Natalie Policky

Why you chose your major

I have wanted to go into the healthcare field since I was in middle school. Science has always caught my attention and I have always been eager to dive in and learn more about it! Since coming to college, I really enjoyed the psychology classes that I had to take, so much that I made it a minor! It applies so well to my biology major and I am constantly making applications and connections between the classes.

Favorite and/or most impactful course

The class that has made the biggest impact on me so far has definitely been my organic chemistry 2 class! Going into this class, I didn't have a solid understanding of not only the best ways study for a challenging class, but to also how to consistently keep up with the new concepts being taught and putting in the effort to make sure I understood them as we kept progressing through them. This was really the first class that I struggled more than usual with that I hadn't been used to. I really struggled for a while in the beginning of the class as I began to navigate how I was going to re-define my learning and studying strategies. I started going to my professor's office hours, where I learned it wasn't that scary at all to get help for a class! I consistently go to her office hours to improve on my skills and make sure I am understanding what is currently being taught. She is an amazing professor who has helped me SO much more than she probably thinks. Not only does she consistently work with me individually to go over extra practice problems or re-work concepts, but she is actively teaching me ways I can make my studying more efficient and in different ways that will stick with me and not make it so hard. I apply so much of the work that I do in her class to my other challenging classes so I can work to make those classes a little less difficult to learn too. After realizing it was okay to reach out and get help, I also got to make so many other connections with other people in the class. When I walked in on the first day, I couldn't tell you the name of anyone in the room except for two people. When I walk in today, I get to have conversations with all kinds of people all around the lecture hall. They all came from me going to get help, and, along the way, we make jokes, we teach each other problems, and we work through difficult mechanisms. Little do any of these many people know how much they have impacted me on my own initial understanding of feeling alone in a class. I have learned that I am not the only person that felt like the concepts were really hard, getting help for a class was terrifying, or feeling like I would never understand what we learned, no matter how hard I studied. These little connections have made me feel so much less alone in the STEM field, and I get to learn so much about how they navigate these challenges that I can use in my own life. Overall, organic chemistry 2 is super difficult. But it has helped me SO much in realizing (and normalizing) getting help when you need it! College is such a large change from high school, and it can admittedly seem very intimidating at first. But it has helped me make an awesome connection with a professor, really impactful connections with other people in my field who are just as passionate as I am, and so many new ways I can face challenges with a little bit more of grace and ease.

Research or internship experience

I am in a new research lab on campus that I am super excited to start in! It is the Bevins Neuropharmacology lab. It combines both of my biological sciences and psychology knowledge that I get to apply in a lab! I really enjoy whenever the two intertwine and I can apply one field of my knowledge with the other.

Other involvement

Another group that I am involved in on campus is the University Health Center Student Advisory Board! It is a student-led board that works closely with the University Health Center. We get to learn all about the awesome services that the health center offers, and we get to spread that information to campus and students who don't know about it. We also get to listen to the feedback that comes from students and staff about the things that the university health center is doing well, and areas of improvement, and we get to talk through how we can improve the health center. It is very interesting to gain new insight on the health center, and learn new perspectives from across campus. I really enjoy collaborating with this group of people and the people in the health center for the common goal of working to improve the health center and make it a not-so-intimidating place for people to go to.

Why you chose Nebraska

My dad and both of my older siblings went to Nebraska! I fell in love with the school after being there so many times for game days, visiting, and going to my siblings' events. The vibe of campus, although very clichè, felt like home to me, and, since a young age, I have been so excited to step on campu

Student Ambassadors are undergraduate students who talk to prospective students, parents, alumni, and the general public about the college.