Neuroscience Major Celebrates 10 Years and Counting

Starting fresh in 2015, Emmanuel now has as many as 80 declared and intended neuroscience majors – the product of the major’s highly dedicated faculty and curriculum that opens doors for students to discover their passion in such an extensive field.

Prior to 2015, students at Emmanuel could study the brain through neuroscience concentrations within the biology major or the psychology major. 

For a small liberal arts college, having a fully-fleshed neuroscience major is a unique pull for students who want to distinguish themselves with unique perspectives and insights. For neuroscience faculty, it’s imperative that students get both the foundational knowledge and guidance tailored to their individual career goals and interests.

“I’ve had students tell me they came here specifically because we offer this major,” said Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Dr. Elizabeth Crofton.

Benefits of a Tight-Knit Major

Dr. Crofton, who has been at Emmanuel for five years, and Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Chair of the Psychology & Neuroscience department, Dr. Melanie Leussis, who has been at Emmanuel since before the major’s launch, have cultivated a strong academic identity and community that stands out for students.

It’s something that Joseph Grassi ’28 noticed almost immediately when he settled into his first year at Emmanuel in fall 2024. “I just loved how tight-knit the major is,” Grassi said. Even as an undeclared student, he’s felt like he’s been involved since minute one, having connected with upperclassmen on campus and with Dr. Leussis about course selection and getting started.

“I’m very proud of the community we’ve built. The students are active learners, they support each other, and they care about the brain,” Dr. Leussis said.

Grassi has started strong: at the start of his sophomore year, he already had months of real-world lab experience under his belt working with mice models as a research assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Finding the role was a “right place, right time kind of opportunity,” Grassi said, which he was connected with by an alum of the neuroscience program who graduated in 2025. Thanks to that connection, Grassi has a research position in a top hospital in the area, even prior to formally declaring his major.

“I have so many people backing me – even only after being here one full year. I’m not sure if I’d have gotten this level of personalization to my experience anywhere else – let alone this quickly,” Grassi said.

Preparation for the Neuroscience Field

For a field with such a vast array of specializations and occupations – ranging from clinical positions such as PA or nursing roles, to occupational therapy or veterinarian school or research and industry focused tracks – there is a lot of variability on the road to a career in neuroscience.

Because of that, Emmanuel’s neuroscience curriculum allows for that same level of variability in its courses. Students are encouraged to dive into the science behind the topics they have an interest in or want to pursue in their career so they can start on that path as undergraduates and find their niche in the field.

“It makes every class richer,” Crofton said, “and it puts them on track to find their specialization.”

Through this approach, Emmanuel’s neuroscience majors are able to explore different aspects of the field through coursework and internships and find their interest naturally.

“They want you to have the freedom and independence to discover it,” said Kennedy O’Brien ’26. O’Brien, who aims to dive into the medical field after graduation, is interested in the clinical track of neuroscience, and more specifically, pediatric neurology.

She began her time at Emmanuel as an intended Psychology major, but through diving into the neuroscience major and its courses, she found a love for the topic. O’Brien appreciated the major’s offerings being a mix of clinical-focused courses and research-focused courses. As she progressed through her undergraduate journey, she found her niche in the field on her own – and was even able to tailor her experience in her courses with a pediatrics-centered approach to her assignments.

“It’s impressive to have all this flexibility as an undergraduate. I feel like you don’t usually get to branch out into such specifics until you start in a Master’s program,” O’Brien said.

Cutting-Edge Topics and Perspectives

Workforce-relevant and unique course offerings play a role in students’ preparation too. The curriculum has shifted as needed over the years to both mirror emerging subject matter that students will need to succeed, as well as opportunities to explore nuanced perspectives to the workforce as well.

The latest example of these is the recently added Computational Neuroscience course, which was added to the curriculum to accommodate for data’s increasing relevance in the neuroscience field. 

“It’s another class we now offer, because they’ll need it! Whether they know it or not!” Leussis said.

On the other hand, Dr. Crofton’s research on substance use disorder stemmed into the Neurobiology of Addiction course offering, which is a lens into studying the brain that isn’t offered just anywhere.

“Only about one percent of the healthcare curriculum is about addiction,” Dr. Crofton said, “our students are learning these aspects of the field that they wouldn’t get anywhere else.” 

And neuroscience alumni are out in the workforce proving that the approach is working, Leussis added, found in coveted roles all across the board, like Pfizer, the FBI, the Lieber Institute of Brain Development, top hospitals like Boston Children’s Hospital, Mass General Hospital, Dana Farber and more, as well as Ph.D. programs in top schools like Stanford, Georgetown and Dartmouth.