HECA College Knowledge Major Talks: Neuroscience

Description

Join us for a Major Talks webinar that will cover the Neuroscience major. The goal of this talk is to share useful tips and advice on guiding high school students interested in neuroscience or related areas of study in the field of brain and psychological sciences on their college planning journey. An overview of relevant academic and extracurricular experiences that have prepared past students for the neuroscience major will be discussed.

University of California: Executive Director of Admissions, Cuca Acosta, will discuss the study of neuroscience is a scientific study of the brain, neurons, and more. Academically we can see how systems function and how they impact emotions, actions, and functions. Colleges have many majors with different titles that share the same content, join UCSB as we talk about Psychological and Brain Science AKA neuroscience. What does it mean, what can students do, and what might it mean to a student studying neuroscience.

Muhlenberg College: Stanley Road Professor of Neuroscience, Jeremy Alden Teissere, will discuss the neuroscience major at Muhlenberg with an eye to comparison with other small liberal arts colleges, noting the many similarities and a few key differences.  Participants will leave the presentation with a good understanding of how small liberal arts colleges in the US typically structure neuroscience majors and the relative advantages and disadvantages of this approach (with an eye to helping prospective students make more intentional college choices).  

Lea Baechler-Brabo
HECA Member, Independent Educational Consultant

During her three decades of professional experience in the education field, Lea has cultivated a set of skills ideal for guiding students on the path to college and career and supporting parents along the way. Lea's passion for helping young people explore their interests and find their paths to college and career led her to found her own Berkeley-based IEC practice after experiences working both in higher education institutions and her local public schools. She also brings her own insight as a parent to her work, having raised three sons who are successfully pursuing their own varied college and career paths in engineering, veterinary medicine, and finance. Her particular interest in neuroscience has developed over the course of working with several students applying to the major and recognizing the field's interdisciplinary nature bringing together the social and life sciences. Lea holds a BA in International Relations and Spanish from UC Davis, a Masters in Education from SF State University, and completed UC Berkeley's College and Career Planning certificate.

Cuca Acosta
Executive Director, Admissions
University of California, Santa Barbara

Cuca Acosta is a respected leader in undergraduate admissions with almost 25 years of experience at UC Santa Barbara, where she currently serves as the Executive Director of Admissions. She oversees enrollment strategy for a tier-one research university. Recognized as an expert in UC admissions, Cuca has developed systemwide tools and trainings and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on topics such as equity, access, and strategic enrollment. She takes pride in creating access for all but has leadership roles in initiatives that support Latinx, undocumented, and first-generation students across the state.

Jeremy Alden Teissere
Stanley Road Professor of Neuroscience
Muhlenberg College

Professor of Neuroscience at Muhlenberg College.  He has a longstanding research interest in pharmacology, particularly in describing how drugs modify physiology and behavior at the biochemical level. His laboratory studies the structure and function of the GABA(A) receptor, the target of anxiety-reducing and sleep-promoting drugs, anesthetics, hormones, plants, and fungi.  His excellence in teaching and mentorship has been recognized by the Paul C. Empie Memorial Foundation, the Christian and Mary F. Lindback Foundation, and the Student Government Association of Muhlenberg College.  In 2004, he launched the neuroscience major at Muhlenberg College; over the past 22 years, he has guided and grown the program into a formal department with four additional faculty and nearly 500 alumni.  He has also collaborated with faculty in art, sociology, creative writing, and theatre to launch two intensive travel courses during his time at Muhlenberg, one in China (The States of China) with a focus on modernity, and one in the lands bordering the Potomac River (This Land is Your Land) with a focus on lived history, American identity, and outdoor education.  Dr. Teissere received a B.A., magna cum laude, in English from Willamette University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (from which he was the recipient of a Distinguished Alumnus Award).  He held a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at Emory University.  His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Sentience Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.