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In reflecting on this semester, like others I am inclined to express my general satisfaction with the structure of this course. I expected senior seminar to be like it is in other majors where students present on their theses and receive feedback from their peers – a prospect I was not overly excited about. While this approach offers some benefits, the benefits are largely isolated and personal ones. The discussion based approach of our seminar that focused on NBS topics of interest to students, on the other hand, was much more social in its applicability. That is to say, I believe this seminars approach was most beneficial in its propensity to promote communal discussions of topics we could share an interest in. I was much more excited to hear what people thought about morality, consciousness, and the legitimacy of animal models than to hear a description of results observed when prodding the brains of rats. By focusing on such “bigger” issues, this NBS seminar promoted a deeper consideration of topics in the NBS field and thereby made conversation considerably more amenable to a diversity of perspectives (expertise in a specified area of study was not necessary for particular classes, but instead offered unique perspectives in a larger and more general discussion).