When Brandon Brooks-Patton reflects on his time at Northern Kentucky University, one word comes to mind: community.

Growing up in a predominately rural part of Kentucky, Brooks-Patton says he didn’t have a strong foundation of education and knew if he wanted to go back to school, he was going to need support. At NKU, he was able to find the supportive community he needed from his professors and faculty.

“I know part of this award comes from overcoming exceptional circumstance,” he says. “I don’t think of myself as some exception, but if I’m exceptional I would say it’s because I’ve received exceptional support here, and I’m just eternally grateful for everything.”

Brooks-Patton didn’t want his background to stop him from achieving his goals, and he felt that pursing a degree in higher education would be his ticket out of socio-economic hardship. After taking a break from college to join the workforce, Brooks-Patton returned to NKU to pursue a new, life-changing career path. While working full-time as a firefighter and paramedic, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience with a minor in computer science.

Brooks-Patton was inspired by his experience in the workforce to pursue a degree that could help the community at large.  And, thinking of himself as the kid with too many questions, his curiosity about life lead him to a career of research.

“Neuroscience is chaotic, and I love that. It’s very interesting, it feels like the Wild West. I think there’s a lot to do and a lot to learn,” he says. “Working as a firefighter paramedic, I saw a lot of the socio-economic problems, a lot of psychological and psychiatric care problems and a lot of problems in the system in general, and it made figuring out those problems more attractive to me.”

One place where Brooks-Patton was able to get his research fix was in a College of Health and Human Services research lab under Dr. Brittany Smith. He joined Dr. Smith’s team to study the prenatal effects of opioids on pregnant mice. This unique, undergraduate research experience is one of Brooks-Patton’s favorite memories from his time at NKU, and it allowed him to hone in on his passion for research, which stood out in his graduate school applications.

“Stepping into research gave me the ability to see what it was I was working towards and actually be encouraged by faculty members,” he says. “I noticed some of the bigger institutions are more graduate-focused in their research programs, so undergraduates don’t get as much exposure, and I think that’s what really shined with my grad school applications because I was able to get that experience here.”

Walking across the commencement stage this spring will be Brooks-Patton’s first-ever graduation experience, which he says means the world to him.

“I never really expected to get to this point,” he says. “I didn’t know if I would ever get here, and now that I’m here, it feels good to be finishing. It just feels like such a big achievement. There’s a lot of meaning associated with it and my kids get to see it too.”

After graduation, Brooks-Patton is looking forward to pursing his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Yale University. From there, he hopes to become a principal investigator in a research lab or teach at the college level.