Participating in the Brackenridge fellowship has allowed me to interact with students conducting research in a variety of disciplines. Exposure to other fields is a very important aspect of research, but it also presents the challenge of ensuring one can communicate their research to people outside of their field. While it may be easy for us as individuals to understand why our work is important, we must be able to convey the purpose of our research and why it is significant to others. This includes a general audience too, not just other students or scholars who have a basic knowledge of research already. One strategy to approach this, is to gauge what your audience already knows by asking questions. When you are explaining your research to people you are not familiar with, you never know what kind of background they already have and how in depth you should go. You definitely don’t want to explain an entire concept to someone who already knows it very well, or speak using jargon that someone is not familiar with at all! Once you get an idea of your audiences’ background, you may need to think about the setting you are in to decide how to convey your research. For example, explaining the significance of your work to a friend would be pretty casual, compared to presenting your work to a funding committee, which would be much more formal. Once you get an idea of your audience and the setting you’re in, one can use different approaches to explain why their work is important. For example, using a real-world example, such as an individual who is struggling with an issue that your work would be applicable to. Another approach would be to begin by explaining the problem that exists in society that you’re focusing on and then go on to explain how your research can address it. Appealing to one’s emotions or providing logic are two great ways to help others understand why your research is important.

            While my current research is in Neuroscience, my goal is to go into public health, specifically behavioral health, for my career and focus on improving mental health equity. I would definitely need to communicate with those in the mental health field, medical field, and social services. However, I may also need to interact with governmental agencies that provide funding or create policies, leaders in education, and those involved in the criminal justice system. Mental health is applicable to all people, so my involvement could be anywhere from a community level, to working with institutions to create systemic change. Learning about communicating with people in various fields now will set me up for the future when my career requires me to have these skills in order to be successful.