Welcome to our new student research assistants!
Earlier this year, Amy Coleman and Georgie Foley began working at the NCSEHE as research assistants. Since then, they have been immersed in all things student equity, working alongside members of the NCSEHE team.
We asked Amy and Georgie to tell us a little about themselves and their experience here so far… Here is what they had to say!
Hi everyone! My name is Amy Coleman. I am currently completing my Honours in Psychology at Curtin University. In order to develop my skills and explore my (many!) areas of interest, I decided to complete my honours part time. So you may be wondering, what did that look like? This meant that last year I completed four coursework units in total, and this year I am working on my dissertation. I am very fortunate to be working with my chosen co-supervisors, Associate Professor Lynne Roberts and Shannon Muir, a sessional academic and PhD candidate. My dissertation is exploring moral and behavioural factors associated with online shaming. Exploring the phenomenon of online shaming has been so fascinating and I am so excited to develop my quantitative research skills this year through completing a serial mediation moderation model. My broader interests including social psychology topics, child and adolescent development, abnormal psychology (especially perfectionism, eating disorders, anxiety, depression), sleep, and health psychology.
Being part time has enable me to work alongside completing my dissertation and I have been fortunate enough to obtain a role as a research assistant at the NCSEHE. I have always had a passion for social justice, amplified by my upbringing in Zimbabwe where I witnessed firsthand the inequity between community members. Working at the NCSEHE, an organisation that helps improve inequity between disadvantaged groups, has inspired and further developed my passion. Just in my short time here, I have developed and refined so many new skills including quantitative and literature review skills. I love being able to contribute to meaningful research that can have a positive impact on others by informing policy and guidelines!
Hi! My name is Georgie Foley and I am currently completing my final year of a Master of Arts majoring in Social and Cultural Inquiry at Curtin University. As part of my degree, I am writing a thesis on young women’s sexual identity formation and the impact that one’s high school education has on this development. I have chosen this topic as I have an interest in educational experiences, sexuality, and identity development. I am particularly interested in analysing and understanding the individual lived experience, and how personal narratives can be used to produce knowledge on wider subjects. I enjoy researching through a combination of ethnographic methodologies, with interviews being my primary approach to data collection in my thesis. I love interviewing as a way to really get to know a person and their feelings on/experience with a topic. I like to have my participants drive the interview and direct it in ways which feel the most truthful to themselves, with open-ended questions and a more conversational approach. I enjoy interviewing this way as it shows how unique and distinctive the individual lived experience really is, and that is something I am really interested in.
I was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work for the NCSEHE. Having the ability to use my skills to help those from more diverse backgrounds is something I am very passionate about, and being able to work in an environment that is so focused on ensuring equitable educational experiences is both inspiring and motivating. In my time here, I have been able to assist in Media and Communications work on top of my role as Research Assistant, which has been awesome as I also have a background in marketing and public relations. I am looking forward to continuing my work at NCSEHE whilst completing my degree. The skills I am picking up are invaluable and being able to assist in the research that aims to shape a more equitable future in higher education is extremely rewarding.
Amy and Georgie are the latest of nine “earn while you learn” students who have been employed by the NCSEHE, working in web development, graphic design, media and communications, and research assistant roles.
We value the opportunity to support the career progression of individuals from diverse backgrounds who share the NCSEHE team’s commitment to equity and social justice.
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