Neuroscience Conference

by Isabel Contreras

The Society for Neuroscience meets annually to share ideas, latest research and technology, communicate their goals and most recent discoveries, and allow undergraduates an inside look at the professional world. The Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience offers a spot annually for sponsored students to present their research in the form of a social and poster presentation. I, along with five other Christopher Newport students were among those selected to travel to San Diego in order to share our finding with the professional neuroscience community.

Being able to discuss neuroscience with esteemed professionals, attend speakers, grad fairs and finish with presenting my own research taught me so much more than I ever would have expected prior to attending. We were surrounded by peers as well as potential mentors with much more experience than us who were prepared to help educate and guide us through these upper level discussions.

More than these professional opportunities, my fellow presenters and I gleaned an even more valuable perspective from this conference. Our passion for neuroscience, the research process, the phenomena seen in science and the everyday world is not singular, but shared by thousands of other individuals! Moving forward I am more eager than ever to learn as much as possible in my courses so that one day I can join these pioneers of neuroscience as a peer rather than a student.