Registration for the fall of 2021 began during end of spring semester in 2020. To fulfill my PEAK requirements at Concordia, I decided I would sign up for Neurochemistry. As a chemistry major, I really was not looking forward to the class if I am being honest. I did not know much about the brain and felt as if I would be behind throughout the whole semester. When the semester was about to begin, Concordia sent out a notice telling students that they did not have to do two PEAKS. I had already had my one PEAK credit, so dropping neurochemistry crossed my mind. I kept going back and forth and finally felt the motivation to try something new and stay enrolled. When classes began, I was behind. This however gave me opportunities to learn new things. We first started class lectures by reading papers on certain signaling pathways and discussing anatomy of the brain. I started to become interested when I realized how real these pathways were. The interest in the course only became larger when we started to discuss diseases that could possibly be associated with the brain.
Throughout my time as a Neurochemistry student, I started to gradually learn more each time. I looked forward to class and hearing what others had to bring to the table. There were different perspectives and opinions all over the room, but the class allowed us to share our differences in a nonjudgmental way. One cool part about all the information the class provided was that I took that knowledge with me and discussed it further with my roommates. Unlike many other classes, neurochemistry built a platform that could take with me and easily show others what I learned.
Following Concordia’s goals, I was also able to learn more about different cultures. For example, we might have wondered why a certain country has more cases of autism than another country. I have always thought of neuro disorders as a worldwide diagnosis, but the class allowed us to see the cultural differences. Learning these culture differences was new to me and more information I could further share with others. Sharing with others, as you might tell, was a common theme in the class. Dr. Mach did a great job of creating an environment where everyone was engaged. Being able to share our information to others was awesome. This also is what encourages to further our engagement and continue to share with the world.
The skills that were learned throughout the course were all new to me. Obviously, I knew some of the chemistry, but I had never applied it like this course taught me to do. All my learning was new information which was strange to me. I say strange as in a good way. All my life, I have been taking courses that I at least have some knowledge on. For example, in Calculus 2, everyone is around the same in terms of known information. The first couple of chapters are parts of Calculus 1 that you had already learned. In Neurochemistry, it was always something new. This new information was then able to be shared on our class blog. The blog allowed us to share what we learned from each of our papers. Not only was this fun to do, but it allowed me to transfer those skills into the real world. As a potential future pharmacist, I will have to provide information that I have studied to customers. This in a way relates to the blogs. I studied and received information and then shared the blogs for the whole world to see.
I must thank Concordia for providing a liberal arts education because if it weren’t for the initial PEAK requirements, I would have never thought about taking this class. This is something that one really does not understand until they go through the liberal arts education. Freshman year we see a lot of students upset about all the extra “dumb” courses they have to take. I will not lie; I was one of those students. If senior Toby Sayles could say anything to freshman Toby, I would call him the dumb one. The liberal arts curriculum has allowed me to branch off into a variety of different courses. All of the courses that were considered “extra” were my most memorable courses. The skills and information gained from the two PEAK courses I took will surpass any of the skills I take from other courses. I feel all students should experience a liberal arts education in the pure fact that it might make the world a better place.
Lastly, if I were to put a skill on my resume that has upgraded the most from Neurochemistry it would be my listening skills. By active listening, I was able to gain more information than ever have before. Although it was not always easy to listen to different opinions, I learned that by doing so I could better understand my own. Neurochemistry has allowed me an opportunity to better myself as an individual and a student and I will forever be grateful for that.
