Although it has been extremely fun at SUNY Oswego getting my B.A. in Cognitive Science, I will be graduating in May 2023. It seems like it was yesterday that I was meeting my favorite professors -- Professor Vampola and Dr. Lindstedt -- and having my first cog sci classes with them. They helped shape my career aspirations, and honestly who I am, so let's talk a little bit about what I've realized I want to do with my career.
Firstly, I am currently applying to graduate programs in cognitive science across the country, from UC Merced to IU Bloomington, and closer to Oswego at U of R (University of Rochester). I am hoping to get my PhD in cognitive science so that I can achieve my future goals of being a professor and researcher. I have a wide range of research interests within the cognitive sciences that I would love to study not only during my time as a PhD student and candidate, but also during my early and later career. These include groupthink and cult mentality -- specifically in the contexts of religion and conspiracy theories, gender and sensory percepts in the brain and how we represent them, and specific dopamine pathways in the brain, such as teh mesolimbic pathway.
I would love to start out my early career as a researcher in cognitive science and dip into my interests in neuroscience. I would love to explore the non-academic parts of research before I make a firm commitment to a life in academia, so that I can explore a wide range of interests (such as those mentioned above) and the different potential lifestyles of a researcher. I feel that my current background in research from my time at SUNY Oswego has especially prepared me for academic research, where I feel I will be most at home.
After contributing to cognitive science research throughout my career, I would love to become a professor in either cognitive science or neuroscience at a university like SUNY Oswego. I would love to make a greater impact on the students and faculty at a future university like many professors have done for me at Oswego (such as Dr. Lindstedt, Dr. Graci, Dr. Rhodes, Dr. Hu, Professor Vampola, to name a few in the cognitive science and psychology departments)! I would love nothing more than to inspire and impassion my students in the subjects i'm interested in, and to make a greater impact on their lives through inspiration and assistance with their budding careers. In addition to being a professor and teaching students, I hope to be the PI of my own lab, just like Dr. Lindstedt, Dr. Rhodes, and Dr. Hu, so that I can conduct research on the subjects that I want to inquire about, and provide 1 on 1 mentoring with research assistants in my lab so that they feel comfortable and able to conduct good science.
Overall, I want to thank all of the cognitive science professors at SUNY Oswego for helping me get to where I am today, and for helping me realize where I want to be in the future. I couldn't ask for a greater Alma Mater, and for a greater program than cognitive science. I hope that this time in 50 years, I can look back on these blog posts and remember all of the great times that I have had here and reminisce on the aspirations I once had.
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