As an undergraduate, academics were extremely important to Sohyoun Yun Carcamo, originally from Chile, who now studies neutrinos from the Galactic Center as a postdoc at Drexel University. Eventually, she had reached the point where she was prioritizing her grades at the expense of her mental health. When she finally graduated, Sohyoun said she realized, “I didn’t enjoy any of this.” Describing how she felt as she looked back at her undergraduate years and forward to graduate school, she added, “I didn’t go out with my friends. I didn’t enjoy family gatherings. It was just college for me, nothing else.”
So she decided to make a change. “I didn’t want to get sick of working again,” she said. “You can work hard, but also take care of yourself.”
“You can work hard but also take care of yourself.”
Sohyoun Yun Carcamo
Now, Sohyoun makes more time for her personal life. Outside of work, she enjoys painting and spending time outdoors with her dogs, and she is currently training for a triathlon. This change has made her much happier. An added reaffirmation came when she discovered that her advisor also prioritized a healthy personal life. “I looked at him and I said, ‘Ok, he’s a very important, known faculty member,’” she said. “But he still takes time for his family.”
If she has any advice to give to prospective students, graduate or undergraduate, it’s to put their mental and physical health before academics. “If you’re sick, whether [in] body or mind, you cannot be productive, you cannot do anything,” she said. Now that she devotes more energy to interests outside of school, Sohyoun says she is happier and even more passionate about her research.