In order to satisfy the requirements to graduate at Concordia you must take a capstone class. The goal of this class is to wrap up our education and allow us to realize how much we have matured and grown in understanding as students. For me neurochemistry was the capstone class I elected to take. This was a very unique class that had an interesting curriculum. It deterred from the usual class structure in which the professor lectures and the students memorize. This class was instead set up purely as a group discussion class in which the students taught each other the material they were going over in the current articles about neurological diseases. Since the articles where recent and very detailed it meant that the professor was learning the material at the same time as the students.
It is because of this unique learning environment that I was able to see how much I have grown as a student since I entered college as that nervous freshmen and have become a confident senior. Throughout much of college if I didn’t understand the material the professor was there to explain it to me. As I climb the ladder of education I realize that there are fewer people around who can answer the complicated questions I am beginning to ask. This class demonstrated how well Concordia has molded me with the capacity to collaborate with other students so that together we can find the answers to those difficult questions. Each article we would read would leave almost the entire class confused on the first day, but as we discussed the areas we were struggling with and brought our own unique individual understandings we were able to paint a picture of what was being discussed in the article. This class not only found importance in learning very detailed pathways about brain disorders, but also focused on being able to share that knowledge with the general public. That is a major flaw that many scientists like me struggle with, talking like normal human beings. It was a great learning experience to write a blog that took the complicated issues we were dealing with and turn them into simplified summaries that allowed the public to learn about the new progress with these hot topic diseases without leaving them more confused than when they started reading.
This class has shown me that the more I yearn to learn and seek out knowledge, the more I will realize that I am only scratching the surface on these interesting yet complicated issues. It has shown me that it is alright to not know the answer right away because we have been taught the fundamentals that allow us to find the answer. One of the best parts of this experience was having a very close knit class that has known each other for almost four years now. We were able to find a nice balance between joking and learning. It created an environment that was both enjoyable and worth while.
Wrapping it up
