Grinnell Has a Habit of Staying With You
“I was a science geek and wanted to stay that way,” says Cory Brooke-deBock ’13 about himself when he arrived at Grinnell College from Vermont as a freshman. The first science class he took at Grinnell was a section of Biology 150 called The Language of Neurons, taught by Professor Clark Lindgren. “It was a hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-dirty class. For a semester, we became biologists,” Cory says. Lindgren’s innovative approach to teaching Bio 150 was featured in the April 18, 2010, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education; the class confirmed Cory’s passion for the sciences.
During the spring semester of 2011, Cory decided to take a semester off to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in lieu of studying abroad. He estimates that he took more than 5 million steps. Along the way, he discovered that “Grinnell has a habit of staying with you.”
The resolve he’d learned to practice each semester during “hell week” — the last week of classes, before finals, when papers and presentations are due — was similar to the grit needed for climbing mountain after mountain. “I used the goal-setting techniques I had mastered at Grinnell: I’d learned I couldn’t focus on the big picture continually; I had to set smaller goals, like studying for the test and completing my readings. I used the same kind of strategies to complete my hike.”
Now, back at Grinnell, Cory has again thrown himself into all the activities that make Grinnell so unique. In Cory’s case, these include sailing, GORP, Dagorhir “Dag” (a medieval sword-fighting club), and Unitarian Universalist discussion groups. “I can’t wait to see what other life lessons Grinnell has to offer. Coming to Grinnell, I was unsure of what to expect. Grinnell has given me the space to discover myself.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is Cory’s love for science, and graduate or medical school is likely in his future. Meanwhile, he’ll be spending plenty of time in his favorite study spot at a table and blackboard tucked away in the basement of Noyce Science Center.
