August 1, 2015, by khyx2lyn

How I felt about the summer internship at UNMC

One of our first-year BSc Psychology students, Andrea, had the opportunity to work with Dr. Jess Price over the summer to gain some relevant research experience after she successfully completed her first year. This is what she feels she gained from the whole experience.

First off, I think the work was excellent. It was very versatile and varied and very interesting. It allowed me to not only use my previous knowledge in the field of psychology as well as implement the practical skills in programming studies I had learned over the first year of undergraduate, it also improved upon those skills, as I learned to use new programs, such as E-prime (which I’ve been told will a great skill to know how to work e-prime for Year 2, so that’s great!) and Audacity (which I find very practical as I actually needed to find and learn how to use a sound/recording software for another outside thing I was doing, and the fact I got to learn and get this software helped with me that). It also complimented and improved my previous knowledge on linguistics and psychology. Finally, I got my first taste of testing participants for a study, which will prove useful for my FYP in Year 3 and also for any future research I may do.

The people I worked daily with were also great. They were supportive and nice and helped me when I got stuck or was unsure of a task, and they were very patient with me (especially Christine!) when I didn’t manage to finish some tasks for a specific day, reassuring me I shouldn’t feel pressured to finish everything as fast as I could, as long as I did a great job. I felt very comfortable around them and I enjoyed working alongside them. Jess was also great and very understanding, allowing flexible hours whenever possible, and always had something for me to do when I finished work, which I like because I tend to like being kept busy. It’s a thing I have, which is partly why I don’t like long vacations unless I have something to keep me busy.

And hey, I got a lot of experience, cake, a Nessie plushie, money and something productive to do during summer! So, I’m just happy and grateful for this opportunity and it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot especially in the computer study programming and software department, which will prove super useful for not only the rest of my undergraduate degree but also for the rest of my career and outside my career! I really appreciate this and I think it was a great opportunity for me and helped me move a step forward in my (long and arduous) study journey of my future career (corny, I know), and gave me a first taste of an actual job, too!

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