Welcome to our Lab Spotlight! This week, we sat down with Jayasree Narayanan, a former student and current volunteer, who has been with IC Lab since 2015.
**Who are you? Where are you from?**
I’m Jay, I am from Singapore. I moved here in 2014, to pursue an undergraduate degree in psychology, and have recently graduated from the Honours psychology program here at the University of Alberta.
**Why did you choose Edmonton?**
This is such a long story but, back when I was in High School I wrote my university entrance exam also called the A-Level exam and I failed one of the subjects. Therefore I could not get into a local University. The education system in Singapore is very competitive as there are only 3 Universities, one of which only has a select number of programs, none of which I was interested in, so I had to look outside of the country. At the time the only two choices for me were Australia and Canada, and Canada was much more affordable. Since I made some of these decisions pretty late, many schools’ application deadlines had already passed and the U of A was one of the few still accepting applications. And it all worked out from there, I’m happy to be here.
**What are you currently working on?**
I am currently working on getting my honours thesis published, so I am in the process of collecting more data mostly because publishers want to see more participants than I currently have. My project was focused on situated ethnic identity of people in Singapore – how people of various ethnic background view their heritage and their Singaporean identity across different situations as well as how the use of their mother tongue and the use of English was related to their identity patterns.
If you would like to participate in my research and are Singaporean, please click on the link below: https://ualbertapsychology.ca1.qualtrics.com/…/SV_bBmbzfyP1…
In addition, I’m looking to start my career and I am interested in working in research, writing, marketing, or social work. In my spare time, I volunteer at the Cerebral Palsy Association of Alberta, write for the Gateway, and volunteer as a mentor at the Youth Restorative Action Project.
**Fun fact/something interesting that happened this week?**
I went to a haunted house yesterday. It was terrifying, but it was really fun. The actors did a great job. Some fun facts: I was a field hockey player for 4 years and have taken dragon boat lessons this summer.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayasree-narayanan-394809155/
