Hej (hello)! My name is Casey Coombs. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and moved to Indiana at 24. I have lived in Greenfield, Indiana, for almost 20 years now, and I am in my senior year at Indiana University as a psychology major. If you did the math, you've probably figured out I'm not a traditional college student! I started college when I was 41, and now, at 44, I'm living in Sweden as a study abroad student in Stockholm for the fall semester of my senior year.
While in Stockholm, I'm studying the cognitive neuroscience of addiction, which essentially means understanding what happens to and within people's brains when they are addicted to or recovering from drug and alcohol use, gambling, or other addictive behaviors that disrupt their quality of life. While here, I'll also be serving as a research assistant in a lab at the Karolinska Institutet in a study related to the effects of menopause on a woman's mental health.
Back home in Indiana, I help people who are involved in the justice system with drug and alcohol related charges. For me, it's important to understand why someone is using drugs or alcohol in order to get them the right help and support they need to thrive in life.
I've been married to my husband Cody for 25 years, and we have two daughters, Addie (21) and Vivi (15), and one son-in-love, Logan (21). We have three cats (Mochi, Goobie, and Spatula). I love to cook, craft, bake, camp, dance, and do almost anything outdoors, especially if it involves horses.
Want to know more about how you can study or intern abroad when you are a college student? The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, funded by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education (IIE). Learn more about the scholarship by visiting www.gilmanscholarship.org.
