Mentors serve as career advisors and guides to the curricular and other intellectual resources available at Penn that could assist students in reaching their career goals. As interests develop during medical school, students have the option of choosing a new mentor. Journal Club CNST students run their own Journal Club aimed at teaching them to read research literature critically. Journal Club is held one evening a month. At each meeting, one or two students review one or a small group of journal articles on a coherent topic or controversy in clinical neuroscience.
Dinner is provided and the students invite a guest faculty expert to lend critical perspective.
During their first 20 months of medical school, CNST students attend a monthly conference run by CNST faculty. Students are exposed to patient oriented academic content even before they begin their clinical clerkships. Sessions include both didactic elements and practical demonstrations, such as tours of psychiatric inpatient units, the MRI suite or the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. Special Academic and Social Events Students are encouraged to develop an esprit de corps by attendance at seminars, special lectures and social get-togethers. They are also invited to the special lectures, dinners and research colloquia of the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences.