When my friends were on their ELO trips, I visited Tokyo, Japan, to present my review article at the International Young Researchers Conference. There were 20 students in total from several countries around the world, although most of them came from the United States. The day after the presentation, I participated in the Tokyo Explore program, where students could explore Tokyo with medical and dental students from Columbia University.
Overall, my presentation went well. I panicked when it was my turn, but just started talking by looking at the keywords on my laptop screen. My paper was about the gut microbiome and its role in human health– immune function, metabolism, and neurotransmitter production. Compared to other students’ original and in-dept research, mine felt kind of shallow. But after talking with the Columbia students, they stressed to never undermine your work. Watching other students present their work inspired me to conduct my own scientific investigation on topics I am passionate about. I hope to accomplish this sometime in the future, possibly during the summer vacation. Most of the students’ presentations covered topics surrounding microbiology, ecology, and neuroscience. I was especially fascinated with what the students have done to contribute to the field of neuroscience. Some students created mini brain models and used machine learning to identify biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. So, although I felt accomplished that I had presented my paper, I felt disappointed and motivated to conduct original research.
After the presentations, we played a game where we had to build bridges. A group of five students were then paired with a mentor from Columbia University. After feeling disappointed, this game cheered me up. I met a lot of friends from different backgrounds and shared a passion of neuro with them. Despite our different backgrounds, we had so many common things to talk about, like teachers, IB courses, and science research. Ultimately, my biggest takeaway was to collaborate with other people from all over the world toward a shared goal, such as contributing to the field of neuroscience. I strongly recommend this program to students passionate about science because it give you an actual opportunity to present in front of uni students from prestigious universities and meet students around the globe who are passionate about science like you.