{"id":7809,"date":"2018-10-19T12:27:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T16:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=7809"},"modified":"2018-10-19T13:29:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T17:29:28","slug":"student-feature-radhika-dhanak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2018\/10\/19\/student-feature-radhika-dhanak\/","title":{"rendered":"STUDENT FEATURE: Radhika Dhanak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

College often emits the energy of a coffee shop on a Friday morning: the overwhelming presence of chaos, the necessity of caffeine, and the scarcity of places to fit in. In the midst of this hectic, congested, and high-strung environment sits the unperturbed and poised Radhika Dhanak, senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and current President of the Mind and Brain Society. She sips her small latte as she admires the silent presence of the trees outside the window and ignores the imposing energy that surrounds her. Radhika\u2019s mind, however, is not as tranquil as her disposition, \u201csometimes I look at the trees and feel in awe, these things just grow,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m so insignificant, it really takes the pressure off.\u201d She radiates the same serene, but calculating, energy from the comfort of the coffee shop as she does while delegating as MBS\u2019s fearless leader. <\/span><\/p>\n

Radhika\u2019s childhood was just as dynamic and ever-changing as her mind. She lived a comfortable life of consistency in Dubai where her future could be seen in the shadow of her older brother and sister. This changed at the age of fifteen when she moved to Ahmedabad, India. \u201c[Moving] was just this disruption, you know?\u201d Radhika said. \u201cIt was like uprooting everything when you had just laid down the roots…It was letting go of everything that was familiar.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In hindsight, she recalls feeling enlightened. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t trade [my experience] for anything else, I wouldn\u2019t have done the things I did afterwards [if it hadn’t happened], I wouldn’t have learned to live and think the way I do now. Moving was necessary.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Radhika attended two different academic institutions while she lived in India, and the two offered very different experiences. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy first school wasn\u2019t very pleasant,\u201d she said. \u201cBy the second time I moved I really shut myself out and didn\u2019t take full advantage of the opportunity that was in front of me. Now, I know to be more receptive to things and not just live in my head.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Her second institution focused heavily on experiential learning, which taught her about passion, leadership, and empathy. Her director held the theory that schools are for students. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to rules, we decide,\u201d Radhika said. \u201cYou do the work that matters to you and<\/em> you give back to society.\u201d She carried this wisdom across the Atlantic to Boston University, where she now uses it to fulfill her three academic disciplines — neuroscience, philosophy, and visual arts — and to give back to the neuroscience community by serving as president of one of the most prominent academic organizations on campus. <\/span><\/p>\n

As for why she decided to live a fifteen hour flight away from home, she offers the following recollection.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was planning to study in the UK, which is where my sister studied at the time, but I would\u2019ve depended on her for everything and I really didn\u2019t want that,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to learn on my own, so I applied to BU and forced myself again to learn from change.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest challenge presented itself in the form of her first year, and once she conquered it, she found one lesson to be very true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single semester presents a new challenge, you always come out of it thinking that you\u2019ve figured it all out, and then the next one starts and you realize you really haven\u2019t figured it out at all, it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her second year was comprised of constant questioning. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had many existential crises\u2026 I\u2019d look outside and see people in cars and see people in buildings and I thought, why? What are we doing? Why are we doing this? What does this mean?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

These questions inspired her to take a class on existentialism and to declare a second major in the discipline that would give her much needed perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started thinking: what do my actions mean? How do I make them purposeful? Am I supposed to be selfish and invested in my head?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s my responsibility to think better than that, to try to change something, to go where there is an imbalance of access and resources.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Her junior year became a result of her enlightenment: she became MBS secretary, an LA, a research assistant, and a peer mentor, declared a minor in visual arts, and took five classes each semester. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though Radhika currently works in the Reinhart Lab at Boston University — a lab that seeks to understand the nature of visual perception and cognition in the healthy adult brain and how it is affected by aging and neuropsychiatric illnesses — her primary goals in life are not necessarily career oriented. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think my primary goal is to figure out what life means to me and understand how I can live it well,\u201d she said. \u201cIn everything that I do, I focus on figuring out what I needed to learn from that situation and try to expand my understanding of life, people, and myself. If you\u2019re looking to learn, you can learn from anything, so I hold on to neuroscience, I hold on to philosophy, I hold on to visual arts, then I add things outside of them to take full advantage of this time in my life, this place and its resources.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her advice to her fellow undergrads is to aim to understand what their work ethic is. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Once you understand how you<\/em> like to function, it’s easier to focus on what you can and want to achieve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen learn the skills necessary to succeed in your field: get lab experience, take upper level classes, force yourself to reflect, When you\u2019re in a field like neuroscience you forget your passions because you might be so focused on doing the most competitive thing within the field; no, do what makes sense to you<\/em> because then it isn’t a competition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In that moment, Radhika made it evident that the most placid people have some of the loudest, most active minds. <\/span><\/p>\n

Writer:\u00a0Stephanie Gonzalez<\/span><\/p>\n

Editors:\u00a0Emme Enojado, Enzo Plaitano, and Yasmine Sami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College often emits the energy of a coffee shop on a Friday morning: the overwhelming presence of chaos, the necessity of caffeine, and the scarcity of places to fit in. In the midst of this hectic, congested, and high-strung environment sits the unperturbed and poised Radhika Dhanak, senior in the College of Arts and Sciences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1366],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7809"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7827,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7809\/revisions\/7827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}