During my time at Concordia College, and in my current last semester, I reflect on Neurochemistry and how that has helped me apply and integrate skills and knowledge I have gained through my college experience. That Concordia is a liberal arts institution, has helped me broaden my learning beyond just the field that I wanted to specialize in, beyond sciences, and I think that gives me an advantage join into the world, as I have a bigger foundation of skills that goes beyond the scientific world. Stuff that matters beyond just work, like culture, self-understanding, and so on.
As a student at Concordia, I have had numerous experiences that has improved and build foundational skills for me both academically and in my personal life. I have had the chance to apply these skills in Neurochemistry, as I have improved skills such as communication, critical thinking, writing, research, and work ethic. Through communication I have built the ability to better communicate material that I have learnt, to better explain science. Through sharing information and research, I have done to my classmates, gave me the ability to go beyond just researching a topic but to explain and communicate it to others. I have gotten to improve my research skills, by doing a lot of research on my own. I got to use a combination of earlier acquired research skills and use them to information I needed to explain a variety of topics. As for critical thinking, I have been thinking about patterns in articles we have read, and in exams how we create a hypothesis, and engaging in ideas about solving different problems and diagnoses we learn about. While at the same time taking into account the different perspectives in the research that we might be given in an article or from various research. After writing multiple blog-post I have gotten to improve my writing skills, how I use more of an academic language, but also appeal to readers, overall bettering my style of writing. Lastly for work ethic, throughout the class I have gotten to build this. From staying on top of the work and due dates, balancing with other classes, and staying consistent with it, being disciplined, and holding myself accountable I have definitely improved this skill. These skills all relate to my future career and will generalize to my future career plans. I will be working with a vulnerable population, where a lot of these skills are crucial, like critical thinking and communication. Further, how I am to later in life possibly future research, I also have these skills. Overall, I think these skills also generalize well to everyday life, just engaging with people and in community, situation come up where skills like communication and critical thinking are very necessary.
Through the class I got to explore a variety of disorders and diseases, broadening my understanding of a bigger group of people. In Neurochemistry, we went beyond the science. We learned lots about the impact on the brain, on cognition, memory, health, etc., which broaden my knowledge on how certain disorders and diseases come to be. However, we also talked about real life scenarios and impacts these disorders and diseases have on the individuals, there close ones, the community, etc. I feel I have been encouraged to understand and be more empathetic in the way I go about the world and people.
As a 2024 graduate, I can confidently say that Concordia has taught me a lot of valuable skills that generalize beyond my career, and beyond the skills I mentioned. I feel encouraged and ready to be responsibly engaged in the world!
