Lake Forest College is always committed to showing the best of the best. When it comes to athletics, academics, student life, and every other organization on campus, Foresters show the best of themselves, and faculty is not exempt from this rule. In this issue, we show you the path of Dr. Shubhik DebBurman, Professor of Biology; he discusses his journey to Lake Forest College and offers advice to current undergraduate students.
Stentor: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Dr. DebBurman: As a child, I don’t think I had a vision of what I would do as an adult. I enjoyed too many things and was drawn to a range of possibilities (probably too many), from artist to doctor. Interestingly, becoming a teacher or scientist was not an early aspiration.
Stentor: What was your first job?
Dr. DebBurman
Dr. DebBurman: My first paid job was as a circulation desk assistant as an international undergraduate in college (Wittenberg University, OH). My first full-time job was a predoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University, where I conducted my PhD studies in neuroscience.
Stentor: What was your favorite book in college and why?
Dr. DebBurman: My favorite question. I’d have to pick three of them, given my interest in many disciplines. In the life sciences, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is a must-read classic for all biology majors; too bad, LFC biology students don’t have to! As a budding economics major and history minor, I was captivated by [Adam Smith’s] Wealth of Nations, as it drew me into how human history shaped some of the biggest economic ideas of free market and labor divisions. Finally, my love for humanities led me to many books and essays, but among them Emerson’s Nature stands peerless. I had not thought much about transcendentalism before, and it helped open my eyes to look at the world around us differently than before, more spiritually than I had previously considered.
Stentor: In your free time, what activities do you place at top priority?
Dr. DebBurman: Family, of course. And within that, spending time with my young daughter as she is growing up. With her, I love reading, playing, and just doing things together (art, math, science, building things, making foods) or just chatting [about]anything that’s on our minds.
Stentor: What is your most memorable class period or course that you have taught at LFC and why?
Dr. DebBurman: I am a true nerd. I love teaching all my courses. I have created each one to be different, so that its distinctiveness in purpose drives constant innovation and never gets tiring. But I do have a favorite: First-Year Studies Medical Mysteries of the Mind. The reason 
is simple: I make the most impact early in student development because this course is designed to help students transition and succeed in college in purposeful, fun, and creative ways. The biggest satisfaction is that students indeed succeed very well (despite the perceived rigor), and students say that the skills they learned help them throughout college. Besides that, what could be more fun than teaching by learning about ourselves? Our mind is who we are and what we hope to be!
Stentor: If someone were to write a biography about you, how would you describe your journey to Lake Forest College to them?
Dr. DebBurman: I am a college dropout from India. Because I was talented in the sciences, I went to the best engineering school in India at the age of 17, when I also had the choice to attend India’s top medical schools. I knew on the first day of college what a terrible mistake I had made. I was bored stiff. I was not meant to be an en- gineer or a doctor, but I still stuck it our for two years, hoping the next day [would be]different. It only got worse. My second year, I hit rock bottom. I stopped going to classes and wandered aimlessly in public bus- es in the streets of Delhi for months before I made a decision that changed my life forever: to achieve a lib- eral arts education in the U.S. at a small college.
I simply needed more time, and I wanted more choice. I was extremely lucky to be blessed with the most wonderful parents one could ask for. They supported me unconditionally through such personal turmoil. When Wittenberg University (Ohio) gave me the most scholarship [funds], it sealed my fate. The next four years were nothing short of transfor- mative. In this little college campus that became my home, I grew into who I am now mostly because of my free engagement to explore the liberal arts.
This intellectual engagement gave me extraordinary choice, boosted my confidence, and ultimately, provided direction. My college experience also influenced my decision many years later to choose to become a college professor. Wittenberg faculty were tremendously influential as teachers, schol- ars, and mentors, and some even served as a surrogate family. Their lives seemed filled with purpose and outcomes. I wanted to make that same level of impact on other young minds and help them discover themselves. This is now my eighteenth year teaching undergraduates, and I could not have asked for a more satisfying career. I measure success by seeing how far and wide my students fly with purpose as post-graduate adults. Today, I see enough such birds flying out there under whose wings I believe I have helped provide some long-lasting lift.
Stentor: What advice do you have for current undergraduate students?
Dr. DebBurman: As cliche as quotes sound, my life is guided by three of them (all by Mahatma Gandhi). Each quote applies to any one currently pursuing college, as they can provide perspective, guide personal success, help the work students do be joyful.
1. Satisfaction is in the effort. Not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
2. Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive for perfection, which is self-realization.
3. But all my life through the very insistence of truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise.
