From Homeschool to Formal School to a Career in Science (w/ Alice Goldstein-Plesser)

Our guest for this episode has worked as a research fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency, and will soon be working toward her PhD in microbiology at Dartmouth College. But her first day of school was at the age of 14, when she decided to attend a public high school after being homeschooled without any formal curriculum. Today, we talk with Alice Goldstein-Plesser about her unique educational path from homeschool to high school to college to a career in the natural sciences, what the transition from and to each of these was like, and what Alice thinks is the connection between her homeschooled background and her deep love for science and the natural world. Stay tuned for a wonderful and wide-ranging episode.


2:38 - Why Alice’s Family Chose Homeschooling - “They looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s look for something else,' and found homeschooling.”
10:00 - Alice Decides to Go to High School: “ At some point, I wanted to learn science in a more traditional way.”
18:39 - Alice’s First Class - AP US History: “That class put me through the ringer and I came out much more knowledge about academics.”
28:12 - Is College More Like Homeschooling or High School?: ”Going to college, it was sort of a mixed bag.”
34:11 - Alice’s Life Now as a Scientist: “I’ve always thought that homeschooling taught me how to learn really well and how to find resources. But so did college, and so did high school…”
36:41 - Alice’s Retrospective Thoughts on Homeschooling: “I think every person learns very differently, and every person is in a very different situation.”