With graduation just a short 8 days away, this is my last assignment for a class ever! I am sitting in a Starbucks sipping on an iced chai tea reminiscing on how much I have grown as a student and as a person over the last four years thanks to Concordia and the liberal arts curriculum.
If I am being honest, I only applied to Concordia because the mascot was a corn cob and I love corn. I later found out that it was a liberal arts college, and being a first-generation student, I had no idea what that meant. I took the time to look up exactly what that meant and I really loved that Concordia was going to give me this well-rounded education that isn’t offered at other universities around Fargo-Moorhead.
When I began taking classes that didn’t fully align with my major, I was a little upset because all I wanted to do was learn about psychology and neuroscience. My mind completely changed the more I took classes such as Spanish, religion, English, philosophy, and many more. These classes showed me a new perspective on life and I will forever be grateful for that.
Neurochemistry was the final class I needed to complete my neuroscience major and to be honest I was scared that I wasn’t going to be good at this class. I thought that I wasn’t going to be smart enough to understand all the signaling pathways, but I was wrong! Neurochemistry turned out to be in my top 3 favorite classes ever taken at Concordia. The structure of this class has been life changing. Being able to read articles about real life things, research something I am interested in each week, and getting to have discussions with my classmates has made this class more beneficial that I could’ve ever imagined.
Concordia College has five goals for liberal arts learning and I truly believe I have met every single one of these goals throughout my four years here.
- Instill a Love for Learning:
- I have always loved school but making the choice to go to college and commit to another four years of learning is a huge deal. I was excited to continue my education and learn things that I never knew existed, which is what I did in each class I took at Concordia. Learning is a life-long process and I am more than happy to continue learning in any I can whether that be in a classroom or through societal connections in the world around me. I have treated my classes as opportunities to learn and not just assignments and tests that I have to do. I am able to learn new information everyday and use it to understand the world around me.
- Develop Foundational Skills and Transferable Intellectual Capacities:
- People have always said that the skills you learn in school will be skills you need for the rest of your life, and boy were they right! I have learned how to problem solve, critically think, make decisions, acknowledge other perspectives, assess all kinds of information, and more. Throughout the many classes I have taken, I have learned and used one of more of the skills listed above. These skills are going to follow me into my career and even in my everyday life. Being able to use critical thinking to work through a problem is the skill I value most. I will fully admit I was not a good critical thinker until I came here and was constantly challenged (in a good way) by my professors to work through problems and use all of the knowledge I have and different perspectives to try and solve it, and I will appreciate that forever.
- Develop an Understanding of Disciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Intercultural Perspectives and their Connections:
- Something that I learned pretty early on was the fact that you can use the things you learn in your major and apply it to almost any other class you take or even just your life. Neuroscience is one of the biggest interdisciplinary majors because of how applicable it is to every aspect of life, which is why I love it so much! Everything I have learned in my neuroscience classes I have been able to use in other classes I take, even Spanish! By being proficient in neuroscience and psychology I am able to expand the things I learn to other areas to help me understand those areas as well, creating a well-rounded education.
- Cultivate an Examined Cultural, Ethical, Physical, and Spiritual Self-Understanding:
- I have learned so much about myself and other people throughout my time here. There are many factors that make someone who they are and I didn’t even pay attention to this until I started taking classes here. Without this well-rounded education, I truly don’t think I would be able to understand myself and others as much as I do right now. I have learned about religion, culture, spirituality, social, and many more factors that make people who they are. This has allowed me to shut down any preconceived notions about people because I do not know everything about someone and how these factors are affecting them on a daily basis.
- Encourage Responsible Participation in the World:
- BREW! One of the many acronyms used at Concordia. I wish I would’ve kept track of how many times I have said BREW over the past four years because it would definitely be in the triple digits. Once I learned what BREW meant, I saw it applying to my life almost daily! I have loved being able to take what I learn in school and use it to influence the outside world. I love seeing my school world and my outside world collide – it makes me light up with joy. I love learning and I love sharing what I learn with everyone! I love introducing people to new ideas and new perspectives of thinking.
Over the past four months, neurochemistry has allowed me the space to think about all of these goals. I have hit all of them in my four years at Concordia, but also in the last four months taking this class. Dr. Mach provides a great environment for learning and for thinking about things that aren’t found in a textbook. This class has made me learn in new ways, such as trying to understand a complex disease, trying to figure out the connections between the topics we talk about and the outside world, and so many more ways that I can’t even explain them. My critical thinking has grown exponentially the past four months and that is 100% because of this class and the way it is structured. This skill and many more will forever follow me.
Concordia College has been my home away from home for the past four years and it is time to say see you later. I will forever be grateful for the experiences that were offered to me, the friends I made, the professors who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, and the turkeys for making me smile everyday.
Soli Deo Gloria
Olivia Pederson, Class of 2023.
