When enrolling in the capstone course, Neurochemistry, I was very nervous about how I would do in the course with not much neurological background. Also, with this only being my 3 semester at Concordia I was a tiny bit skeptical of the whole capstone concept. I figured it would be just another class, that would be pretty hard and stressing, but in reality, it has been the best class I have taken at Concordia so far.
This class has made the whole Concordia experience come into reality, with experiential learning and becoming responsibly engaged in the world (BREWing). I wish all my classes could be like this one.
To me it has fulfilled all the liberal learning goals Concordia has set. First, instill a love for learning, never before have I wanted to read a journal article for the fun of it but this class has showed me how much I can learn by reading new information and dissecting the findings. It is truly amazing how much I have learned how excited I am to still be learning.
Second, it has definitely given me foundational skills and transferable intellectual qualities that I didn’t know I could even do. This class has made me look at science in many different ways rather than one straightforward way. This is partially due to us learning for ourselves but also being able to discuss with our peers about how they feel on a subject and learning from them.
Third, how not just one piece of science is key to all, that many different facets make up the whole picture and working with, and understanding everything will help in the long run.
Fourth, self examine my own understanding of cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self. This was fulfilled by seeing a different side of illnesses that may not actually be our fault but really an imbalance in our brains causing these diseases, how to empathize with people and the ethical question about long term care. In this realm I also want to talk about our Community Action Project that opened my eyes to a real problem in this world and that is opiate misuse. I would hear news stories about opiate problems in our own community and not even bat an eye. After researching and hearing from the Good Neighbor Project I have a whole new perspective on opiate abuse in my own community that wouldn’t have been possible without this class.
Fifthly, when leaving Concordia to be responsibly engaged in the world. I think this class 100% does that for its biology, neurochem and chemistry majors it encounters. This course made me have to learn things for myself without the teacher simply handing over the material. It made me learn how to process things that I thought would be a hard concept in a manner that I could break down and understand because this class gave me the tools to do so. I hope I can continue to use these tools throughout my life to make hard tasks and problems simpler to do. These are the reasons why Concordia is the best in the league in producing highly qualified grad school and work positions.
Concordia Capstone Experiance
