Two Penn students found Memory Club to train students' memory techniques, cognition skills

Two Penn students founded Memory Club last semester to help students train memory enhancement and cognitive skills. 

Memory Club meets biweekly and holds workshops on a semester basis to practice memorization techniques. The co-founders, College junior Naseeb Andar and College first year Andrew Wong, said that they hope to share techniques to make learning an easy and efficient process.

Andar, who worked on a similar initiative during his high school years, serves as Memory Club president. He said he was fascinated by the fact that humans as a species have historically possessed strong memorization abilities, as well as an oral tradition dating back to around 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. 

“They memorized long chants of texts and poems, but over time, it seems like we have lost our touch with the art of memorization,” Andar said. 

Andar added that when he came to Penn, he realized that memory was one of the areas that the community could collectively improve on and apply to their studies and social life.

Wong, the club’s executive director, works on the group's publicity efforts and online presence. He said that he previously viewed memorization as a stressful task associated with school exams. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he came across a YouTube video about the USA Memory Championship that gave him a new perspective on the range of memorization techniques. The annual championship consists of games that test participants' mental skills, such as challenges involving names and faces, decks of cards, and speed numbers. 

“The problem is that none of this knowledge is introduced in schools,” Wong said. “I really wanted to spread this knowledge that I discovered and hopefully create a community where people can enjoy the process of memorization.”

When Wong reached out to Andar, the club was still in its infancy, and they worked together to expand the club to the size it is today. 

College first-year and Memory Club member Ailing Chen agreed about the value of learning memory techniques.  

“This club is very welcoming for beginners. You don't necessarily have to study neuroscience,” Chen said. “It’s for wanting to improve your memory or just like your daily habits, whether it's like study or like day-to-day life.”

One of Memory Club's major projects is to grow into a resource for incoming first years during NSO. The club recognizes that a struggle many students face when they first arrive on campus is meeting new people and trying to remember all of their names. Next semester, the club also hopes to initiate more workshops catered to student needs and possibly partner with the Weingarten Center. 

Andar encouraged students who feel that they can contribute to campus in some way to do so by starting a new initiative. 

“If students have ideas, fresh ideas, they should be very confident and at least attempt to bring those ideas to fruition,” Andar said. “That would be a great contribution that they could make to their own life as well as to the lives of their fellow students on campus.”