After serving in the Marines, Alysa Bloodsworth studied neuroscience at DePaul University to learn more about the causes of post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues. (DePaul University/Jeff Carrion) CHICAGO — The brain’s primary function is to send
messages and make connections between different parts of the body. For Alysa
Bloodsworth, studying the brain has enabled her to connect her experiences as a
Marine and mental health advocate with her aspiration to be a doctor.
At only 25 years old, Bloodsworth is a veteran fluent
in Arabic who has worked in military intelligence, led a company of 200 Marines
and counseled youth runaways in Chicago. This June, Bloodsworth will graduate
from DePaul with a dual bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and Arabic studies
and plans to apply to medical school.
Her adventures began as a teen, when Bloodsworth’s
mother noted that her curiosity and intelligence would make her “a great spy.”
She liked the idea of adventure and travel, so
Bloodsworth joined the Marines right out of high school. She received cryptologic
linguist training and also learned Arabic to work on intelligence missions. Not
long after enlisting, she was recognized by her commanders for her leadership
and problem-solving skills, which earned Bloodsworth a leadership position two
ranks above her own as company gunnery sergeant.
“So many new doors and experiences were suddenly open
to me,” Bloodsworth said. “One significant experience was witnessing how
deployment affected some of my friends’ mental health. It led me to wonder how
those pathways in the brain work.”
A
mental health advocate, starting with her military peers
In the Marines, Bloodsworth served as a suicide
prevention advocate, and acted as a confidant for those struggling with mental
health issues or post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It started out as mandatory, but I developed a strong
love of volunteering and giving back,” Bloodsworth said. “It felt good, and
there are so many people who need help or someone to talk to.”
After a deployment to Spain to support a mission in North
Africa, Bloodsworth was asked to fill out a routine military mental health
assessment. She found that the questions on the test seemed to prompt certain
answers, and she believed some of her fellow Marines were answering the way
they believed they should, rather than how they actually felt. For Bloodsworth,
who wanted to know why this was happening, the next logical step was to study the
brain.
Her sisters in Chicago recommended she check out DePaul
University for its strong academic reputation and location in the city. Bloodsworth
fell in love with the school’s sense of community, Vincentian values, and the university’s
support of veterans.
Bloodsworth began studying psychology, but learned
that DePaul would be launching a neuroscience major. She was excited to be
among the first students to enroll in the program.
“I like the interdisciplinary aspect of neuroscience,
and how it brings everything together. There are molecules that cause certain
things to happen and a cascade of cellular pathways, and there’s a behavior at
the end of it,” Bloodsworth said. “Depending on the pathway it takes and the
environment, different behaviors will present. I think that’s pretty
fascinating.”
Bloodsworth became the neuroscience program’s student liaison,
working closely with professors and program co-directors Dorothy Kozlowski and Sandra
Virtue.
“Alysa helped us as we launched the program and provided
us with the students’ perspective on how it was going, which was instrumental
since we were a new program in need of real-time feedback,” Kozlowski said. “She
took on many challenging tasks with high levels of motivation and dedication.”
Bloodsworth served as president to start up DePaul’s
chapter of the National Neuroscience Honor Society, Nu Rho Psi, and worked on a
research study in the psychology lab on the different brain hemispheres’
responses to word problems.
“Dr. Kozlowski and Dr. Virtue went above and beyond as
my mentors. During my time at DePaul, I was able to help launch the
neuroscience program, seminars, and organizations, and other events,”
Bloodsworth said. “Working for and with faculty and students in the
neuroscience program has been an experience I’ll never forget.”
Turning
to service to help runaway youth
As busy as she was with her university studies, Bloodsworth
wanted to put her skills as a suicide prevention advocate to use outside of the
military. She discovered the National Runaway Safeline, a national
communication system for at-risk, runaway, or homeless youth, which is based in
Chicago. She now volunteers there as a “liner,” taking hotline calls from the
youth and parents who phone in for help.
“I remember my first caller was a 12-year-old girl.
She was talking about all of these horrible things going on in her life and
some of her ideas for how to solve these problems weren’t great,” Bloodsworth
said. By the end of that conversation, Bloodsworth felt that she’d helped, but
admitted that it is sometimes hard to hang up the phone and never know how
things turned out.
“We always tell them that they’re courageous for calling
in for help and thank them for reaching out to us, and remind them that we’re
here to support and listen just so they feel confident in their choice to reach
out,” Bloodsworth said. “It feels good to be helping these people out, but
there are still so many other people who are struggling.”
After graduation, Bloodsworth plans to take a gap year
to work alongside a hematologist-oncologist as a medical scribe. She will also spend
the summer applying to medical school and training to become an EMT. Once she
completes medical school, Bloodsworth is torn between becoming a neurosurgeon or
a psychiatrist. She figures that she has a few years of study before she has to
decide on a specialization, but caring for others is always at the center of
her reasoning.
“If I do psychiatry, I want to work with people with
PTSD, because that would tie back to my time in the military,” she said. “I’d
be able to help people who served, and connect with them on a better level
because I used to be there, too.”
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Media
Contact:
Kristin
Claes Mathews
312-362-7735
kristin.mathews@depaul.edu