WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2006
NEWS
THEUNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 9
PROFILE
World traveler looks to future, grad school
ADRIENNE BOMMARITO
abommarito@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
When David Hover received a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, he chose to go with his stomach's wishes.
David Hover, Overland Park graduate, sifts through lines of computer code Thursday morning in a Mallott Hall physics lab. Hover, who graduated in May with a physics degree, is planning a trip to Thailand and a backpacking trip to the Pacific Crest Trail before heading to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study physics.
"I was eating Thai food one day and decided I would go there," he said with a smile.
Hover, a recent physics graduate, received the ticket after a layover he faced in Amsterdam last summer. He left Monday with his mother for a two-week vacation in Thailand.
Joshua Bickel/KANSAN
Hover became familiar with foreign countries early in his life. At 4 years old he moved with his family to Sydney, Australia, because of a job his father took.
While there, Hover dealt with what he referred to as his "physical sob story."
He spent one month in a wheelchair with casts on both legs to correct a problem he had with walking on his tip-toes. At the same time, he also had an eye-patch covering one
1076
2324
eye because he had a lazy-eye.
Hover jokingly said that for entertainment, he wheeled in a circle over and over looking out of his lazy eye.
All joking aside, the doctors were able to fix the eye problem, the casts were removed and Hover went on to play soccer on organized teams until his ninth grade year.
Hover still plays soccer for fun, but now has to concentrate on his future.
Hover will be joining the physics graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in August. He said the six-year Ph.D. program should give him enough time to decide exactly what he wants to do with his time-consuming major.
Hover is excited about his new path, but anxious, as well. At Madison, he will be a teaching assistant for an entry-level physics course. He said that even though he was a physicist, he was still apprehensive about teaching, especially classes he took years ago.
"Teaching kind of scares me. You have to know everything exactly," he said.
ing the Pacific Crest Trail in Oregon.
Hover spent his last days in Lawrence working in the physics research
Despite this changing time in Hover's life, he still takes every step with optimism, looking forward to the next thing. This free-spirit is someone who never stops going
places or seeing things.
lab on campus and spending time with family and friends.
In between his Thailand vacation and moving to Wisconsin, Hover, who enjoys hiking and the outdoors, will spend one month with a friend follow-
When asked where they will be sleeping on their hiking trip, Hover smiled and said, "In a tent."
— Edited by Dani Hurst