{"id":4129,"date":"2022-06-03T14:13:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T18:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:12:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:12:40","slug":"a-teen-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teen Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

E<\/span>mily Waskow \u201922<\/strong><\/span> has a long connection with Goucher College; her father and her grandmother attended, too. But Waskow took a path entirely her own. She graduated this spring at the age of 18, after only two years at the college.<\/p>\n

Waskow participated in a program at her Colorado high school that let her graduate at 16 with an associate degree. \u201cI was pretty busy,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I like to stay busy. I love school; I love classes. It was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

For college, she applied to all the big-name schools in Colorado. She hadn\u2019t heard much about Goucher before, but she decided to tag along with her dad when he came back to do a coffee talk with students about his career as a veterinarian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first college I toured,\u201d she says. \u201cI loved how small the campus was; it was a really good community. And I\u2019d heard the psych program was amazing. I knew that was what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her first semester at Goucher, however, was in the fall of 2020. She would spend her entire first year of college in Colorado, learning remotely.<\/p>\n

She made plenty of friends, though. She met one of her best friends on the first day of virtual class. \u201cWe had a first-year seminar together,\u201d she says, where they talked through the chat function, eventually following each other on Instagram. \u201cWe\u2019ve been friends ever since,\u201d she says. The two of them made friends with others in the class, and when Waskow got to campus the following year, she had a solid friend group. The biggest surprise of meeting friends and professors in person after a year on a screen was realizing how tall\u2014or short\u2014they were. \u201cThey were not the heights I was expecting at all,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

She loved being on campus for her senior year. \u201cIt was so easy to meet new people,\u201d she says, \u201cso it was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waskow is sad to leave behind her friends who have yet to graduate, but she has two busy years ahead of her. \u201cI am going to be a research assistant at Boston University School of Medicine,\u201d she says, at the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience. The lab focuses in part on traumatic brain injuries, such as the condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can be caused by repeated concussions. \u201cIt happens a lot with football players,\u201d she says, \u201cand the symptoms mimic Alzheimer\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a research assistant, Waskow will manage the participants, write manuscripts, analyze data, and more. After the two-year position finishes, she knows she\u2019d like to go to graduate school, but she wants time to choose her focus.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s always loved psychology because she\u2019s always loved people. \u201cI came to Goucher, took my psych classes, loved it,\u201d she says, \u201cand never considered doing anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":4130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7935],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87484],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goucher-today"],"yoast_head":"\nA Teen Dream | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A teen dream\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Goucher Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-03T18:13:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-24T20:12:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly Englund\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A teen dream\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly Englund\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Molly Englund\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca\"},\"headline\":\"A Teen Dream\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-03T18:13:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-24T20:12:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Goucher Today\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\",\"name\":\"A Teen Dream | Goucher Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-03T18:13:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-24T20:12:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Emily Waskow \u201922, seated at center, with family at the 2022 Commencement Legacy Breakfast\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A teen dream\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\",\"name\":\"Goucher Magazine\",\"description\":\"The magazine for Goucher College's alumnae\/i since 1921.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Goucher College\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif\",\"width\":300,\"height\":150,\"caption\":\"Goucher College\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca\",\"name\":\"Molly Englund\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b58c87739d7e579ba3fa778f0f114c2b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Molly Englund\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/author\/moeng001\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Teen Dream | Goucher Magazine","description":"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A teen dream","og_description":"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/","og_site_name":"Goucher Magazine","article_published_time":"2022-06-03T18:13:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-24T20:12:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Molly Englund","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"A teen dream","twitter_description":"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Molly Englund","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/"},"author":{"name":"Molly Englund","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca"},"headline":"A Teen Dream","datePublished":"2022-06-03T18:13:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-24T20:12:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/"},"wordCount":483,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg","articleSection":["Goucher Today"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/","name":"A Teen Dream | Goucher Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg","datePublished":"2022-06-03T18:13:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-24T20:12:40+00:00","description":"Emily Waskow \u201922 was 16 years old when she started college at Goucher. Now 18, she has already graduated and is planning a future in cognitive neuroscience.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2022\/06\/Legacy-Breakfast-Commencement-May-2022-27-1800x900-1.jpg","width":1800,"height":900,"caption":"Emily Waskow \u201922, seated at center, with family at the 2022 Commencement Legacy Breakfast"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/a-teen-dream\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A teen dream"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/","name":"Goucher Magazine","description":"The magazine for Goucher College's alumnae\/i since 1921.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization","name":"Goucher College","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif","width":300,"height":150,"caption":"Goucher College"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca","name":"Molly Englund","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b58c87739d7e579ba3fa778f0f114c2b","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Molly Englund"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/author\/moeng001\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":87484,"user_id":352,"is_guest":0,"slug":"moeng001","display_name":"Molly Englund","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Molly","last_name":"Englund","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6098,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/6098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}