As a Gil intern, I worked under Dr. Ayse Belger in the Neurocognition and Imaging Research Lab (NIRL) at UNC, primarily on a Department of Defense-funded study of veterans with both PTSD and TBI. For my part, I worked with control subjects who had neither of those conditions; I handled scheduling, fMRI, neurocognitive testing, and more.
The neuropsychological measures I learned at the NIRL became a basis for my next role, as a technician at Duke Clinical Neuropsychology Service, where I administered and evaluated measures of various types of memory, attention, and other aspects of cognition to people with cognitive complaints. Perhaps even more importantly, the independence, organization, communication, and people skills that my Gil experience cultivated in me were fundamental to my role at Duke – and continued to be fundamental when I left Duke this July to backpack Europe solo for three months. I am now back in the country and exploring new career options (I an interested in behavioral economics/neuroeconomics and computer science, among many other things), but wherever my path leads, I’m extremely grateful to have had the experience of being a Gil Intern!
