Day One: First Steps and Why We Mind

Stepping onto the Georgetown campus with the quiet electricity of people about to begin something big. Coming from all over the country, our interns all carried the same spark: a deep, burning curiosity about the brain.

The morning unfolded with conversations in line at registration, where names were exchanged and friendships began over shared stories of what drew them to neuroscience. The dorms echoed with laughter and the rustling of bags being unpacked, as interns entered their rooms, the week had started.

By afternoon, things shifted. Teams formed, each one tasked with exploring a research question that could bend the future of medicine just a little further. There was no hesitation, only focus. The interns began to think like scientists, and the program became their lab.

Then came the moment everyone will remember. Dr. James Giordano took the stage, not with flashy visuals or simplified metaphors, but with a question that hung in the air: "Why do we mind what goes on in our minds?" Silence. Then fascination. The auditorium became a storm of thoughts about consciousness, about ethics, about what it means to study the very organ that makes studying possible. That question would follow them into dinner, into the dorms, into sleep.

As dusk pulled a golden curtain over Washington, the group walked together among the monuments, and students and their team leads got to know one another in our nation's capital.

Tonight, the lights in the dorms stay on a little longer. Some are reviewing notes. Some are revisiting Dr. Giordano’s words. Some are just sitting with the magnitude of the moment. Tomorrow promises dissections, lectures, and the tangible work of science. But tonight is about the realization that they’ve already begun to shift toward deeper questions, harder truths, and a future where they just might lead the way.