Neuroscience Major Jobs and Graduate School Acceptances 2022

neuroscience

neuroscience

Katie McQuaid

Hometown: Fanwood, New Jersey
Employer: Population Council, Indigenous Adolescent Girls Empowerment Network
Job title: intern
 
Job Responsibilities
 
I do clerical and research work to better serve indigenous adolescent women. 
 
How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?
 
Dickinson has helped me find my niche in the field of neuroscience and helped fuel my passion for it. 
 
What are you most anticipating about your career or post-graduate pursuits?
 
I am most excited to study hate groups and the neuroscience of political manipulation. 
 
What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?
 
 
Internship Experience
 
I interned at Elon BrainCARE and the Population Council. 
 

Amanda Amodeo

Hometown: Syosset, New York
Majors: educational studies, neuroscience
Graduate School: Columbia University
Field of study: physical  therapy (DPT)
 
What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?
 
Making life long friends! 
 
Internship Experience
 
I interned at Tisch Hospital in New York City through the HCOP program. I shadowed physical therapists in the critical care cardiac unit of the hospital. 
 

Rachel Stosur

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Major: neuroscience 
Employer: University of Maryland
Job title: faculty research assistant
 
Job Responsibilities
 
I will be working in the Child Development Lab and primarily focusing on the nationwide HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD) funded by the NIH. I will be recording and processing EEG, MRI and neurobehavioral data from infants. The goal of the study is to examine the effects of drug/alcohol exposure and other adverse experiences on children's brain development.
 
How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?
 
Physiology research experience.
 
Internship Experience
 
The Incredible Years Parenting Program, Carlisle, Pa., January – May 2020
  • Assisted the professor in teaching parents the program to encourage social-emotional development in their children.
  • Implemented program strategies while supervising children.
  • Learned psychological and biological processes of development through the Brain Story curriculum.

Cuong Nguyen

Hometown: Hanoi, Vietnam
Major: neuroscience 
Employer: Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Job title: reseearch technician
 
Job Responsibilities
 
Perform laboratory work to prepare patient tumor samples for downstream analysis. Assist in grant and manuscript writing.
 
How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?
 
At Dickinson College, I got the chance to work at multiple labs to try out different fields of research in order to determine which one is most suitable for me. In my sophomore year, I shadowed Associate Professor of Biology Missy Niblock's lab, and I also participated in a behavioral research project using animal models in Professor of Psychology Teresa Barber's lab. Although the pandemic disrupted the research activities at Dickinson for more than one and a half years, I still got a chance to work with Associate Professor of Biology Michael Roberts in my junior year doing genomics data analysis using computational techniques. After the project at the Roberts lab and my summer internship, I realized my passion for molecular biology and started to do wet-lab research with professor Roberts to look at cell models for acute myeloid leukemia. 
 
What are you most anticipating about your career or post-graduate pursuits?
 
I will have the chance to learn the most advanced techniques in the field of cancer biology and work alongside leading researchers in the field. I expect that this exposure will give me valuable experience and prepare me for graduate school.
 
What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?
 
During my sophomore year, I realized that studying hard and getting a good grade is not everything and will not guarantee a successful career. From that moment, I decided that I want to become a well-rounded person and develop other important skills, such as interpersonal and leadership skills.
 
Internship Experience
 
I interned at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, during the summer of 2021. I worked as a research assistant and performed laboratory work to assess the characteristics of a DNA binding protein.
 

Jacquelyn Curtis

Hometown: Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania
Majors: biochemistry & molecular biology, neuroscience
Employer: Massachusetts General Hospital
Job title: research technician I
 
Job Responsibilities
 
I will be working in a gastrointestinal cancer research lab that is looking at new therapies to treat these cancers.
 
How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?
 
I was able to get on-campus jobs, which were very helpful as it was a work environment. Almost all of my classes also had information imperative to being able to properly do the job that I have. 
 
What are you most anticipating about your career or post-graduate pursuits?
 
I am on a track to medical school, which is something I never thought I could do until I was at Dickinson. 
 
What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?
 
During lockdown, I was diagnosed with narcolepsy. The amount of support from my fellow students, from faculty, from ADS throughout the rest of my time here, whenever dealing with my symptoms, was absolutely incredible. I will never forget it.
 

Jessie Scarlett

Hometown: Bethel Park, Pennsylvania
Major: neuroscience 
Employer: Camp Chewonki
Job title: community-building activity head
 
Job Responsibilities
 
I am in charge of running the challenge course at Chewonki Summer Camp in Maine. I will be facilitating activities with the campers and helping them learn how to use the high and low ropes course obstacles. I will also help out with other outdoor education initiatives. 
 
How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?
 
My connections with staff, faculty and students will help me after graduation. I feel I have gained confidence through my leadership roles and also have been able to explore different academic domains. I feel I have become more of myself, and I better understand what is important in life due to my time at Dickinson. Additionally, I have been challenged academically, socially, emotionally and financially, which, in the end, will help me grow as a person and be better prepared for life as an adult. 
 
What are you most anticipating about your career or post-graduate pursuits?
 
Exploring and trying new things and not being afraid to take my time going back to school and figuring out what I want to do as a career. I am comfortable taking my time and not rushing into a decision I have not carefully thought about. 
 
What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?
   
  • Service trips! (South Carolina 2019, Nashville 2020, Carlisle 2021). 
  • Pre O - Rock climbing 2018. Some of my closest friends I met on that trip. 
  • Rock climbing - made friends with upperclassmen and traveled around PA.
  • MOB events - great way to form friendships as an underclassman. 
  • Just being with my friends and being able to rent Airbnbs to spend time with them over Covid and do classes and make memories together. We made the most out of a not so great situation. 
Internship Experience
 
Center for Biologic Imaging at University of Pittsburgh - research assistant for Dr. Alan Watson (May - August 2021). My job consisted of manually processing 3D images of brains using Imaris software. I also used ribbon scanning microscopes and learned how to operate a variety of imaging technologies. I also became family with creating JAVA scripts and spent time talking to other people in the lab about their careers. 
 

Cameron McConagha

Hometown: Broadlands, Virginia
Major: neuroscience
Graduate School: Virginia Commonwealth University
Field of study: physical therapy

How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?

Dickinson has helped me learn to connect with individuals in both my class and my professors. I have created meaningful connections with many people through my education and have benefitted significantly from the liberal arts education that Dickinson offers.

What are you most anticipating about your career or post-graduate pursuits?

I am anticipating more years of challenging yet rewarding education. I hope that the building blocks that Dickinson has established in me carry through into the rest of my future endeavors. 

What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?

Some defining moments of my Dickinson experience include my final swim meet, my championship meets, the submission and acceptance of my graduate applications and arguably COVID.

Internship Experience

Internship for the Dickinson Athletic Training Office helping with day-to-day runnings of the training rooms.

Jaren Wyaco

Hometown: Saint Michaels, Arizona
Major: neuroscience 
Graduate School: Columbia University
Field of study: master of public health in epidemiology 
 

Victoria Dionisos

Hometown: West Chester, Pennsylvania
Major: neuroscience 
Employer: E.P. Bradley Sleep Research Lab; Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Job title: research assistant
 
Job Responsibilities
 
I will be working as a research assistant at the E.P. Bradley Sleep Research Lab, a program of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. I will be studying sleep deprivation in adolescents with ADHD using functional neuroimaging.
 
How has Dickinson prepared you for life after graduation?
 
I believe Dickinson has prepared me by teaching me how to approach situations with an informed and open mind. The classes I have taken have taught me a lot in various different fields, from anthropology to biology to music. My liberal arts education has prepared me to handle conflict and conversation using different academic perspectives and understanding. 
 
What are you most anticipating about your career or post-graduate pursuits?
 
My plan is to work as a research assistant for two years then attend graduate school to get my Ph.D. I will likely stay in the research field and possibly become a principal investigator at a research hospital or university. For this post-grad job, I will be moving to a new city, so I am anticipating a lot of adjustment and change. The first year will be challenging, but I am sure I will be doing okay overall. I am excited to learn about sleep research which I have always had an interest in, and I sincerely hope I find a topic of research that I am passionate about. 
 
What are some of the defining moments of your Dickinson experience?
 
One of my defining Dickinson experiences I've had was studying abroad. A large majority of my friends and classmates did not get to go abroad because of the pandemic, so I am extremely thankful that I got to study in Copenhagen for the semester. I knew I could travel after graduation, but I really wanted to be a student in another country and have the away from campus experience. It was difficult to miss my senior fall semester because of all the time on campus I had lost from the pandemic, but the experiences and lessons learned made it worth it. Honestly, the pandemic took a lot of these defining moments away.
 
I worked on an independent study my junior year and got to present my research at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, which was my first ever research presentation, but it was virtual. I was very proud to share my research but wish it could have been in person. A more recent defining moment was my a capella group's (DTones) spring concert. I was in my high school a capella group, and I loved it so much so I wanted to continue in college. As we finished the last song of the concert, I realized that I got the experience I had always wanted. I got to make music and have fun with wonderful friends and share that with an audience. 
 
Internship Experience
 
By my own networking, I found a position at the Center for Autism Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. As part of the Infant Brain Imaging Study, I observed and annotated language development in infants that had siblings with autism spectrum disorder. I worked in the Roberts Center for Pediatric Research in Philadelphia from June to August 2021.
 

Ian Greenawalt

Hometown: Fairfield, Connecnticut
Major: neuroscience
Employer: Thesis Nootropics
Job title: Nootropics expert 
 
Job Responsibillities
 
I educate customers on the neuroscience of improving brain health and work with them to improve behavioral practices and nutrient profiles to improve cognition (attention, memory, verbal production, motor sequencing, etc.).
 

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Published April 7, 2022