11/22 | Conflicts, Challenges and Belgian Waffles

November Newsletter

Hey! Fancy seeing you here. My name is Lauren, and I’m an 18y/o passionate about making the world neuroinclusive ♾️ 🧠 through technology💻. When I’m not reading scientific journals, you can find me running or flipping around (yes, I mean this literally!)

---

To Be Honest…

While reflecting backwards on this past month, I constantly felt plagued by the effects of my procrastination. So I thought, what better way to celebrate the end of this horrid month than to share them on the world wide web?

As I mentioned, here’s my November Recap!

---

TKS Sprint Challenge Kickoff

My challenge group during one of our many nighttime sync calls :)

As part of the TKS curriculum, all innovate (first-year) students have the opportunity to participate in what they call a “Global Challenge.”

Through this experience, we students are tasked with solving real problems for multi-billion dollar companies (no, I’m not exaggerating). I instantly became exposed to corporate consulting terms, which led me to learn the meaning of an MVP (minimum viable product) and executive summary (business plan overview). 

In the interest of secrecy, I won’t reveal the exact details of the company/project my group is working on until my following newsletter.

My challenge group at our team bonding breakfast (missing Emma tho)

Ft. The Good & Bad

In all honesty, I have always preferred working in assigned groups or individually. I’m unsure if this is due to my upbringing as the eldest child or my inability to connect with peers my age.  However, I can confidently say that I had difficulty navigating group dynamics before participating in the sprint challenge. 

To not go into too much detail, I dealt with some misunderstanding of context with my first group choice. Luckily in TKS, we are trained to hold a high standard of professionalism. With help and guidance from one of my directors, I found a group to join after the first mixup.

---

My Complicated Relationship with Sleep…

As mentioned in previous newsletters, I have decided to dive into brain-computer interfaces for my “focus.” I also wanted to incorporate my experience of having autism into my BCI-related content creation.

I have always dealt with insomnia-like symptoms, but until my autism diagnosis, I thought it was just an isolated occurrence. After diving into research papers and current clinical trials, I found the utilization of BCIs in sleep medicine. Without giving away too much of a spoiler on this topic, I encourage you to check out my medium article (link below).

---

Looking Ahead 👀🔮

• Publishing NEW Neurodiversity Content

  • Yes, you heard that right! I have a couple of side projects that I’ve been working on aside from my BCI-related endeavours. Stay tuned for the final project.

• (Still) Continuing the College Application Grind

  • I’m looking forward to adding the finishing touches to my post-secondary applications. As cliche as this may sound, I cannot wait to embark on this next chapter of my academic career :)

• Becoming a YouTuber?

  • Honestly, I have wanted to publish more youtube content geared around neurodiversity + BCIs. Inspired by my childhood vlogger dreams, I plan to post at least two videos during December.

    • Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here ⬇️

  ---

  Peace Out, Readers✌🏻

  Thanks again for following another rendition of “Inside Lauren’s Brain”!

  In the meantime, feel free to check out my Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn and Youtube Channel (lots of content coming soon, I promise :)

  Wanna get in touch? Please send me an email at laurenapearsonn@gmail.com.