The Society for Neuroscience, Ottawa Chapter is excited to announce our new members of the SfN team as the new content coordinators for our blog. Get to know them a little more by reading about them below —
Maria
Ever since I could remember, I’ve always wanted to go into Neuroscience. I wish that statement were true. Fact is, I did not know neuroscience was even offered on its own. I thought learning about the brain was a part time hobby of sort. You know, reading different articles and books about various mental health issues or just some facts. One thing I knew for sure, growing up, I was always attracted to STEM education and how problems are solved. I just knew I would go into some science field. Then when grade 12 came rolling around, I was completely lost as to what I could potentially see myself doing in the years to come. I remember avoiding every conversation possible regarding what program I was going into (despite knowing I would be pursuing post secondary education), mainly because I had no clue! As December came, I was focused on just working on my summatives and trying to get good grades, completely disregarding my university application. I think at that point, I had settled on Biology, as it was interesting yet could allow me to branch into other specific fields.
I remember as a last resort telling my friend in my Advanced Functions class that I was probably applying to biology and something else at University of Ottawa and that was it. I didn’t want to think much of it, as it was starting to stress me out. Without hesitation, she whipped out her laptop and said “Hey Maria, I really think you’ll like Neuroscience. My cousin’s doing her PhD and she gets to cut open mice brains for research.” As sinister as that sounds, I was immediately drawn to the idea of research and potentially making a career out of it. As for her cousin, I’m talking about The Rim Khazall.
To learn that Carleton offers one the opportunity to do an entire degree in Neuroscience as well as a Masters and a PhD, really changed my goals. I knew I was going into Neuroscience, but applied to Biology and Biopharmaceutical Sciences as well.
Our first year courses didn’t really allow for any fun as all of them were mandatory and I had no choice in terms of electives. When second year came rolling in, I switched into Neuroscience and Mental Health as my interest in Neuroscience research really sparked. I have a lot more classes to choose from in upper years allowing me to choose a variety of different classes on mental health. Now being a second year undergrad student, I am honestly just really excited for my future.
Miski
Here is a little information about myself and what drew me to the field of neuroscience:
I love learning. I always have. More specifically, what I love about learning, is that I am able to make the unknown known.. It’s for this reason that science has always been my favourite subject growing up….it still is. With science you are able to explain the mechanisms that produce everyday occurrences. Something as simple as me typing these words is the result of a complex network of events that can be explained using many disciplines within different science fields. As an aspiring Neuroscientist, I could tell you about how the neurons in my brain are actively firing to produce a thought. I could tell you about how I’ve planned to type on my laptop in my prefrontal cortex, planned out the necessary movements in my premotor cortex and had my primary motor cortex execute this task. On another note, a molecular biologist could tell you about the inner workings of the organelles that allow me to convert the chocolate bar I’m currently chewing into energy in the form of ATP. There is so much more to the phenomena we see and experience every day. There is so much to explore and uncover. I find this absolutely incredible and fascinating. However, picking a field to narrow my interests to, wasn’t very simple. Through what lens did I want to explore the world through?
In Ontario, grade 12 high-school students are faced with making a decision. A decision dictating what path they are to pursue. For many students, this path is to pursue post-secondary education at an university. Students who choose this path are faced with another decision: to decide a program they would like to study. I had no idea what program to choose when I was in grade 12. I remember mulling over 10 different programs (I wish I could say I was exaggerating this number). One thing I was sure of, was that I hoped my program would let me enter a field that would allow me to possibly help others in the future. I also wanted to enter a program that would allow me to keep exploring. I wanted to enter a field that would essentially allow me to explore a topic without feeding me all the answers.
One thing I love about neuroscience is that there are no clear-cut answers. We can learn in class that information flows in a linear matter: from dendrite to soma to axon…..but we also learn this isn’t exactly the case. You have back-propagation of information as well. The brain is really fluid. For every rule, there are a 1000 different exceptions to it. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It’s probably one of the most complex systems in the universe. The answer to one question leads to a 1000 different other questions. There is so much more to learn; so much we don’t know. One thing I really wanted leaving high school was to have “lots of room to explore”. Forget about “room” to explore; neuroscience as provided me with a universe to explore. In my very first neuroscience classes I would often hear “here is what we know, but no one really knows what causes X”. With each piece of information I learn in a neuroscience class, I leave with ten folds that amount in questions. And I’ve only taken four neuroscience courses so far. With each class I get a reaffirmation that this field is truly something I’m passionate about. Seeing as my journey in neuroscience has just begun, I can’t wait to learn more and explore some more of the amazing things neuroscience has to offer.