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Reflections from our Interns
Over the course of Emerging Minds we have hosted some brilliant interns, working on a variety of areas in relation to the Network from priority setting for funding calls to helping organise our Summit. In November 2022 we got back in touch and asked each of them to reflect on their internships and what they have taken forwards, and to find out what they got up to next.
Fiyory T. Ghezae (Winter 2020)
What did you do during your time with Emerging Minds?
I was brought on to focus on the Voices, Power & Attitudes research challenge, specifically exploring how racism affects the mental health of children and young people in the UK.
Throughout my internship I worked on a rapid scoping review of the literature from the years 2000-2020, focusing on papers conducted in the UK. I co-led workshops for young people and professionals alongside two youth advisors: Adenike Adebiyi & Jawwad Mustafa. I also took part in the funding call, from setting the research priorities to interviewing and selecting the winning projects.
My time with Emerging Minds continued long after my internship and resulted in two publications with Adenike and Jawwad. We also recently conducted a workshop at the Big Emerging Minds Summit focusing on co-production in research.
What have you taken forward from your experience?
Through Emerging Minds, I have learnt how to conduct a review and publish, which is invaluable as a PhD student. I’ve had various opportunities to network and connect with amazing academics and researchers, as well as public speaking opportunities. This experience has helped me with public speaking, academic writing and overall networking.
I’ve had various opportunities to network and connect with amazing academics and researchers, as well as public speaking opportunities.
Where can we find you in November 2022?
I’m currently a second year PhD student at Oxford Brookes University broadly exploring how to support children in play and physical activity: the role of Physical Education. I’m also working on the rapid scoping review; I recently updated the search so the literature in this review is now from 2000-2022.
What did you do during your time with Emerging Minds?
I worked with the team to develop a funding call for the Big Question research challenge. As part of this funding call, I carried out a rapid scoping review (awaiting publication), which explored the barriers and facilitators of community-based implementation of evidence-based interventions in the UK, for children and young people’s mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment.
Additionally, I worked with two young advisors (Georgia and Nimrah) to engage stakeholders in developing further priorities for this funding call. We interviewed young people, parents and carers, and commissioners of services about their experiences of accessing evidence-based interventions for children and young people’s mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment. I analysed these interviews and presented these stakeholder priorities and my initial findings from the scoping review in our online funding call launch at the end of September.
What have you taken forward from your experience?
Being a part of the Emerging Minds Network was an exciting opportunity that I’m grateful for at such an early stage in my career. The experiences offered throughout the internship were diverse and equipped me with a broad range of skills that I have taken forward into my PhD. What set this role apart was being trusted to lead and take decisive actions in preparation for the funding call. This is something I valued and enjoyed, and which has vastly increased my confidence moving forwards. I was also able to make a broad range of connections with others in the field which has been instrumental in developing my PhD and overall experiences thus far.
What set this role apart was being trusted to lead and take decisive actions in preparation for the funding call.
The priorities established in the Big Question funding call are also priorities I take forward with me into my PhD and research. Discussions with young people, parents and carers and commissioners, have given me an insight into the landscape within which my research might be implemented, and have taught me to take steps from the very beginning of a project, working closely with stakeholders, to ensure the suitability and acceptability of my research in practice. I can’t thank the Emerging Minds team enough for giving me the chance to work on this project and to develop my career in mental health research.
Where can we find you in November 2022?
I have just begun an ESRC funded PhD at the Wolfson Institute for Population Health, Queen Mary University of London. I am researching transdiagnostic mechanisms that underly the association between childhood adversity and psychopathology, with a focus on the prevention of mental health problems in young people.
What did you do during your time with Emerging Minds?
I worked with the Emerging Minds team and Special Interest Research Groups to co-ordinate the hugely successful Big Emerging Minds Summit in October 2022, showcasing some of the incredible research the Network has supported.
Following the Summit, I collated legacy outputs from the day and from the wider Network and drafted a research outcomes briefing so that our findings will reach as many stakeholders as possible. I also worked on the #MentalHealthResearchMatters campaign with the Mental Health Research Incubator, highlighting a range of mental health research being produced across diverse disciplines.
What have you taken forward from your experience?
Through Emerging Minds, I had opportunities to discuss mental health research with some incredible academics and researchers, as well as exposure to a huge range of current projects in interdisciplinary psychology. I’ve taken a renewed passion and focus through to my own research and made wonderful and positive connections with other researchers, both in my areas of interest and in other fascinating fields.
I’ve taken a renewed passion and focus through to my own research and made wonderful and positive connections with other researchers.
Where can we find you in November 2022?
I’m now focussing on completing my master’s dissertation, which explores the viability of gender euphoria as a holistic psychological concept in personal understandings of gender identity. I am also working on a conference presentation and a paper for publication in 2023.
What did you do during your time with Emerging Minds?
I worked with the Emerging Minds team to prepare for the Big Emerging Minds Summit in October 2022. I helped to coordinate the exhibitions for the day, created the delegate handbook, and prepared material for the online Summit.
After the Summit itself I collated the outputs from the Summit to create a section of the website which people can visit to see the work that was put into the day, and find out more about the exhibition and workshops that took place.
I also helped to write a number of reports, including analysing the success of the GROW Researcher Development Programme, and reflecting on feedback from the Summit, in order to wrap up the Network and look forwards to the next steps for children and young people’s mental health research.
What have you taken forward from your experience?
Prior to this internship the prospect of becoming a research assistant, while exciting, would have felt like an ‘unknown’ and something that I was perhaps not qualified to do. Now I have participated in the field through working on the Summit, and I have seen people at different stages in their research journeys, I am more confident in my ability to contribute to this field, and excited about the possibilities.
I am more confident in my ability to contribute to this field, and excited about the possibilities.
Where can we find you in November 2022?
I am starting as a research assistant with the Oxford Department of Psychiatry, working in O-CAP (Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis) on a virtual reality treatment for young people with psychosis.