When Steven Moberly graduated from high school he didn't think that college was his “thing.” Rather than sit in a classroom, he hoped to travel the world. A fter graduat ing from North Harrison High School in Harrison County , Ind , Moberly packed his bags and took off. He hiked across the Grand Tetons, volunteered at a nature preserve in Nebraska , worked as a landscaper in Florida , sold seafood in Seattle , and traveled as a commercial fisherman in the Bearing Sea.

But Moberly's thirst for knowledge wasn't quenched. Back in Indiana, he enrolled at Indiana University Southeast and is now one of the school's most outstanding—and inspiring—students.

While majoring in biology and maintaining a GPA of 4.0, Moberly also eagerly participates in research. For examples, he was active in IU Southeast's two-year program to track and control the West Nile virus in Indiana . Along with other students and IU Southeast Professor of Biology, Claude Baker, Moberly helped identi fy the first Asian mosquito to be found in Indiana . The Asian mosquito is a known carrier of the West Nile virus. During the study, Moberly logged 5,000 hours in volunteer research work, which earned him a President Bush's Call to Service Award this year.

“Steve is the best student I've ever had,” says Baker. “He's easily been the top student in each class he has taken with me. He has tremendous study habits. One thing I've seen him do is read the entire book for a class he's going to take during the previous semester and answer all the questions in the book. I've never seen a student do that before.”

Moberly's studious habits should serve him well in the future. He plans to become a physician as well as earn a PhD so that he can do original research on Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders. This summer, he will be one of seven students in the United States to study Alzheimer's in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. Moberly will train for 10 weeks with experts in the fields of genetics, neuropathology, and animal modeling related to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other disorders. Moberly also was recently tapped to win the Volmer Award for Biology Student of the Year and has received two Eli Lilly III internships to study and work in environmental health.

Moberly credits Baker for much of his success and inspiration. “When I met Dr. Baker in high school, he had us coming out early on the weekends to do field studies ,” says Moberly. “ At six or seven in the morning, he'd be out in the creek with his waders on, yelling and screaming at everyone. It was so exhilarating. When I ran into him years later, he was the exact same way, and I thought, ‘hmmm ¼ maybe college is for me.' I don't think I would have enrolled at IU Southeast if it wasn't for Dr. Baker. He's made me realize things I never thought I'd be capable of. Even though I could never see it, he knew all along.”

Moberly says his interest in medicine is driven by curiosity and his desire to help people. “With medicine, there's never a day when the work is done. It's not something you can ever finish, but you can always get better. I want to use my M.D. and PhD together to really understand what is going on, and at the same time, be able to help people by applying the research.”