It was the middle of May on a Sunday afternoon when
my plane landed in Bergen, Norway,
and I stepped outside into the cold 10 degrees C (50
degrees Fahrenheit) weather. It was
then that I knew this would be the "coolest" summer
of my life, and I was pleased to be out of the relentless
Tucson heat. Although it was not a smooth transition
to go from a place like Arizona that is extremely hot
and dry to the other side of the world where it is cold
and very wet, I felt it was definitely a good change.
I was excited to begin my studies and to learn more about
Norway and its culture. This is where I began my BRAVO!
experience, an experience of a lifetime, in what I came
to know as the "best" and "most beautiful" city
in the world.
. My name is Jessica Aguilar, and I am a Speech,
Language, and Hearing Sciences student and a second year trainee
in the MARC Program. I have spent the last three years
of my undergraduate education working in Dr.
Elena Plante's brain/language lab on various behavioral and neuro-imaging
projects on adults and children. Dr. Plante and the BRAVO!
Program sent me to the University of Bergen in
Norway to investigate implicit language learning by adults.
I worked with Dr. Arve Asbjornsen in the Department
of Biological and Medical Psychology on project investigating
an adult's ability to implicitly learn Norwegian grammar.
I specifically looked at the learning of non-adjacent
contingencies in Norwegian, a task that has proven to
be exceedingly difficult. I then wanted to see if an
individual's previous linguistic background would affect
his/her ability to learn.
My first task was to recruit subjects who neither spoke
nor understood Norwegian. Many people thought I was either
joking or crazy because I was looking for people who
didn't know Norwegian in Norway. I figured it would be
an easy task and that it wouldn't take long, since I
was living in an international student dormitory. To
my surprise however, it was quite difficult since everyone
was leaving for summer vacation. I just couldn't understand
why anyone would want to leave Bergen during this beautiful
season, but they did. Luckily, I was still able to find
30 participants, and I only lost about a quarter of them
because of failure to return for the second round of
testing.
It took about eight weeks to finish all the testing and
collect data for analysis. When I wasn't testing participants,
I explored Bergen, the only city in the world surrounded
by seven mountains and seven fjords! I also made friends
with many of the department doctoral students and post-docs.
There always seemed to be some kind of social event going
on. I really enjoyed working in the lab, and most of
the time it hardly even felt like work at all. We all
ate lunch together and talked about things other than
work -- that was something I really enjoyed. I was also
invited to join other members of the lab for coffee after
work, and we would all stay out way too late, but it
was always a lot of fun.
Once the testing was finished, I was ready to do some
analysis. I was worried about this part of the project
because I was unfamiliar with using Statistica. Fortunately,
one of the post-docs taught me the program. Everyone
in the department was very helpful and supportive, and
I'm not sure how I would have managed without them. It
was nice to have people I could count on for help and
to seek them out when necessary. One of the best things
about working in the Bergen lab was the feeling of being
part of a large family. I attribute my lack of homesickness
to this.
Now, I am back in Tucson for my last year of undergraduate
work and I brought back some excellent results! I am
continuing to work on this project by writing an article
for submission to a journal. I feel like I learned from
this experience, and not only about language and learning,
but about life. I now feel very independent and confident
about my abilities, ready to pursue a PhD, and to continue
in the direction of biomedical research. I can't explain
in words how great it feels to be so sure about the direction
of my education and my life. I am very pleased to have
had the opportunity to study in Norway. I encourage all
students to take advantage of the opportunities presented
to them and to consider applying to the BRAVO! program.
It is a great program and an experience of a lifetime!
Jessica Aguilar, BRAVO! student with Dr. Arve Asbjornsen,
Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University
of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, and MARC student in Dr. Elena
Plante's lab, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
It was the middle of May on a Sunday afternoon when
my plane landed in Bergen, Norway,
and I stepped outside into the cold 10 degrees C (50
degrees Fahrenheit) weather. It was
then that I knew this would be the "coolest" summer
of my life, and I was pleased to be out of the relentless
Tucson heat. Although it was not a smooth transition
to go from a place like Arizona that is extremely hot
and dry to the other side of the world where it is cold
and very wet, I felt it was definitely a good change.
I was excited to begin my studies and to learn more about
Norway and its culture. This is where I began my BRAVO!
experience, an experience of a lifetime, in what I came
to know as the "best" and "most beautiful" city
in the world.
My name is Jessica Aguilar, and I am a Speech,
Language, and Hearing Sciences student and a second year trainee
in the MARC Program. I have spent the last three years
of my undergraduate education working in Dr.
Elena Plante's brain/language lab on various behavioral and neuro-imaging
projects on adults and children. Dr. Plante and the BRAVO!
Program sent me to the University of Bergen in
Norway to investigate implicit language learning by adults.
I worked with Dr. Arve Asbjornsen in the Department
of Biological and Medical Psychology on project investigating
an adult's ability to implicitly learn Norwegian grammar.
I specifically looked at the learning of non-adjacent
contingencies in Norwegian, a task that has proven to
be exceedingly difficult. I then wanted to see if an
individual's previous linguistic background would affect
his/her ability to learn. 
My first task was to recruit subjects who neither spoke
nor understood Norwegian. Many people thought I was either
joking or crazy because I was looking for people who
didn't know Norwegian in Norway. I figured it would be
an easy task and that it wouldn't take long, since I
was living in an international student dormitory. To
my surprise however, it was quite difficult since everyone
was leaving for summer vacation. I just couldn't understand
why anyone would want to leave Bergen during this beautiful
season, but they did. Luckily, I was still able to find
30 participants, and I only lost about a quarter of them
because of failure to return for the second round of
testing.
It took about eight weeks to finish all the testing and
collect data for analysis. When I wasn't testing participants,
I explored Bergen, the only city in the world surrounded
by seven mountains and seven fjords! I also made friends
with many of the department doctoral students and post-docs.
There always seemed to be some kind of social event going
on. I really enjoyed working in the lab, and most of
the time it hardly even felt like work at all. We all
ate lunch together and talked about things other than
work -- that was something I really enjoyed. I was also
invited to join other members of the lab for coffee after
work, and we would all stay out way too late, but it
was always a lot of fun.
