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WEEK 9: #LABLIFE


Hi all,

Mikayla here again to give you all an update on my internship experience so far!

I cannot believe how close to the end we are! With proposals due next week, the pressure is definitely on. I find myself getting more and more nervous for the presentation which is also fast approaching. This is definitely a very tricky part of the semester where everything is all due at once for me, so balancing everything has proved to be incredibly difficult so far! One thing for sure though, I could not be enjoying my forensic lab experience anymore than I have been! In particular my lab carries out research surrounding face perception and recognition. I never really considered how we perceive and recognise people in every day life, but now that I have, its hard not to see it everywhere!

At the beginning of semester I began the internship by preparing face stimuli for the study I was running. After what felt like a really big achievement back then, it was time to finally begin programming my experiment, which was such an exciting process to watch first hand! Running my own participants across two days was also a rewarding experience. I got to see first hand what working in the lab would really be like. I also loved going in the week after and going through all my data and summarising it (which felt really meaningful!). This internship in particularly has really helped me to appreciate the process of psychological research and I am really excited about what the future has in store!

I love how included I feel in each meeting we have in the lab and I really value all the feedback that has been given to me thus far on running my project! I feel lucky that my supervisors have said to me that they would love to keep me around following the internship. This is really exciting for me as I am hoping to stay involved in the follow up studies! Working with such intelligent and driven people has boosted my motivation so much that I cannot imagine myself not coming in and being involved in the lab! I really couldn’t be more appreciative to my supervisors for the time and effort they have put in for me and the incredible opportunities they have given me to learn and grow.

Lastly, today I reflected on our week one class where we spent the lesson considering what we are hoping to gain from this internship. I can definitely check off most if not all of these things I had noted down. I especially have really appreciated and enjoyed having such a great group of peers to share this experience with. I think we can all say that we succeeded in creating an atmosphere of support where we are all willing to help one another out and be kind in our feedback. It has made this semester much easier to navigate and I am very thankful to the friends I have made J

Good luck everyone with the rest of your proposal writing! Can’t wait to hear what everyone has been working on in their presentations!

Comments

  1. Unknown23 May 2018 at 03:01

    Hi Mikayla,

    It's great to hear you've had such a rewarding experience with the internship. I agree that it can be so satisfying to see something from beginning to end and it sounds like you've managed to get experience with a really wide range of aspects of Lab life. I also agree that the people you get to work with really make this internship. From supervisors, to people on the lab, to other interns, all these people really add to the experience and help us learn so much. I think sometimes people think of research as not very social or a lonely process but so far that hasn't been my experience.

    Good luck with your presentation coming up,

    Luana x

    ReplyDelete

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