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Ch. 2: The Problem with People

       So, here’s the thing. We all have huge aspirations in life. We study in school, college, mentorships (etc etc) and work ourselves inside-out to achieve these aspirations. At some times, our efforts turn fruitful, and at others, they don’t. But I feel like most of us overlook developing people skills for use in a professional environment. I mean, we aren’t ever really taught how to manage people in school, so how could we possibly do so? Let’s take the field of medicine, for example (totally not biased here). Several children and teenagers dream of becoming doctors. They work hard through grade school, undergrad, medical school, residencies, and sometimes even fellowships, just to be bestowed the title and power of a doctor. And this isn’t at all surprising or wrong - after all, medicine is, quite undoubtedly, crucial to the very existence of mankind. Without medical efforts, more and more people would continue to succumb to the same diseases and conditions dai...

Ch. 1: In Which I Get a Stanford Pen

Armed with a multitude of squishy foam brains, pens (from Stanford?!?!), drawstring bags, and why-YOU-should-consider-our-grad-school brochures, we blazed our way through small armies of representatives from university neuroscience departments. We were on a hunt, a very important hunt indeed. A hunt for-     “WOULD YOU LIKE SOME FREE UPENN STUFF?? WE’VE GOT CANDY AND SWAG AND-”     Hey, look, she completed my sentence for me.     “Oh, um, thank you,” I said, grabbing yet another squishy foam brain and attempting a graceful exit.     “Wait, you’re a high school student? That’s so COOL!”     But of course. ___________________________________________________________________________________         Let’s backtrack a little. As part of my high school’s neuroscience society, we were on a field trip to the Society for Neuroscience’s (SfN’s) annual meeting, which happened ...