Students will be able to analyze critically and apply the major principles of organismal biology.

I discovered my interest for organismal biology within my two semesters of Anatomy and Physiology. Connecting the foundational biological principles I had spent a while learning finally connected to the human body, how it is structured, and how it functions. My following semester, I took Microbiology for Healthcare Providers (BIOL 304). In this class, my partner and I completed a project where we got to pick an organism of our choosing and explain how it affects the human body. We chose to look at the bacterium Clostridium difficile in our presentation to the class (BIOL 304 Clostridium difficile Presentation).

I decided to take Medical Neurobiology (BIOL 444) the following summer due to my fascination with the human body. We learned about how the nervous system operates on a much more specific level, as well as the dysfunctions that can cause neurological disease. We read multiple articles regarding neurobiology, but one that I found most interesting was an article that explained how sleep deprivation can cause neurological disorders due to the lack of healing and regeneration the human body experiences (BIOL 444 NMJC 4 Study Guide). Creating a study guide was really helpful in understanding the article because it allowed me to look at the information in different ways and pick out what would be important in explaining this to someone else.

During my last semester at Longwood, we were put into groups depending on which pillar of biology interested us most within our Senior Capstone (BIOL 488) course. I stuck with my interest in organismal biology and my group decided to look at the vertical transmission of the novel COVID-19 virus that affected millions of people across the globe at the time. To demonstrate our ability to find appropriate literature and interpret it, we prepared a presentation to the class arguing that while vertical transmission of COVID-19 is rare, it is in fact a possibility (BIOL 488 Vertical Transmission of COVID-19).