Since 1998, members of MIT’s BrainTrust club have helped Boston-area residents with brain injuries or other neurological disorders through their buddy program. The organization’s members also visit patients in nursing homes suffering from neurological issues.
BrainTrust is one of the founding chapters of Synapse National, an organization created by MIT alumna Alissa Totman ’13. Synapse’s goal is to provide social support for individuals living with brain injuries and to educate and inspire student leaders in the field of brain injury.
“Learning directly from individuals who had experienced brain injury during my time in BrainTrust gave me an appreciation of the gaps in resources and opportunities for improvement in brain injury care, which ultimately motivated me to pursue a career in brain injury medicine. My experience in BrainTrust continues to shape my approach to patient care and my professional goal of improving access to specialized care for individuals with brain injury by serving as a consulting provider in the acute care hospital, as well as by training the next generation of leaders in the field,” says Totman.
The club’s president, junior Karie Shen, who is pursuing a double major in biology (Course 7) and brain and cognitive science (Course 9), says, “BrainTrust is a student-run service organization that provides support for individuals with brain injury and other neurological disorders. I joined BrainTrust because it seemed like the perfect intersection of community service and neuroscience, and I care about these two things deeply.”
