{"id":55133,"date":"2018-12-18T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=55133"},"modified":"2022-12-14T09:01:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T14:01:21","slug":"from-germany-to-canada-students-connect-in-brock-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/12\/from-germany-to-canada-students-connect-in-brock-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"From Germany to Canada: Students connect in Brock lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although they were from the same German city, they began their educational journey as strangers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But their similar interest in Psychology soon found Joana Frieske and Amelie Backes working together in the same Brock University lab, pursuing their passion thousands of miles from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite sharing a hometown, the pair hadn\u2019t met until their studies at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. They later discovered that, coincidentally, both had planned to pursue an honours thesis abroad, had decided to go to Canada and had selected Brock University, each drawn by the offer to work with Veena Dwivedi, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The happy coincidence almost didn\u2019t happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dwivedi was initially hesitant to accept exchange students for the fall term, knowing that she would be busy writing a grant application. But after a couple of Skype conversations with their supervisor, Dwivedi had a feeling that Backes and Frieske would work out \u2014 and their actions since have proven her right.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were \u2018plug and play\u2019 students,\u201d she says. \u201cThey came ready to learn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Amelie and Joana take my course, Brain and Language (PSYC 3P65), and work on research in the lab at the same time was a pedagogically sound thing to do,\u201d says Dwivedi. \u201cThey learned a lot in a short amount of time. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

The students agree. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy how much we\u2019ve learned in less than four months, not only about research practice but also the linguistic background and theory behind it,\u201d says Backes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the Brain and Language course, which was perfect for us to combine what we learned and then apply it in the lab,\u201d adds Frieske.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the<\/span> Dwivedi Brain and Language Lab<\/span><\/a>, Backes and Frieske worked on Dwivedi\u2019s ongoing collaborative project with MIT Professor Ted Gibson that examines the use of Bayesian statistical models to account for people\u2019s understanding of sentences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a high-level collaboration and I thought it would be a great opportunity for the students,\u201d Dwivedi says. The international experience will look great on the students\u2019 CVs, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project fits well with Dwivedi\u2019s own research into how people use context and grammar in sentence comprehension. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did in the lab was a unique experience. We could maybe do similar work (at home), but this was very special,\u201d says Frieske. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dwivedi called it \u201cthoroughly satisfying as a professor in the classroom and a scientist in the lab, to see students grow and learn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is amazing how much progress these motivated and bright students made in just one semester.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dwivedi\u2019s commitment to sharing knowledge is evident throughout her lab.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in it together. We share what we know. We help each other out,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re all so lucky to have these opportunities. And there\u2019s joy in recognizing and sharing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The students both say that Sean Chisholm, a research assistant in Dwivedi\u2019s lab studying Psychology and Business, was instrumental in their success at Brock.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked Sean a lot of questions,\u201d says Backes. \u201cHe was our first person to talk to about procedural things like how exams work at Brock, how midterms work and how to submit assignments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When she was exploring potential study abroad opportunities, Frieske, who had never before ventured outside Europe, had to realign her thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I saw that it was possible to go to Canada, I was really happy to have this opportunity,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Backes always wanted to visit Canada. \u201cYou always want to see something else, something different \u2014 a totally different university, a different country,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

After looking into Canadian universities on the west and east coasts, Backes decided on Brock, which offered \u201ca lot of interesting courses to choose from,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the University\u2019s course selection, particularly in Psychology, that also solidified Frieske\u2019s choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

The German students are glad they ventured to Canada to study at Brock.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great experience,\u201d says Backes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their advice to other students who are considering studying abroad: \u201cDefinitely do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Frieske and Backes are in the process of deciding where to pursue master\u2019s degrees. Inspired by their positive experiences at Brock, both are considering international opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although they were from the same German city, they began their educational journey as strangers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":55134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,38],"tags":[7388,159,3130,546,7387,12274,29,3492],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55133"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82625,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55133\/revisions\/82625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}