Introduction and Monuments

Stepping onto the Georgetown campus with the quiet electricity of people about to begin something big. The interns arrived from all corners of the globe, checking in, getting the keys to their dorms, and getting ready to start the week.

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 students entered their rooms, the week had started.

By afternoon, things shifted. Groups formed. Not cliques, but teams, each one assigned to create a research question that could bend the future of medicine just a little further. After being introduced to Neuroscience by Dr. James Giordano, these high schoolers were already beginning to think like scientists. They were left with a question hanging 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 the rest of the day.

As dusk pulled a golden curtain over Washington, the program walked together among the monuments, 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.