Alison Luongo

University of Arizona
Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences
Undergraduate - Bachelor of Science
Research Assistant; Certificate in Developmental Disabilities

My journey to studying Neuroscience and Cognitive Science started in the 4th grade when our class was looking for volunteers to teach children with developmental disabilities and learning disabilities to read. I began working with a kindergartener named Joey who had Down syndrome. We became good friends and even though I moved away that summer, I continued my interest in Down syndrome by volunteering with two girls in my new middle school who also had Down syndrome. I knew I wanted to pursue a career in Neuropsychology when a guest speaker with a traumatic brain injury came to talk to our class about the resiliency of his neuropsychologists who helped him increase his short-term memory from 2 minutes to 45 minutes. Before he could barely walk but when he came to talk to our class, he danced for us at the end. It was incredibly moving and from then on, I knew this was the career for me. I hope to get a degree in Clinical Neuropsychology to provide neurorehabilitation and intervention services for children with developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and brain cancer. Previous work experience I have with children with developmental disabilities was working as a Registered Behavior Technician providing ABA Therapy to a child with Autism. Today, I am a senior working in the Memory Development and Disorders Lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. I manage the Deferred Imitation Task within the AMAP Study, and will be completing a Thesis looking at how sleep influences temporal recall in Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. With this certificate program, I hope to gain the knowledge of how to advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities in a variety of professional, community, and academic setting.