One of the good things about West is that it is easy to start clubs and bring students with common interests together. Juniors Kriti Gaur and Sridhar Srinivasan decided to take advantage of this by taking their passion for neuroscience and using it to start the Neuroscience Club.

“Both Sridhar and I are really into neuroscience,” Gaur said. “We were talking about how awesome it would be to start a club devoted to neuroscience.”

Gaur and Srinivasan planned out their meetings and ideas during the first semester and then held their first meeting early March.

“We want to get people interested in neuroscience and give them a taste of what the subject has to offer,” Srinivasan said. “We’re teaching neuroscience and doing it in a way that’s fun and memorable.”

The meetings, the next of which will be held April 29, consist of a lecture and activity on different topics related to neuroscience.

“We are going to be doing a lot of demonstrations and activities where we will get everyone in the room involved,” Srinivasan said. “We are going to try to make the activities more and more ridiculous as the meetings continue. Ridiculous neuroscience is memorable neuroscience.”

There are also other exciting things in store for club members, including guest speakers, competitions and research opportunities.

“The competitions that we are thinking about span a very diverse range—they go from designing neurological experiments to writing essays and even poetry about neuroscience,” Gaur said. “We are trying to get people to apply for a research study at the University of North Texas, and are also trying to find a coordinator for a prestigious competition known as the International Brain Bee, where students compete for prize money by answering questions about neuroscience.”

Gaur’s and Srinivasan’s enthusiasm for the club has spread to other members, who enjoy the unique experience the club provides.

“The most rewarding part is being able to learn about the brain in an interactive way with fellow students who have the same passion,” junior Valerie Garcia said.

Meetings cover a variety of topics, such as the neuroscience of attraction and the evolution of memory, and the club teaches members how to think about the brain in different ways.

“Everything we are—our thoughts, our feelings, our desires, our experiences—are all made possible by nothing more than a three pound mass of jelly sitting between our ears,” Srinivasan said. “That in itself is incredible.”