by Arnav Mehra, Secretary of Nu Rho Psi at UVA
Hey everyone!
My name is Arnav, and I am a third-year student majoring in neuroscience at the University of Virginia. I am also the Secretary for Nu Rho Psi's chapter at UVA. Getting involved in neuroscience research and the neuroscience undergraduate program at UVA was one of the best decisions I made. From being unsure about neuroscience, biology, chemistry, and other fields, I ended up in the Neuroscience undergraduate program doing fascinating research on Epilepsy. I want to share my journey and advice with everyone considering neuroscience and other related majors as an area of interest.
Picture Credit: news-medical.net
Coming in as a first-year, I was mainly interested in pursuing my curiosity for biology or neuroscience. I was exposed to these areas in my high school through courses like AP Biology and Neurobiology. Naturally, the question I asked myself was, do I major in Biology Neuroscience? I've seen many people face a similar dilemma in their first-year— my advice: be patient. I spent my first year taking courses in both fields - Intro Biology (BIOL 2100) and Survey of the Neural Basis of Behavior (PSYC 2200). While everyone will have different opinions, I found myself deeply enthralled in the neuroscience content of PSYC 2200. Particularly, exciting research methods such as stereotactic surgery on mice to explore pathways of seizure spread drew me towards neuroscience research. In addition to this, I spent some time understanding the different opportunities offered by the two programs. Specifically, I met with the directors of undergraduate programs for biology and neuroscience. This is something everyone should do. I learned something significant about the neuroscience program from the meetings - the intense focus on research. I was already interested in doing biology or neuroscience research, and the neuroscience undergraduate program provided me with the opportunity to make that interest core to my journey at UVA. The program requires students to be a part of a neuroscience research lab during their third and fourth year at UVA. Furthermore, there is also the possibility of entering the Distinguished Major Program, which culminates in writing a thesis of empirical research. At this point, around the end of first-year, I had learned two things: 1) I want to be involved in neuroscience research at UVA, and 2) I want to apply to be a part of the Neuroscience Undergraduate Program.
During my second-year at UVA, I spent most of my time completing the requirements needed to apply to the Neuroscience program. Most importantly, I looked into the research being done in neuroscience labs at UVA. To find labs conducting neuroscience research, I looked on the Neuroscience Undergraduate Program's website, which has a list of neuroscience research labs at UVA. I spent some time briefly reading research articles published by these labs. While most of the material was a little too complicated for me, I pinpointed specific labs that interested me. Everyone has their own interests, but for me, the Kapur lab's work in understanding how secondarily generalized seizures spread was fascinating. To learn more about the research, I wrote an email to the lab head, Dr. Kapur. We arranged a meeting to discuss the groundbreaking work at the lab and possible opportunities for me as a pioneering undergraduate student. After about an hour of discussing how the lab manufactured special microelectrodes to implant in mice brain, I realized this was where I wanted to work. Fortunately for me, Dr. Kapur was more than willing to bring me on board. My advice for others looking for research opportunities would be to do extensive research on the work being done in the labs. Once you find labs that are doing work that interests you, write a genuine and carefully worded email to the lab's head. I've noticed that professors at UVA are very responsive to email as long as it shows a genuine interest. Writing a short email asking to be a research assistant will not suffice. Show some interest, ask if you can meet to discuss the lab's published research, ask questions about the research, and then ask if there are any opportunities.
Comments