates to go to school.  It’s a great deal; they pay full tuition, offer a healthy stipend, and provide free health insurance.  Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I needed financial stability because my girlfriend and I decided that we would remain together as we moved to a new place.

I never did much soul searching in college.  Maybe the social life of a Big 10 school kept me distracted from figuring myself out, maybe I wasn’t far enough away from home