I did not know what to expect when I signed up for this course. I honestly thought it would parallel the neurobiology course some of my classmates had taken last spring. This thought had me worried, as I was very aware of how difficult that class had been. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by neurochemistry. The reason I enjoyed neurochemistry so much is not because of the lighter workload than traditional classrooms or the decreased emphasis on exams (although those were nice benefits), but because it encouraged open discussion and the ability to draw knowledge from many different areas to understand a concept.
The structure of the class created an environment where I wanted to dig deeper and find the answer to the various neurological diseases we read about. We were given a whole week to read a paper, discuss our questions, learn more about topics within the paper, and finally, discuss our thoughts and conclusions with our classmates. This gave us the opportunity to draw connections to what we wanted to learn about. It also altered the learning environment, instead of being taught at by our professor every day, we were given the freedom to read over the material, bring forth our questions, and then find the answer for ourselves and bring it to class. Approaching material in a way that emphasized the process of learning instead of just memorizing the material to get an “A” helped instill the love of learning that is vital to a liberal arts education.
This love of learning was such an important part of this course. If I’m being honest, these four years of undergrad have been tough. As a chemistry and biology double major, I have spent endless hours going over material, reading, studying, doing homework… it has been a lot of work. And extremely stressful, as we constantly have our minds focused on what is ahead and how our grades will affect our future. I was starting to ask myself why in the world I ever wanted to be a science major. And then neurochemistry reminded me why. The excitement of finally discovering how a pathway works or how different molecules interact with each other reminded me that learning is not just about getting good grades. I found myself drawing connections from the papers we read to concepts I had learned during my years at Concordia. When you can finally apply what you have learned in the many biology and chemistry courses to “real life” topics such as neurological diseases, you begin to feel the value of your knowledge. Before neurochemistry, I felt as though I knew a bunch of random information about receptors and enzymes, but after this course I now realize how important that knowledge is. For this reason, I believe neurochemistry is the epitome of what a capstone course should be: it, for lack of a better term, caps off your college experience. It connects everything I have learned and showed me how my knowledge will be used in the field I wish to spend my life in. Neurochemistry was exactly the class I needed to round out my education and make me feel comfortable moving into the next stage of my life.
The Community Action Project also played a large role in why neurochemistry was such an enjoyable course. This project allowed us to expand our knowledge outside of the classroom. We also worked with students from a totally different discipline at Concordia, something that doesn’t happen often. Looking at an issue facing our society alongside students who approached it from a different viewpoint than us was very helpful to understanding the interdisciplinary connections all throughout our society. We had to evaluate a need and truly decide what was the best approach to helping with that need. This let us tap into each person’s expertise and allowed us to understand the need from so many different perspectives. We were really able to BREW and make a difference within our school and community, something no other class has really allowed us to do.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in neurochemistry and I am so glad I decided to take it as my CORE capstone experience. It was so nice to be in a classroom environment where the focus was learning and discovering, not testing. I now know my semesters at Concordia have given me a wealth of knowledge that I will be able to apply not only to my future professional career, but to other aspects of my communities. I am very thankful for my liberal arts education and how it provides me with opportunities such as this course.
