Note: The following story by Marcus Guido originally appeared in the June issue of Carleton Now. Photo credit: Lasia Kretzel
Evan Curtis credits his professors for helping him become Carleton’s first cognitive science student to successfully complete a master’s thesis.
“It feels kind of cool,” says Curtis. “It’s interesting being in the first cohort of the master’s program.”
After graduating with an honours degree in psychology at the University of Manitoba in 2010, the Winnipeg-native says he wanted to study the mind from an interdisciplinary standpoint, instead of a purely arts or science perspective.
Looking for graduate schools, Carleton seemed like the perfect choice, Curtis says.
He researched how memory works when studying math – an ideal focus considering Prof. Jo-Anne Lefevre, his thesis supervisor and the director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, bases a lot of her work on math.
Though he says he was nervous about his thesis defence, Lefevre prepared him well.
“You’re standing in front of a panel of very intelligent people who are going to ask you a lot of pointed questions, but I had a very thorough supervisor who was not going to let me hand in a document that was going to get me in any trouble.”
He also had the chance to be a research assistant and help instruct four courses as a teaching assistant.
The most rewarding part of studying at Carleton, though, was the dedication of the entire cognitive science faculty to its students, he says.
“Even though (the professors) are from many diverse areas originally, they’re all interested in what kind of research you and different students are doing,” he says.
“You really have an entire faculty supporting you instead of just your supervisor.”
Curtis will research types of learning under a different faculty of cognitive science next year with the ultimate goal of becoming a professor. He hopes to take four years to do his PhD when he returns to the University of Manitoba, he says.
When he receives his master of cognitive science degree from Carleton, it’ll be another step toward that goal.
Update: Curtis won a Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement – Master’s Level. He will be accepting this medal at the Fall Convocation ceremony.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 in Convocation, Grad Student Research, News
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