Recently, I interviewed Janie Beaufore, a senior here at Ohio State, majoring in neuroscience with a minor in health, environment, risk and science communication. Janie declared neuroscience at the end of her second year. Before declaring this as her major, she explored many other different majors including: business, speech and hearing, engineering, food science, communications, and chemistry. Janie talked about how she was interested in so many different subjects that she had a hard time picking just one. She ultimately decided upon neuroscience because it is a growing field and the topics are complex yet very interesting. She added her minor in so that she could add a creative side to her studies and apply writing to a scientific field that was interesting to her. She loved the versatility within the neuroscience major and this helped contribute to her declaring it.
I had asked her about the different specializations under the major and how they differ. It was very interesting to learn about the different paths that you can take even after declaring neuroscience as a major. Janie talked about how she specialized in systems and behavioral neuroscience. She liked this specialization in particular because it combined the other two specializations together and allows you to take classes from both of the other specializations giving you a wider range of options.
Janie talked about some of her favorite classes that she has taken specifically for the neuroscience major. One of these was the class called Psychopharmacology. Janie had only good things to say about this class and emphasized that while you learn a lot, the class is still a lot of fun. I had never heard about this class before and after learning more about it and how you learn how drugs affect the brain and thus behavior, it sounds like a really interesting course for me to potentially take in the future.
Janie emphasized the wide variety of classes outside of the majors that Ohio State offers. Although she has not taken these personally, she mentioned very cool courses such as skydiving, chocolate science, and screenwriting. She really encouraged me to search for a class I might not normally take and to step outside of my comfort zone with some classes because that is what helped her find her major.
It was really interesting to learn about all of the extracurricular experiences that Janie has been involved in. Not only does she do a lot of work with sustainability groups on campus, but she is also part of the OSU Vision and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. In this lab, she has an independent project where she researches how our brain perceives and encodes color. She really emphasized getting involved in research and how much of a rewarding experience it is. Janie is also a writing intern at the Wexner Medical Center where she writes a lot of their blog posts about research and health. This opportunity helped her to discover what she wanted to do after graduation.
After graduation Janie hopes to find a job as a technical writer, grant writer, or science writer for a science or healthcare company. She has thought about going to graduate school but talked about how she is still unsure as to what she would study so she does not want to apply right away after undergrad.
I found Janie through University Exploration’s Senior Bank. I chose to interview her because she is majoring in neuroscience and that is the major that I am most interested in at this point in time. Also, her minor sounded very interesting and I wanted to learn more about it and why she chose it.
Interviewing Janie has helped me tremendously. Not only has it helped me to confirm that I want to explore the neuroscience major, but it reassured me that there are so many different paths under neuroscience that I can take. This interview really helped me to see that I can make neuroscience really adapt to what I want for a major and that I can take it in any direction I choose. I enjoyed interviewing Janie because she is not taking what she called the “traditional” neuroscience track. Rather than going on to medical school, she is making the major fit to her interests and goals. I really enjoyed learning about the different classes that you can take under the major including the psychopharmacology class mentioned above. I learned that the neuroscience major is very flexible which I had not previously realized. The interview really made me realize that I don’t have to have everything figured out right now. I can take my time to make the decision that is best for me. The interview reinforced for me that it is okay to end up switching majors because as I grow and discover myself more and more I will discover what I am passionate about and what suits me.
I still need to learn more in depth about the specialization of neuroscience to see if I can see myself studying those topics in depth. Nonetheless, this interview was very helpful in learning more about the major and realizing the different directions I can take with it. Not only for this major, but for any major, I have realized that I truly can make it my own and make it so that it fits my interests.
Many of the tools that I have used this past semester in Exploration have been very helpful. The Senior Bank being one of them. The FOCUS assessment was also very helpful. It helped me learn more about myself in areas that I hadn’t considered before. I think what helped me the most this past semester were the lectures over the different colleges at OSU. Through these, I was able to learn more in depth about what each college was like and how the majors would play into my strengths/interests. I am glad that I entered college undecided because it has not only helped to evaluate my strengths and interests for a particular major, but my strengths and interests in different careers as well. The Exploration program has allowed me to take a deeper look at my self to really determine what it is that I want to do as a major and then a career in the future.