{"id":159,"date":"2013-10-17T02:14:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T02:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=159"},"modified":"2013-10-17T02:14:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T02:14:43","slug":"bns-what-to-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2013\/10\/17\/bns-what-to-expect\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Expect When You\u2019re Declaring BNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ADAM FALLUJI<\/strong> –\u00a0CENTO WRITER<\/em><\/p>\n

THE BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE (BNS) MAJOR IS AN INNOVATIVE AND EXPANDING FIELD FOR STUDENTS<\/p>\n

College is the best time to explore one\u2019s interests\u2014and choosing a major is one way to do so. Declaring a major allows an undergraduate student to immerse him\/herself in a direction of study; however, there are so many to choose from, with some being less-straightforward than others. Centre\u2019s Behavioral Neuroscience (BNS) major covers a variety of topics within the field. Being a BNS major and has been a worthy experience for students.<\/p>\n

The aim of the discipline is to understand the basis of human and biological behavior as well as how different pathological conditions can affect the nervous system. Thus, a thorough exposure to anatomical, chemical, and biological sciences as well as psychological sciences are foundations that the major has implemented into the curriculum. For this reason, in years past the major was named \u2018psychobiology\u2019.<\/p>\n

To fulfill their course requirements for the major, students can pursue several different directions. One focuses on the brain and behavioral sciences, another closely examines clinical psychology and cognition, while a third is geared toward molecular-level studies such as cell biology and organic chemistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see it as a very descriptive field,\u201d BNS faculty member and Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Aaron Godlaski said. \u201c[It\u2019s studying] what happens in your head when you do \u2018x.\u2019 Part of its\u2019 attractiveness is this empirical stance on how we act. However, I think it\u2019s important to recognize the boundedness of what we can do, what questions we can answer, and what we say we know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BNS major is backed by dedicated professors who are continually expanding their knowledge in the field for their students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professors are really into what they do. The field is young so they always stay up-to-date,\u201d senior BNS major Meghan Holliday said. \u201cMy classmates are always really engaged in learning, too. We feed off of each other and that makes a great learning environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Declaring BNS as their major also gives students the potential to pursue a wide array of experience in the field outside of the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really interested in helping students seek research and internships. There\u2019s always a new book about the interesting cases a neuroscientist is seeing. As a field, neuroscience has come a great distance in the last 20 years,\u201d Godlaski said, \u201cbut we\u2019ve only just scratched the surface. It\u2019s a growing field and right now we\u2019re only limited by our technology. We\u2019re always training students in new aspects of research.\u201d<\/p>\n

BNS majors are involved in the areas of research outside of Centre College.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The BNS major] has challenged me and my critical thinking,\u201d Holliday said. \u201cWe do a lot of work with journal articles and papers, criticizing and contemplating research done by highly educated experts in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

For senior Jack Schafer, studying abroad during CentreTerm and taking a BNS-related course in the Caribbean has in been the highlight of his years spent pursing the major at Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most memorable experience I\u2019ve had as a BNS major is my experience in Barbados,\u201d Schafer said. \u201cAlthough I\u2019m not pursuing it as a professional career, being fortunate enough to travel to study and research Vervet monkeys, immerse myself in Bajan culture for about a month, take a comprehensive exam by the pool, and give presentations in a remote tropical paradise is always nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The major fits well with a liberal arts curriculum through which students broaden their perspectives and mentalities. Students interested in pre-health careers, such as pre-med, lab research, or psychology, can all find common ground within BNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to college wanting to work in health and to work with people. But I also needed something to help me fill-out my general education requirements,\u201d Holliday said. \u201cThis path gave me a great foundation for working with people and [gaining a] perspective on mental disorders, on the nervous system, and how the brain and behavior connect. It\u2019s not just for medicine, though. People going into psychology and other areas can benefit [from pursuing the major.]\u201d<\/p>\n

In planning ahead for his career, Schafer decided to declare BNS as his major because of the similarity between required coursework for the major and what is required when applying to nursing school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a nursing major at the school I transferred from and so I chose behavioral neuroscience because I love psychology and it would still be filling out my pre-requisites for nursing school if I decided to do that,\u201d Schafer said. \u201cMy favorite class is BNS 380, which is Sensation and Perception. The human sensory system and how we perceive our world through the five senses is incredible. It\u2019s really funny whenever friends bring up illusions or weird things they\u2019ve noticed and I can explain some of the science behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The professors working in BNS are just as passionate as the students are, constantly staying on top of new material and excited to help their students pursue their thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy the coursework I teach. I have a background in this area but I\u2019m largely trained in clinical practice. I\u2019m challenged by the students to push my own knowledge; when the students are engaged in the material, boring lectures become more of a dialogue. And that\u2019s really the learning process and I enjoy taking part in that,\u201d Godlaski said. \u201cStudents get to be engaged in the research process by watching their own ideas go into fruition. I\u2019m regularly impressed by our students\u2019 creativity toward the things I\u2019m teaching. And as the students zoom in on their research, I advise them to zoom back out and consider the big picture\u2014how their research crosses over with other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

BNS continues to be a growing major at Centre, made up of passionate students and professors eager to expand their knowledge in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ADAM FALLUJI –\u00a0CENTO WRITER THE BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE (BNS) MAJOR IS AN INNOVATIVE AND EXPANDING FIELD FOR STUDENTS College is the best time to explore one\u2019s interests\u2014and choosing a major is one way to do so. Declaring a major allows an undergraduate student to immerse him\/herself in a direction of study; however, there are so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}