Cogno Interview Series: My Friend and Roommate, Emilie

I met Emilie our first year through the Wharton Latino Undergraduate Association, which is basically a group for Latin American students (although you don't have to be in Wharton or be from Latin America to become a part of it!). Initially, we bonded because of the similarities in our cultures, as she is from Puerto Rico and I'm from Mexico, but our friendship now goes beyond that. I enjoy talking to her about classes because of how different the curriculum for our majors is even though we're both in the same school at Penn.
Q: What are you studying?
A: I'm studying Neuroscience, with minors in Chem; Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies; and Healthcare Management.
Q: Why did you pick your major?
A: I picked my major because it's really aligned with what I want to study. I'm pre med, so I thought neuroscience really brought in all the aspects of science, but also anatomy and physiology. I also think it's really interesting to learn about the brain, so that's why I picked it.
Q: What extracurriculars are you involved in?
A: I'm Marketing Director for Manana, which is basically a nonprofit that works for celebrating underprivileged kids' lives. I do research at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior—I'm researching the genetics of psychiatric disease. I'm in the Penn Women's Biomedical Society in the membership committee, and I'm in Wharton Latino.
Q: What do you like about the College of Arts and Sciences?
A: You can take classes that are so different from each other. For example, my Neuroscience classes are super different from my Gender Studies classes. For me, I knew what I wanted to study when I got into Penn. But I know for a lot of people they like that they can explore different areas before choosing a major. I also like that, even though I already came in knowing that I wanted to be pre med, I could still take classes that were completely different to that.
Q: What piece of advice do you have for incoming first-years or prospective students?
A: I would say keep an open mind. I think that definitely, when I got to Penn, I kind of just stayed in the STEM mindset. And then as I got older, I realized that there's so many more cool classes in the College that aren't necessarily aligned with what I want to study. But that really interests me. So I would say definitely, every semester, look for at least one class that you find super interesting, even if it's not directly related to what you want to study because you could find out so many things about yourself through taking different classes.
Q: How did you meet people or make friends at Penn?
A: Yeah, so originally the first people from Penn that I met, I met them at an event for accepted students that they had back home in Puerto Rico. So those are the people I knew coming in, but really the majority of my friends I met through clubs, like Wharton Latino or through my classes, like the pre-meds, and things like that. I would say mainly clubs and classes.

- Fernanda B.