Andrew Gentry ‘17 is currently a PhD student in physics at the University of New Mexico. But in 2017, he arrived at Truman State University as a history major. He also brought a significant number of college credits from CBC to Truman. This gave him room in his schedule to reignite a passion and reshape his future path.
“After my first semester, I decided I missed the physics and calculus that I had taken senior year at CBC, and took ‘Physics 1’ that spring. I absolutely loved it.” His history major soon paired with a minor in physics, then became a double major in history and physics, which became a BS in physics with a minor in history upon graduation from Truman.
With a desire to further pursue physics, he then found himself at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. His time at UNM also allowed him to research at SLAC, a US Department of Energy national laboratory associated with Stanford University. Last year, Andrew also had the opportunity to work at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, the world’s largest particle physics lab.
For Andrew, the Man for Tomorrow quality of ‘Imagines, creates, and innovates in an ever-changing world' resonates. “In what I do, there is always something new to learn, and new ideas are needed. The world of physics is also changing a lot, both in the cutting edge of our knowledge of physics and in the skills/tools needed to be a physicist day-to-day.”
Andrew credits his time in the CBC wrestling program for helping to shape his work ethic, “the way I approach my job and caring for my family as a husband and father. Wrestling helped instill a mindset of trying to get a little better every single day.”
Andrew is also passionate about the harmony of faith and science. He is a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists. “I am a devoted Catholic, who is in my professional life a scientist.” He quotes St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians: ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.’ He adds, “My job, fundamentally, is to think about and pursue ‘whatever is true’ about the natural world.
In terms of advice to current and future CBC students, Andrew shares, “Never stop learning and growing, and you never know where life will take you. I think when you’re starting out it’s easy to get caught up in finding the exact right thing. I have found that it can often just paralyze you. If you just pick something and run after it with everything you’ve got, you’ll gain some skills and learn more about what the best thing for your future is, and you can always adjust your goals as you go.”