Emma D’cessare

Mary Gates Leadership Scholar, Autumn 2024

Leadership Project: An Evening with Neuroscience and its Expansion

Project Description: An Evening With Neuroscience is Grey Matters Journal’s biggest event of the year that brings neuroscience education to the public in an interactive, digestible, and accessible way. The event typically includes a neuroscience art gallery, neurotechnology demos, a human brain dissection, and a panel with professionals in neuroscience that answer audience questions. We typically host 300-500 attendees every year.

To further expand this project, I have worked to implement a research mini-symposium. Many attendees at EWN, especially youth who are just beginning to explore their scientific interests, would love to learn from individuals who have successfully navigated research opportunities. Through this new endeavor, we hope to further bridge the gap between the public and science by connecting young aspiring professionals with student research mentors.

What have you learned throughout your leadership project? As I continue to work as the Editor-in-Chief of Grey Matters, which has become a second family to me, I am constantly reminded that leadership is not about perfection, but about progress, impact, and teamwork. To overcome difficult obstacles and achieve organization-wide successes, I must adapt to challenges, trust my team, and grow through the process. Through the expansion of An Evening with Neuroscience (EWN), which is an event that is never without a few bumps in the road in its planning, I have come to learn that success is not about avoiding failure, but about learning from it. When first advertising the new mini-symposium we are implementing, we did not receive many responses. As a team, we put more effort into our outreach, gathering as many external contacts as we could and even posting physical flyers up, rather than just relying on our club communication servers. We received an influx of applications after we came together as a team, assessed our shortcomings, and worked to implement an improved plan. Planning EWN is all about teamwork, which I continue to hold as one of my greatest values.

What piece of advice do you have for future applicants? Be authentic and show how passionate you are about your project! Whether it be through writing, or through the interview, I believe the genuine excitement and love I felt for my leadership project really shined through and helped me win the award.