After a change of scenery, Brooke was able to explore areas of interest, become more social, and discover what she potentially wants to do in the future.
By Joshua Altman
Brooke Goldberg, a Junior at the Field school in Washington DC, has a passion for neuroscience. Brooke’s twin sister was diagnosed with lots of learning challenges at a very young age and Brooke has been curious ever since as to why she doesn’t have those challenges, even though they are twins. Another aspect of Brooke’s life that has shaped her as a person is her personal and social growth over the course of middle and high school to the place she is now.
Before coming to Field in 6th grade, Brooke’s family moved around frequently as a result of her Dad’s work. As Brooke describes it “ the frequent moving affected me socially because we moved around a lot and until I came to Field and I didn’t have many friends. I was very quiet, I could never get comfortable and acclimated to one environment, which dampened my social skills.”However, once Brooke came to Field she came out of her shell and was able to closely interact with other students in such a small setting. “The thing I love most about Field is that when you come to school, it doesn’t feel like school, but it feels more like summer camp because of the environment with the small classes, when I went to public school I was in a class of 500 and I didnt know more than 12 kids in my grade. But at Field I know everyone in my grade.”Brooke’s case of thriving in a small environment also relates to a study by Baker, B. D., Farrie, D. and Sciarra, D. G.. Who state “ample research has indicated that children in smaller classes achieve better outcomes, both academic and otherwise.”And according to an observational study on the effects of small class sizes on teacher-student interaction by Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., & Brown “in both the early and later grades, smaller classes lead to students receiving more individual attention from their teachers and having more positive interactions with them.” Brooke has found this to be true as along with being able to thrive in small classes, Brooke has loved the teachers at Field.“The teachers are amazing. Sometimes I look forward to seeing the teachers more than my friends. Because they really do become mentors for you and it makes it a lot easier to digest content, when you’re close with the teacher.”
As mentioned previously, Brooke has a passion for neuroscience. Brooke’s twin sister was diagnosed with numerous learning disabilities, including dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia at a very young age, and Brooke has always been curious as to why “we were supposed to be the same, but how we were so different and why don’t I have these challenges and why does my sister, even if my parents don’t have them. That’s when my interest in science was sparked, so I started doing research on my own on biological diseases and how the brain functions. I would spend hours at night doing research on neuroscience and science in general, and it stemmed from our relationship. Which is really good now, but it hasn’t always been like that. I think it’s hard to explain to someone what growing up with a special needs sibling is like, especially when they are your twin sibling. Everyone thinks you’re the same, when in reality we are very different.” Brooke’s curiosity in neuroscience was also nurtured by Field and its learning environment. As Brooke describes “it definitely started as self motivation, but Field has nurtured it so much. We have so many projects in every class where I can focus on what I’m interested in and relate it back to the curriculum. Field also allows you to explore your own interests during school time. For example, last year I was even able to take a neuroscience elective. In this elective I developed a good base for neuroscience and although it was a little bit repetitive it definitely reinforced my interest. And it also looks decent to have a neuroscience course on my transcript for college.”
Brooke also got the chance to pursue her interest in neuroscience even further when she took a virtual neuroscience course at Columbia University over the summer. “I took the course on the basis that neuroscience is something I’m very interested in but I don’t want to get to college and sit in a class and hate it. So I took the class on that basis as a way to make sure that this is something that I’m interested in before pursuing it in college. And I loved it, my professor was great, she worked from her lab everyday, with rats. And I took away a lot from it, and I was the only American in the class, so I met a lot of people from different countries. For example there were students from Kazakhstan and Japan. And everyone had very different perspectives on why they were taking the course, what they already knew and what they already learned. So it was very interesting in that sense. Also, I never got bored despite the classes being five hours.” As a result of her deep exploration into neuroscience, Brooke is very interested in pursuing her interest in college. “As of now my plan is to major in neuroscience. But, I love football and a big football school seems really fun, but also I’ve become so accustomed to Field’s environment and I love it and my parents love it, and they’re very interested in making sure I have that opportunity to pursue my education at a place like Field. And I think if you can take advantage of that then you should. But I definitely think I would like to go to a smaller school where I will definitely study neuroscience.”