SCHOOL - SENIOR YEAR
Systems Neuroscience
To be honest, I was pretty afraid to take this class. I'd heard from several people that NEUSCI 302 is the toughest class in the Neuroscience core sequence, and I had struggled quite a bit in NEUSCI 301 which made me extra nervous. The night before the first day of class in Fall quarter, I felt panicked and my stomach twisted into knots at the thought of the laboratory sections. I was convinced that I would forget everything I had learned the previous winter and fail the lab reports or accidentally break the wildly expensive equipment. In that moment, I never would have guessed that NEUSCI 302 would become my favorite class of the major.
The class was certainly tough; the lectures moved fast, the exams were long and always a race against the clock, and the labs often lived up to their notorious reputations. But I worked hard to be proactive and not fall behind, and I pushed myself to be extra prepared for the lab sections so that I could keep up. I found that I really enjoyed the course material, and I was surprised to find that there was a lot of overlap with my interest in neuroecology. We studied the neural systems behind bat echolocation, insect vision, and fish electrolocation, and I saw many parallels to my research in insect communication. I was also surprised to find that I genuinely enjoyed the lab sections, which in previous courses had always left me exhausted and confused. There were many challenging aspects, but I was determined to stay on top of it. My hard work paid off, and I learned so much through this class. It was a side of neuroscience that I hadn't really seen before, and it made me more excited to be pursuing a career in research.
I want to wrap up this section by briefly talking about the Neuroscience program in general because this has been the absolute greatest privilege to be a part of and I honestly couldn’t imagine my undergraduate education without this community and these classes. The classes were very tough at times but we were given so much support to succeed and there was such a sense community right away within my cohort as we bonded through the shared experience of surviving the laboratory sections. I've made great friends and memories through this program, had some unforgettable experiences, and met some truly incredible faculty members and mentors. I will forever be so grateful that I got to be a part of this wonderful program.
The class was certainly tough; the lectures moved fast, the exams were long and always a race against the clock, and the labs often lived up to their notorious reputations. But I worked hard to be proactive and not fall behind, and I pushed myself to be extra prepared for the lab sections so that I could keep up. I found that I really enjoyed the course material, and I was surprised to find that there was a lot of overlap with my interest in neuroecology. We studied the neural systems behind bat echolocation, insect vision, and fish electrolocation, and I saw many parallels to my research in insect communication. I was also surprised to find that I genuinely enjoyed the lab sections, which in previous courses had always left me exhausted and confused. There were many challenging aspects, but I was determined to stay on top of it. My hard work paid off, and I learned so much through this class. It was a side of neuroscience that I hadn't really seen before, and it made me more excited to be pursuing a career in research.
I want to wrap up this section by briefly talking about the Neuroscience program in general because this has been the absolute greatest privilege to be a part of and I honestly couldn’t imagine my undergraduate education without this community and these classes. The classes were very tough at times but we were given so much support to succeed and there was such a sense community right away within my cohort as we bonded through the shared experience of surviving the laboratory sections. I've made great friends and memories through this program, had some unforgettable experiences, and met some truly incredible faculty members and mentors. I will forever be so grateful that I got to be a part of this wonderful program.
This was my final group presentation for the lab section, where we had to design and test an experiment based on the lab coursework and then present our results in front of the class and several faculty members. In the previous course, NEUSCI 301, we also had a final lab presentation, and I remember I almost threw up beforehand because I was so nervous. This presentation felt like the complete opposite; I had some butterflies in my stomach but for the most part I felt confident and calm, even when answering tricky questions at the end. I think this clearly reflects how much more at ease I was in this course. For the first time, I felt like I truly belonged in the Neuroscience major.
This was one of my lab reports for the course, and this particular report was a real beast. I couldn't tell you how many hours I spent sifting through our lab data and trying to make sense of it, but it was an uphill battle the whole way. It was tough at the time, but I felt really proud that I was able to problem-solve, creatively approach the data analysis, and write a cohesive report. These lab reports helped me grow as a scientific writer and prepared me for writing my Honors thesis.
Honors Peer Educator
Honors 397 Final Reflection
Before starting the process of becoming a Peer Educator back in spring, I had this implicit belief that to be a good leader meant being super charismatic, energetic, and strong willed at all times. It’s strange because I had plenty of great professors and mentors that were more reserved, calm, and laid back, and often these qualities were their greatest strengths, but for some reason I never recognized these traits as leadership skills in myself. Whenever I had been in a leadership position before, I always felt obligated to ramp up my energy levels and put on an act of exaggerated enthusiasm because I thought I had to. I think one of the most influential lessons I’ve learned through Honors 397 is that it is much more important to be authentic and honest than to be loud and bubbly. There may be a lot of amazing leaders who are extroverted and dynamic, but that doesn’t mean every leader has to be. On the contrary, there is a lot of value in being a more soft-spoken leader! I still believe that energy and confidence are very important in any leadership position, but over the past quarter I’ve learned to focus on finding that energy in a more natural way, and I’ve realized that confidence looks different in everyone.
As I’ve grown more comfortable in my strengths and abilities, I’ve realized that there is no such thing as a “perfect” leader. The best leaders are the ones who know their strengths and weaknesses, reflect regularly on what is/isn’t working, and always have new goals to work towards. In the future, I’d like to be perceived as a leader who is compassionate, level-headed, and fair. I’d like to be respected for balancing kindness with firmness, and build confidence through skill and experience. Most importantly, I want to find out how to express the most genuine version of myself. I think if I continue to use reflection as a tool to develop goals based around these values, I can become a confident and effective leader.
While reviewing my self-evaluations from the quarter, it was interesting to see how my priorities, strengths, and weaknesses developed over each week. In the first few sections, everything felt so new and overwhelming that I had to spend a lot more energy on simple things like timing my activities, staying on track, remembering to check my lesson plan periodically, and figuring out the technology in my room. As I got more used to these technicalities, I was able to focus my energy on more complex things like building my classroom environment and tailoring the activities to my students. For example, I realized that too much lecturing with whole-class response questions was not working very well, so I began to incorporate more partner/group discussions and team activities which helped keep engagement levels up. Overall, these reflections helped me identify areas of improvement each week, and I’m glad we did them!
Although I am currently unsure what I will be doing after I graduate in the Spring (let alone several years down the line), I’m fairly certain that grad school is going to be part of the picture eventually. Whether I decide to continue my education in neuroscience or switch to a different area of focus, I know that graduate education is likely to be part of that path, and that means I am likely to work as a Teaching Assistant at some point in the future. One major goal that I would have as a TA is to continue building my confidence and not take things too personally or too seriously. At the start of the quarter, I got really stressed out whenever a question was met with silence (often paired with blank expressions) or an activity was met with low energy, and I blamed it on myself. Over the quarter I began to observe this frequently in my other classes and I realized that this is a pretty standard reaction when any teacher asks an open-ended question, even the most charismatic teachers, and when I am in a student role I don’t think twice about it. In the future, I’d like to avoid blaming these types of situations on personal shortcomings, and instead recognize that there are many reasons why a question/activity could fall a little flat (such as student energy levels, shyness, hesitation, etc). It’s best to just stay relaxed and flexible, and move on.
Another major goal I have is to be more comfortable coming up with creative activities. I played it pretty safe in terms of the types of activities I included, which is okay but I think it would have been more fun if I had more variety and creativity in my lesson plan. All in all, experience is the best way to build confidence, and I believe this experience has made me much more confident and excited for any future leadership positions I find myself in!
Before starting the process of becoming a Peer Educator back in spring, I had this implicit belief that to be a good leader meant being super charismatic, energetic, and strong willed at all times. It’s strange because I had plenty of great professors and mentors that were more reserved, calm, and laid back, and often these qualities were their greatest strengths, but for some reason I never recognized these traits as leadership skills in myself. Whenever I had been in a leadership position before, I always felt obligated to ramp up my energy levels and put on an act of exaggerated enthusiasm because I thought I had to. I think one of the most influential lessons I’ve learned through Honors 397 is that it is much more important to be authentic and honest than to be loud and bubbly. There may be a lot of amazing leaders who are extroverted and dynamic, but that doesn’t mean every leader has to be. On the contrary, there is a lot of value in being a more soft-spoken leader! I still believe that energy and confidence are very important in any leadership position, but over the past quarter I’ve learned to focus on finding that energy in a more natural way, and I’ve realized that confidence looks different in everyone.
As I’ve grown more comfortable in my strengths and abilities, I’ve realized that there is no such thing as a “perfect” leader. The best leaders are the ones who know their strengths and weaknesses, reflect regularly on what is/isn’t working, and always have new goals to work towards. In the future, I’d like to be perceived as a leader who is compassionate, level-headed, and fair. I’d like to be respected for balancing kindness with firmness, and build confidence through skill and experience. Most importantly, I want to find out how to express the most genuine version of myself. I think if I continue to use reflection as a tool to develop goals based around these values, I can become a confident and effective leader.
While reviewing my self-evaluations from the quarter, it was interesting to see how my priorities, strengths, and weaknesses developed over each week. In the first few sections, everything felt so new and overwhelming that I had to spend a lot more energy on simple things like timing my activities, staying on track, remembering to check my lesson plan periodically, and figuring out the technology in my room. As I got more used to these technicalities, I was able to focus my energy on more complex things like building my classroom environment and tailoring the activities to my students. For example, I realized that too much lecturing with whole-class response questions was not working very well, so I began to incorporate more partner/group discussions and team activities which helped keep engagement levels up. Overall, these reflections helped me identify areas of improvement each week, and I’m glad we did them!
Although I am currently unsure what I will be doing after I graduate in the Spring (let alone several years down the line), I’m fairly certain that grad school is going to be part of the picture eventually. Whether I decide to continue my education in neuroscience or switch to a different area of focus, I know that graduate education is likely to be part of that path, and that means I am likely to work as a Teaching Assistant at some point in the future. One major goal that I would have as a TA is to continue building my confidence and not take things too personally or too seriously. At the start of the quarter, I got really stressed out whenever a question was met with silence (often paired with blank expressions) or an activity was met with low energy, and I blamed it on myself. Over the quarter I began to observe this frequently in my other classes and I realized that this is a pretty standard reaction when any teacher asks an open-ended question, even the most charismatic teachers, and when I am in a student role I don’t think twice about it. In the future, I’d like to avoid blaming these types of situations on personal shortcomings, and instead recognize that there are many reasons why a question/activity could fall a little flat (such as student energy levels, shyness, hesitation, etc). It’s best to just stay relaxed and flexible, and move on.
Another major goal I have is to be more comfortable coming up with creative activities. I played it pretty safe in terms of the types of activities I included, which is okay but I think it would have been more fun if I had more variety and creativity in my lesson plan. All in all, experience is the best way to build confidence, and I believe this experience has made me much more confident and excited for any future leadership positions I find myself in!
One of my favorite parts of being a Peer Educator was getting to read my students' work and hear their ideas over the course of the quarter. It was really exciting to see how passionate they were and how many different activities they were already getting involved in. The most time-consuming part of being a Peer Educator was commenting on the assignments, and I spent hours writing personalized responses. However, this was also one of the most rewarding things about the experience, because I could see how much effort they put into their work and it was a chance for me to acknowledge that effort.