When I first came to college I was under the impression that college was simply a means to an end. My end goal was med school and I was going to use Concordia’s stellar track record to help me get there. I soon learned that medicine was not want I wanted to go into but rather field biology of some sort, even so Concordia was still a means to an end. It took quite a bit longer to realize that Concordia College (CC) was much more than simply a means to an end but rather a life changing experience that will forever change how I look at and approach the problems of this crazy world we live in.
Just about every class I took during my time here at CC came with a free soapbox from the professor about the problems of this world and how the class material was going to help us fix these problems. For at least my first two years this was actually quite annoying all I wanted was the material that I need to know to well on the next test not some problem with water usage in sub-Saharan Africa. However as I began to realize that CC was so much more than just a means to end I also began to listen to these passionate rants and really begin to appreciate the way each professor looks at the world and the problems within it. You see I believe it takes a certain kind of person to be a professor at a place like CC, a liberal art college. This type of person is not only very knowledgeable in their respective fields but is also very passionate about teaching students what it is all about. Another characteristic of CC profs is their inherent want/need to show students what we can do with this newly acquired knowledge and how we can use it help attack this worlds problems. I honestly believe that if my professors were not like this I would see the world a little differently.
I just finished my capstone course at CC. In order to graduate every student must take a capstone course that’s goal is to link what we learn in the classroom to the outside world. The capstone class I took was called Neurochemistry and it was loads of fun. It makes sense to have this class be one of the last classes you take at CC because if I would have been a freshman I would have had problems understanding the rationale behind many of the assignments in the class. To put it basically we studied the chemistry of the brain and many brain related disorders in this class. On top of that (the most important part) we took the knowledge we learned about Schizophrenia, Autism, Alzheimers, etc. and thought “Okay we know this about it…what should we do know?” After spending two class days learning about each disorder we had class long discussions about how should society deal with this. You see I had actually been training for this class my entire college career. Like I said almost every class I took I heard about the problems in this world related to that topic. The thing that really set Neurochemistry apart from the other classes is what I am doing right now: Blogging. Talking about the problems of our world is one thing but actually doing something about it is another. I understand that blogging is not going to fix our worlds problems but it is a start. In this capstone course I got my first wack at actually taking a problem I learned about in class and bringing it to the outside world. Blogging I think is a great way to help people understand the problems associated with certain mental disorders as simply educating the public about a number of them can do a lot of good for people with and family members of people suffering from mental disorders.
I got many things out of this class but what I really will never forget is how hard it is to take something filled with scientific jargon and put it into words that the public can understand. I will take this knowledge with me and work hard to show the public how much good science can do in our world!
My Concordia College Capstone Experience
