Cara this is especially interesting to me because, as you know, I have been working on a bilingual focused project in Neuroscience. I find it especially interesting in just how many ways speaking a second language can be covertly harmful to the person speaking it. Nice work!

Justin, I find it especially impressing how you are able to come out of this summer with such a tangible project. The six week period feels extremely short and your ability to produce something meaningful not just to the future of your career but to the present is great. Hope to see it at the research symposium!

Arjun, it is very interesting to hear about your shift from a broader focus to more individual cases. When working in a field that is now so data dependent, I frequently think that there could be something lost in the transcription from individual participants to result that is equally as important as the data itself. I look forward to seeing how your research continues.

Justin, I totally agree that narrowing down the scope of the research project is one of the most difficult elements. For me it has been difficult to narrow the scope, and that is only within the area of attention in neuroscience, so I can only imagine how much more difficult such a process is in something as wide reaching as Philosophy. I hope it is going well!

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment about leading from behind. In the lab setting, and especially as younger members, the ability to ask questions and focus on learning rather than results has repeatedly emphasized. I find the piece about asking thoughtful questions to be especially insightful as asking those questions both takes contemplation and humility. 

1.) I found hearing from Pamela John on the varying values of leadership and my accompanying conversation with fellow scholars to be quite enlightening. While leadership is something that I have had to ponder throughout my life––and especially in essays––it has frequently been presented to me as an inexplicable force uniform across all levels. However, prompted by Pamela's presentation, fellow scholars (Alex and Mica) and I began to explore how levels of abstraction increase drastically as one reaches higher and higher positions in a hierarchical structure, and how this abstraction can eventually reach levels which can be harmful. I found that thinking about how leadership is altered at various levels to be particularly important as we are all just entering these hierarchical structures, and being aware of this potential pitfall of leadership this early allows us to actively grapple with it long before it can be a problem in our own leadership.

2.) I will try to apply leading from behind this summer by constantly setting an example of hard work in the lab setting. In doing so I hope to both make progress myself and serve as a source of motivation for other lab members. As such a young member of the lab, it does not make sense for me to lead from the front, but in leading from behind I hope to not just further the research project I am working on, but also other members research. 

3.) For me I am most excited to see not just the results of the project but all the new unknown areas that my work this summer makes me aware of. In the field of neuroscience, there are so many questions that are still unknown and interrelated, and in working on this summers project, I hope to be able to not just answer my original question, but to become aware of future question that are yet to even be asked. It is this very adaptability and potential that excites me most about the field of neuroscience and to continue doing research in the field.