Coming into Concordia confident that I would pursue a Neuroscience major, the Neurochemistry course is one that has always been on my radar. To say I enjoyed this class is an understatement. Each week, I came to class ready to read and engage with peers on a relevant topic in today’s world. This class is also unlike one I had taken before, so the new methods of learning information were extremely beneficial to my understanding of the course content and helped me develop my critical thinking and communication skills. Courses such as this are the reason I chose to come to Concordia: wonderful classmates who were just as excited and ready to be there, an engaging course with focuses on real-world topics relevant to many of our future career choices, and a discussion-based learning style to allow us to dive deeper into topics that we are actually interested in. As I said earlier, I can’t speak highly enough of this course, as it is surely one of my favorites so far in my Concordia experience. Concordia’s five goals for liberal learning present a good template to explain my takeaways from this course.
Instill a love for learning
For me, I think I have always had a love for learning, leading me to pursue challenging courses that I know I am interested in. Also, Concordia offers the chance to take a variety of classes outside of your major, so I’ve had the opportunity to expand my love for learning in that regard as well. Still, while I would say I had a pretty well-developed love for learning coming into Neurochemistry, this course revolutionized the way I see that love for learning. Like I mentioned earlier, this course has a different style than any I had taken before, and the discussion-based “workplace” setup of the course solidified for me the fact that I am passionate about Neuroscience and love learning and exploring the subject with peers. Also, reading dense literature articles is very relevant to what I am considering pursuing for a career, so I appreciated getting to develop those skills in a classroom setting before going off into the “real world.” Neurochemistry greatly helped develop and expand my love for learning.
Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities
This goal was incredibly evident throughout the Neurochemistry course. Especially considering everyone (or most everyone) taking the course was a Neuro major or minor, these skills we learned are so valuable to not only our major, but also to future career paths. As mentioned previously, reading literature articles is one example of a foundational skill that I appreciated getting to focus on in class. Also, I know that my communication skills have improved throughout the duration of this course in a variety of ways. Blogging was something completely new to me, so it was a helpful learning experience to spend time focusing on writing a creative, compelling piece of writing while also including valuable information about the science as well. Along with blogging, communication was an important facet of this course through the Wednesday “speed-dating” days and Friday discussion days. In both of these, it was important to demonstrate understanding of the topic and reflect that well through your communication with peers.
Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections
Because Neuroscience is a very interdisciplinary field in itself, this course definitely expanded on those themes. Especially in reading current literature, we were exposed to a wide variety of research fields, techniques, and concepts that did not fit under one umbrella. Also, the community action project, one of the main elements of the course, was combined with social work students, who had different insights on certain subjects. Their perspectives helped widen the range of ways I was able to think about concepts.
Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding
While this goal may not apply as directly to the Neurochemistry course, I still found elements of this within my time in Neurochem. Self-understanding is crucial to being successful, and I think it’s a concept which I have developed throughout my years at Concordia. Specific to Neurochemistry, we were able to have rich discussions on many “hot topics” that brought about questions where self-understanding comes into play. Being confident in my own opinions and experiences is probably where I see this the most.
Encourage responsible participation in the world
The biggest way in which this was accomplished was through the community action project in the course. My group members and I were able to get into the community and engage with at-risk youth, promoting addiction awareness and resources should they need them. It was a pivotal experience, as I had yet to really see addiction in action and this project allowed me to do so and feel like I was making a difference. I don’t know that I would have received as great of an opportunity if it weren’t for the Neurochemistry course.
All Together
Neurochemistry, in my opinion, was the epitome of a capstone course. It allowed me to step back, reflect on all that I’ve already achieved at Concordia, and also see where I am able to go. I had such a fun time in this class and I will surely miss our engaging discussions, interesting course concepts, and just having fun with classmates. My biggest piece of advice would be to take Neurochemistry if you get the chance!
