"Academically, my experience during this program was unlike any that I have had during my time at Columbia thus far."

As someone who had studied Japanese at their public school from grades 6 through 12, I was instantly attracted to the Columbia Summer Practicum in Global Neuroscience program. Having loved Japan the past two times I have been fortunate to visit, I was thrilled to have discovered this program since it felt like a perfect reason to go back. Not only was the program being hosted at the University of Tokyo (meaning that I would be able to actively practice my Japanese), but its advertisement as a "deep-dive" into the field of Neuroscience of Consciousness made me think that this program would be a perfect fit for me since I declared myself as a Neuroscience and Behavior major after loving the Science of Psychology. I initially applied to this program with the attitude of "You miss all the shots you don't take", so when, to my surprise, I received an acceptance letter and a Global Learning Scholarship that made taking part in this program possible, I bought my ticket to Tokyo!

Academically, my experience during this program was unlike any that I have had during my time at Columbia thus far. For starters, there were only nine students in the class, including myself. Considering that my smallest class up to this point was either Literature Humanities or Contemporary Civilization, with about 20 students, it felt odd at first. However, this small class size allowed not only the students (from CC, SEAS, GS, Barnard, and even other institutions!) to become close with each other but also with our professor and our TA! Through the discussions of the research papers that we were assigned to read and respond to Monday through Friday, the individual presentations we each gave to the class on a paper of our choice, and listening to famous researchers present to us in our classroom the week before the conference and attending the conference itself, these shared experiences made my time in Tokyo as a student unforgettable.

One would think that three weeks of studying in a foreign country would go by slowly, but time went by regrettably fast! After I finished homework for the day in the evening, I enjoyed going out to dinner and exploring the city, but the real fun happened on the weekends. I took advantage of the fact that I was in Japan and chose to take a trip to Seoul on my first weekend and then to Taipei on my second! I made lifelong memories on these trips, but one of my favorite memories was the night before move-out (the accommodations were lovely!) when my classmates, professor, TA, and I all went to dinner and then karaoke. There is something about singing songs in English, French, Chinese, and other languages in a large karaoke room overlooking the streets in Shinjuku that is unmatched.

I highly recommend this program to anyone who is interested! If the program is held in Tokyo in the future, make sure to mentally prepare yourself for the humidity and the occasional heavy rain because it is brutal!