When I was a sophomore, I was just exploring my passion for neuroscience. I realized that there was no better way to do so than to interact with professionals in the field, just like I had done at the CCRMA conference I attended earlier that year.
So, I started asking my teachers if they knew of any opportunities where I could talk to neuroscience researchers in person to learn more about their research and the field in general. Fortunately, one of my teachers told me about an upcoming poster session at Stanford University that she knew about. The poster session, while meant for undergraduate students at Stanford, was open to all and was hosted by the Stanford Undergraduate Neuroscience Society (SUNS) and the Wu Tsai Institute.
Although the poster session was on a weekday night, I went anyway because of the opportunities to be able to talk to and learn about neuroscience professionals research. Thanks to my absolutely wonderful and supportive mother, I was able to make it to the SUNS poster session, during peak traffic hours.
I remember when I arrived at the poster session. My mom had just parked the car, and I had this nervous feeling in my stomach. I didn’t know what I would talk to the researchers about or if I would fit in there, considering that everyone else would be college students or researchers or professors, and I would just be some high school kid that found herself over there. I was worried about coming off too eager (if that was even possible) and that I wouldn’t understand the technical jargon that I thought research had to involve.
However, upon actually entering the room where the poster session was being held, I was pleasantly surprised by everyone I met and interacted with. The people I talked to were surprised, and amazed, at my initiative and courage to attend a college-level poster session. Even though it was obvious that I was much younger than everyone else in that room, everyone still treated me as their equal. Researchers presenting their posters (which was the purpose of the poster session after all) explained their posters to me, just like they would anyone else. Other professors and undergraduates I talked to asked me about my interests and future aspirations. Most of all, I was taken aback by how friendly and willing to help every person I talked to was. Every single person I talked to gave me their emails so that I could reach out to them for help as I was starting to embark on my journey to explore the field of neuroscience.
Throughout that entire evening, I was amazed at the caliber of amazing research that was ongoing at Stanford University. Each research project was revolutionary in terms of though, execution, and eventual impact on people. The posters were beautifully made and were so easy to follow that I, a high schooler, could easily understand most of the things on the posters. I found myself thinking how I could have ever thought that research was filled with clunky, hard to understand technical jargon.
Although I was extremely impressed by the research posters, I was far more impressed by the people I met. I was living in my small Saratoga bubble filled with people that had mostly lived their entire lives in Saratoga, and the diverse people I met at that one Stanford research poster session amazed me. Not only were all the people there that day deeply interested and involved in the field of neuroscience, but also they had far more interesting hobbies and passions. For example, one senior undergraduate I met was the first from his small town in Texas to attend such a large, prestigious university like Stanford, and he was a classically trained ballet dancer. The people there had such unique, fascinating stories and backgrounds, such that I had never been exposed to before. Talking to researchers, professors, and undergraduates was an extremely refreshing and insightful learning experience.
When I first arrived at the conference, I made the mistake of being shy and nervous to talk to strangers; however, it took some time, but I definitely let go of my inhibitions and decided to make the most of the opportunity. I believe that if presented with the opportunity, every high schooler can learn so much by attending just one event or conference with professionals in a field that interests them.