It’s been a tough four years having to learn and make friends during a pandemic. We had one normal semester of our freshman year before being sent home and spending the next two years remote and masked. It’s hard to make new friends and connect with people behind a mask while being distanced. Our senior year was finally our first full normal year and despite the senior slide kicking in, it was worth the wait.
Despite having to take Pchem and neurochem senior year many good things came out of it, such as the group chat “What in the H hat”. I am not going to lie neurochem is not what I expected it to be, and it was hard to connect to the class content. But getting to spend every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with the neurochem girls was worth it. I expected neurochem to be more lectured based and how chemistry occurs in the brain. However, it ended up being discussion based and how signaling pathways occur in the brain and throughout the body. Learning all of the pathways felt more like biology and being a chemistry major it was a difficult adjustment. These challenges and adjustments are what allowed this class to meet the liberal arts goals established by Concordia.
- Instill a love for learning
By having discussion and allowing for us to pick our topics for Wednesday “speed dating” it helped instill a love for learning because we were able to learn more about a specific topic we were interested in and we then got to share this information with each other. The discussions on Fridays were also enjoyable and beneficial to hear other viewpoints and get perspectives from students with varying backgrounds from my own.
- Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities
In this class I was able to make connections to other classes I have taken and understand the interconnectedness of the classes. It also taught me how to communicate science in a way that can be enjoyable to those who are not scientists.
- Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and intercultural perspective and their connections
By reading a wide range of studies and review posts along with discussing these reading with my classmates I was able to achieve an intercultural understanding and then by going over the pathways in class helped solidify the disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding.
- Cultivate and examined cultural, ethical, physical, a spiritual self-understanding
Learning about the pathways actually helped explain how various processes occur in the body and why. It allowed for a better understanding of the way things work in the body and why they work that way.
- Encourage responsible participation in the world
Neurochemistry definitely encourages participation. By being a discussion-based class and having a dedicated day strictly for discussion of the topic allows for you to become active in discussion and allows you to share your perspective and opinions in a respectful and accepting environment.
By practicing these five goals of liberal learning, not just in neurochemistry but in my last four years at Concordia has prepared me far greater for what is next to come than I could have imagined when I began my freshman year in 2019. A liberal arts education has shown me various classes outside of science that I would have never taken and how everything is interconnected in some way. It was challenging at times to get outside of my comfort zone of science and take an english class or a history class. But having to take these classes along with learn in a pandemic has taught me resilience and determination. That no matter how challenging a time you have you can make it through and when you need help and motivation your professors are right there to encourage you through it too.
The connections I have made with my professors and the chemistry department along with the friendships I have made throughout my last four years are truly something I will never forget and will cherish. I will truly miss the Concordia chemistry faculty and ISC.
Farwell Concordia,
