Biology at Leiden:
I was excited to study biology at a new university to experience their way of teaching as well as discover new topics. My minor for semester one was human evolution. I wasn’t too sure what to expect when I arrived to my first lecture but I was surprised by how interesting learning about our origins as a species could be. My favourite topic within this minor was origin of human anatomy and physiology. This took a deep and intricate dive into the origins of the Homo sapien species- I particularly enjoyed looking at how we evolved next to some of our ‘sister’ species such as Homo neanderthals and Homo heildebergensis. One of the fun parts about class was the group work we did. I partook in a lot of debates in group discussions, one of my key topic starters being ‘did Neanderthals have language?’.
Studying at Leiden really ignited a new passion and interest into human evolution and perhaps how I could further my biology degree into this field. For the second semester, I had the opportunity to complete and internship at the biology department of Leiden. I worked with PhD student Danielle Crowley in the lab looking at clock gene variation within artificial light treated three-spined sticklebacks. It was an amazing opportunity to work in a real-world laboratory and make my own contribution to a research paper.
As much as I missed 58³Ô¹Ï at times, I felt lucky and privileged to be able to have experience Biology at a new university with a variety of experienced lecturers with lots to share!
