I am confident to say that the FOCUS program was one of the major factors that made my freshman year at Duke incredible. Thanks to FOCUS, I was able to find a community of driven students who shared my academic interests and meet faculty who cultivated my curiosity and love for neuroscience. I was able to explore and engage in discussions about the interdisciplinary applications of neuroscience–one such example being my cluster’s trip to Miami, Florida that allowed us to witness dolphin cognition and behavior firsthand. My amazing time with the FOCUS program has inspired me to continue my journey in neuroscience through the Language, Music, and Dementia Bass Connections Team to examine the effects of musicianship and multilingualism on cognitive reserve. My time with FOCUS was definitely the highlight of my freshman year and continues to shape the rest of my four-year journey at Duke.
