A licensed clinical psychologist specializing in neuropsychology discussed the field in detail to students at an event on Wednesday.

Julie O’Reily said she hoped her lecture about neuropsychology–a branch of psychology that focuses on how the brain affects behavior–would encourage student interest in the field.

“That next generation of budding psychologists will always be really exciting to me,” O’Reily said.

Julie Grignon, chair of the Psychology Department, said this was the second time she’s invited O’Reily to AACC.

“We bring in speakers to expose our students to different areas of psychology,” Grignon, a psychology professor, said. “Psychology is such a diverse field and we want them to see different ways that you can use a psychology degree.”

Grignon said she was “very pleased” with the turnout.

“We had quite a few students from quite a few different classes across the campus,” Grignon said. “A lot of students may be interested in other fields, but you … never know in your future, especially when you’re a beginning college student, where … your career might end up. … Exposure to different careers I think is very important.”

O’Reily said it is “inspiring” to see the “curiosity of students.”

“It was a great experience … having a room filled with students who are eager to learn,” O’Reily said. “They may have never thought of neuropsychology as a discipline … hopefully … it gets them excited about their classwork.”

Dual-enrolled student Betsy Leveron said she attended the event because she has “a lot of curiosity.”

“I’m the first in my family generation who tried to get into this,” Leveron said. “Pure, sheer curiosity … it takes you places.”

Enola Birnbaum, a first-year small business management student, said the event was “eye-opening.”

“I find that as I get older, I am more interested in taking in information and learning everything,” Birnbaum said. “There’s, like, a whole world of information out there that I didn’t get to have early on … I would love to go to more lectures like this.”

Second-year transfer studies student Vincent Emerson said he would “definitely attend another” lecture.

“[O’Reily] did very well. She explained things very thoroughly and is very educated on what she was talking about.” Emerson said. “That’s … what I really like.”