Sometimes the journey to a PhD has nothing to do with the PhD at all, it has to do with the ultimate goal. For Paige Backlund Jarquin her journey to her PhD started with a realization she wanted to work to improve the public health system. Now the statement of the goal wasn’t immediate, it took some time and a relocation to Washington, D.C. It was working in the trenches of public health when she had her, for lack of a better term, epiphany, and knew in order to reach the goal she would have to get her PhD.

David Conti’s path to his PhD started when he discovered he quite liked the way genetics helped him answer some of the questions he had about the world around him. It started with butterflies and then moved onto to identifying disease characteristics in our own genome. (I think I got this right.) Now his work finds him being more of a computer programer and statistician as he works to help identify how genetics impacts disease.

The 1950s were an exciting time for Joe Romig. Playing football and a passion for astronomy took him to the University of Colorado, in Boulder. He found great success at both. After his undergrad he went to England to study at Oxford, then returned home as part of the efforts to study the solar system. His never-ending curiosity led him to a career investigating explosions and fires, while also teaching at his alma mater.

Asking good questions are at the heart of all PhD journeys. For Andy Sayler it was a bit different. The questions he was asking didn’t have answers to be derived by laboratory experiments or field investigations. The questions he was working to answer had more to do with the discussion on how to keep digital information secure at the same time the users of the information can be productive with it. https://www.andysayler.com 

Thinking about the role of technology and data in the world is just one of the big questions Shawn DuBravac, PhD is asking these days. Specifically he is focused on digitization. It is more than just the shifting from an analog world to a world build on  ones and zeros, Shawn is working on identifying the ways society is being changed by the transformation into a digital world and how all people can benefit from technological innovations. http://digitaldestiny.com https://twitter.com/shawndubravac

Telling the stories of people was the driving force behind Padraic Kenney’s desire to get his doctorate. He didn't know what he was going to do after that, he just knew he liked to tell stories. So he told a story about the rise of the Communist Revolution in two Polish cities.  The thing is he did this work while another revolution unfolded around him. He has held onto the theme of revolution throughout his work and his new book tells the stories of people imprisoned because they want to change their world. Linked to the book :https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dance-in-chains-9780199375745?q=kenney&lang=en&cc=us Linked to Padraic’s website: http://pages.iu.edu/~pjkenney/

One might think that an undergrad degree in Leisure Studies wouldn’t lead to much more than a couch. That is certainly not the case for Justin Harmon. Sure the years right after graduation were a bit on the lackadaisical side of life, he was working, but he was more focused on the living. It wasn’t until the end of his masters that he found his calling and a way to turn a love of music into a study of culture.

Teaching and filmmaking drive Sheila Schroeder. One is not more important than the other; for Sheila it is an almost symbiotic relationship. Her passion for filmmaking was fortified in graduate school where she she thought she was just going to be a teacher. Then she realized it would take a PhD to reach her final goal. https://portfolio.du.edu/sschroed/page/75