Seeking psychology-related paid work or volunteer positions for the summer? Looking to network and learn from professionals in a wide range of applied psychology fields?
Join us on May 15, 10:00AM to 3:30PM EST via Zoom!
Join the Psychology Students’ Association for our second annual conference-style event: Navigating Psychology and Work! Learn from our panellists about the various ways psychology is applied outside of academia, including mindfulness, public policy, AI, and more! In addition, many companies and organizations looking for talent will be in attendance this year.
Register on Eventbrite!
The conference will centre around the application of psychology in the professional world. Professionals working in applied psychology fields and companies/organizations seeking to recruit talented students will be brought together in this event. This will allow students to: (1) learn about avenues for careers in applied psychology, and the very cool work that is being done in such fields, and (2) find jobs, volunteer opportunities, and network! To that end, this year’s conference will include networking and recruitment opportunities!
This is an amazing opportunity for psychology students. We hope to see you there!
ITINERARY
10:00 – brief introduction
10:10 – keynote speakers (short Q&A after each speaker)
11:30 – company/organization presentations
12:30 – lunch break
1:00 – recruitment lunch
2:15 – panellists
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS ATTENDING
Dr. Bechara Saab is the CEO and Chief Scientist of Mobio Interactive, a digital therapeutics and performance enhancement company empowering better living and faster healing. He was a Principal Investigator of the Zurich Neuroscience Centre. His lab at the Psychiatry Hospital focused on understanding molecules and neural circuits that give rise to the motivation to explore. This research shed light on the mechanisms underscoring the intimate relationships between exploration, efficient learning, and cognitive disease. Dr. Saab is dedicated to science outreach and mentorship.
Stephanie Harrison has a Masters Degree in the study of positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She later became an instructor in Penn’s graduate program teaching alongside the founder of the field, Dr. Martin Seligman. Previously, she was head of Curriculum for Thrive Global, where she led the design of behavior change experiences to help millions of employees improve their well-being and performance. Stephanie works with a limited number of executives and leaders at corporations around the world to help them transform the well-being of their employees. She also speaks publicly about well-being and happiness, delivering events from small intimate leadership meetings through to company-wide keynotes.
Dr. Brooke Struck is Research Director at The Decision Lab. His favourite projects are with clients who have a stubborn problem that’s worth solving and who are willing to collaborate intensively to achieve meaningful change—clients who are genuine leaders. He draws on a rich, interdisciplinary background to develop solutions that actually work and that the client can realistically implement. His approach relies on strong relationships (with clients as well as a diverse network of experts) married with an unwavering focus on impact. Before joining TDL, Dr. Struck consulted in evidence-based policy and data-driven decisions, advising clients such as the European Commission, the US National Science Foundation, and the Government of Canada. He holds a PhD in the philosophy of science.
PANELLISTS
Danielle King is a Cognitive Science graduate who is currently working as a Venture Analyst for the Creative Destruction Lab, a mentorship program for massively-scalable seed-stage technology start-ups, with the goal of maximizing equity value creation.
Dr. Will Ryan is currently an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto, St. George’s Department of Psychology. He is also a research consultant for Immersyve, applying motivational and social psychological research to develop interventions to improve engagement, health, and well-being of employees and to support diversity in the workplace.
Shane Saunderson is a Vanier Canada scholar pursuing a PhD in Robotics at the University of Toronto and has a wealth of experience in engineering, social research, and management consulting.
Vivian Ghazarianis is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.
Sebastian Salomon–Ballada and Michelle Krieger are respectively an Advisor and Associate Advisor at The Behavioural Insights Team, a company that generates and applies behavioural insights to inform policy, improve public services and deliver results for citizens and society.
COMPANIES ATTENDING
Youth Mental Health Canada is a non-profit organization that aims to support youth who are experiencing mental health-related concerns. They raise awareness and education about mental illnesses, especially for individuals who have chronic mental disabilities. Furthermore, they strive to increase funding within communities and expand resources that can better support youth with mental illnesses. They have also conducted mental wellness surveys with youth and created evidence-based mental wellness resources. Volunteers may lead workshops or provide peer support, for example, through compassionate card services. This involves sending kind notes to individuals who are facing challenges.
The Sage Project was founded in 2020 by University of Toronto students and focuses on supporting elderly people and frontline workers particularly during COVID-19. To support elderly people, they have been delivering pen pal letters and community cheer holiday cards to help them feel connected to others during the pandemic. They also offer companion calls in which seniors can chat and connect with youth over a call. Moreover, their Bloom Together project allowed seniors to transform their outdoor living spaces with a nice garden and flowers. In addition, to support frontline workers, Sage runs a Community Care project in which they partner with different companies that provide them with food and household items.
LGBT Youth Line offers an anonymous peer support helpline and live chat system 6 days a week for LGBT youth (under age 29) in Ontario. It operates on a peer support system in which trained youth aid other youth seeking assistance. During training, peers learn to actively listen while also learning about anti-racism, consent, health-related needs, and anti-oppression. In addition, they have regular programming such as their #DoBetter Webinar series and #Dare2 Workshop series, which aim to support 2SLGBTQ youth. In 2019, they started YouthOrganize, which is a 10-month volunteer program in which volunteers assist with idea creation and community-building efforts, with an emphasis on supporting Indigenous, Black, and trans youth.
With over 100 years of history and locations in Mississauga, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, Homewood Health is one of Canada’s largest and leading facilities for medical treatment of mental health and addictions disorders. They offer organizational wellness, employee and family assistance programs, assessments, outpatient and inpatient treatment, recovery management, return to work and family support services customized to meet the needs of individuals and organizations. As many of their services are essential they are open to registration and looking for help during COVID-19. They have a plethora of programs to help treat challenges such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, addictions, and eating disorders.
The Decision Lab is a socially-conscious applied research firm. They provide consulting services to some of the largest organizations in the world, carry out research in priority areas and run one of the largest publications in applied behavioural science. In the past, TDL has helped organizations such as the Gates Foundation, Capital One and the World Bank solve some of their thorniest problems using scientific thinking.
Their approach to creating social impact is SPICE: Socially conscious, Pragmatic, Inventive, Catalytic, and Evidence based. This criteria is used to evaluate themselves, their work, the clients they choose to take on, and the people they make part of their team.
BEWorks is a Canadian consulting firm based on an understanding of human decision making through expertise in psychology, neuroscience, economics, and marketing to tackle challenges through the perspective of behavioural science. Their philosophy is transforming the old methods of thinking and problem solving in the business world through a passion and understanding of the science behind human decision making. Beworks’ strong foundation in science has allowed them to help their customers improve acquisition, retention, product design, process optimization, and pricing strategies.
They offer consulting to challenge complex problems, rigorous research to understand human behaviour, transforming other teams to adopt the BEworks method, training and education, and optimizing recruitment in the hiring process.
Mobio Interactive was founded by Bechara Saab, a UofT Neuroscience Doctorate Program alumni. They are a digital therapeutics and performance enhancement company focused on better living and faster healing. Mobio Interactive combines science, design, with their own internally developed psychobiometrics to ensure the efficacy of their products through random control trials.
Their product, AmDTx, is an award-winning and clinically-validated mobile app that delivers personalized performance enhancement and resilience training. Various landmark studies have demonstrated that AmDTx has long-term benefits for attentional control, improving stress resilience, stress/fear reduction, quality of life, chronic pain, and physical endurance.
Fealer = Friend Healer
Feal Talk offers a positive listening community in a safe space for individuals to be heard by providing easy and affordable access to connect with an empathetic ear, one Fealer session at a time.
A Fealer is trained to support those suffering with or supporting someone with mental wellness (may or may not be diagnosed) through Listening, Empathy, Validation and Encouragement. A Fealer is trained on how to assist individuals in crisis mode to obtain immediate help through crisis hotlines or 911. All Fealers complete (at a minimum) Mental Health Training and Technical Training. Fealer sessions focus on active listening and validation, as well as client-driven solutioning. Fealers also guide Peer Support sessions to provide an effective and safe space to proactively engage in emotional wellness in a group-support setting.