Tara intended to major in Accounting at Rider. But her freshman science class — Life Science: Behavioral Neuroscience — transformed Tara’s perspective and her career path. She changed her major to Behavioral Neuroscience.
Why Tara chose Rider
"I knew I wouldn’t get lost in the crowd as a student at Rider. I could see there was real interaction between students and their professors — and even among the students themselves."
My classes taught me to think about science differently.
Ph.D. Candidate, Johns Hopkins University
Rider's impact on Tara's success
"My classes provided me a different perspective on science and research. I was always encouraged to think critically about what’s in front of me. That’s been a huge advantage for me in the lab today." As a freshman, Tara began doing hands-on research on the genetics of biological rhythms in mice with Dr. Todd Weber and Dr. Julie Drawbridge. As a senior, she presented her research on “jetlag-less” mice at the annual conference of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. Her work was later published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms.
Continued success
Tara continues to investigate biological rhythms and the effect of nighttime light exposure on depression and learning difficulties at Johns Hopkins University where she is a doctoral student in the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology and Biophysics program. She was the lead author of a paper that was recently published in Nature, an international weekly journal of science.