Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Dr Jennifer Lay

Job Title:  Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“The student contributed to two research projects. For the first project she assisted with designing a participatory study involving street-attached individuals. She researched potential university and community collaborators and prepared materials for ethical approval (including consent forms and study protocol). Hence, our internwas instrumental in getting this study off the ground and in preparing the necessary documentation. For the second project, she conducted a thorough literature search on the use of spoken language biomarkers for dementia detection. She examined hundreds of articles and compiled summary information on those of interest to our review article on the topic. The GBP suggested useful ways of improving the literature search process and her analysis of the literature provided novel insights that have been useful in this paper project.

Our intern was consistently thoughtful and proactive in her work, and she challenged me to improve the way I conduct research. For example, she identified potential ethical challenges involved in working with street-attached research participants, as well as solutions to these challenges, which I am implementing. She also taught me about software tools and other resources that are instrumental to the experience-sampling work that we do. The student was well-organised and able to analyse complex information in a timely manner. Her capabilities as a research intern far exceed those of most other students at her level. If I had the requisite funding, I would have gladly kept her on as a research team member.”