Caleb O’Brien | Alum

Diving Into History

Caleb expected that an undergraduate degree at DePauw would lead to law school and a career as a lawyer. That was before he took classes in classical studies and had conversations with Professor Pedar Foss.

“I fell in love with it,” he says, “because there are a lot of archaeology classes, which is something I hadn’t done before. I was really excited to do something different. …

He got to thinking that maybe he should consider a career other than law. He participated in an expedition led by Foss and Rebecca Schindler, also a classical studies professor, to Italy, where DePauw students have been excavating a second-century B.C. Roman villa for several summers.

“I absolutely loved it, so I was like, you know what? I want to try this again. I like scuba diving; I’ve been in the water my whole life. Let’s do underwater archaeology, which is something I’ve always been interested in. I looked into it and I figured that’s an interesting career that I could do. I started thinking about it early this year and I’ve kind of switched and I’m entirely dedicated to doing that.”

With the support of several DePauw funds and the encouragement of Foss, Caleb attended a four-week summer program in which he and other students excavated an ancient city under the Black Sea, off the coast of Bulgaria. He now plans to attend graduate school to study maritime archaeology, leading to a career in which he will create virtual archaeological sites so people visiting U.S. museums can feel as if they were exploring underwater with him.