Meet Alia, a Master’s student at Kent University who’s all about psychology! She co-founded PsychBuddies, a student-led society helping others in their studies while creating a close-knit community.
Tell me a bit about yourself!
My name is Alia and I am currently doing my Master’s degree in developmental Psychology at Kent. Before this, I did my Psychology undergraduate degree at Kent too and did a placement year in the NHS as an Assistant Psychologist. I am really passionate about research on the topic of education and science communication which has led me to doing some really exciting projects with the University, English heritage, Curzon and NHS, all thanks to the diverse opportunities on offer at Kent!
My uni days can look very busy outside of lectures because I like to get involved in a variety of activities. I am a member of the Imagination research group where academics and students who are interested in research to do with imagination, creativity, problem solving etc. get together and discuss their current research and give feedback. I also attend Developmental lab group meetings where speakers present their work for feedback and discussion between staff and students take place.
In 2023, Zeynep Genç (a PhD student at Kent) and I actually set this up together! Since then, we have worked together collecting data at the Beaney Museum in Canterbury, attended recruitment events on behalf of Kent Child Development Unit. More recently though, my time has been put into setting up PsychBuddies. I make sure to wind down every evening by doing more relaxing activities like reading or colouring (yes, social influence worked on me).
Tell me a little bit about the PsychBuddies Society!
We know stats can be scary and for a lot of people studying can be too. PsychBuddies is a student-led initiative, passionate about empowering and helping students feel confident throughout their academic journey at Kent. We do this by having 2 weekly sessions (one stats based and one study based) throughout both terms. We have had the support of the head of school of Psychology, student experience leads for undergraduate and postgraduate Psychology, stats module conveners as well as the module convener for the Psychology of successful learning.
How exactly does it work?
Students (undergraduates and postgraduates) can drop by anytime throughout these sessions to ask us any question related to their studies especially if they are stuck or do not understand the stats coding tasks. There is no attendance and no need to let us know if you can or cant make it. We wanted to create a safe space for students to work on improving their stats and study skills so we try make the sessions as relaxed as possible. Students don’t have to attend every session, just turn up when or if you have a problem! We have access to your module resources so we can work alongside you to help you answer your questions.
If we do not know the answer, we either work hard so we can figure it out together or we signpost you to someone who can help! We also have multiple stats buddies who are other students that volunteer in these sessions. If you are interested in helping out other students (you do not need to be a stats whizz!) email us at hsspsychbuddies@kent.ac.uk.
And we’ve had some wonderful feedback so far!
“You are all so lovely thank you so much for answering my questions without making me feel dumb especially with Rstudio. I just love how all of you are so chill about it thank you so much”
The best part of PsychBuddies in my opinion is that you do not even have to come if you have a problem, you can come study in the room or come socialise.
The thought of going to university can be scary – especially worrying about how different the homework and assignments would be – is that why the PsychBuddies offer the help that they do?
A lot of students (including myself) when they start university do not realise we will need to learn stats and coding! PsychBuddies is here to reassure and support students in their learning of stats. We don’t just give you the answer, we help you learn how to get to the answer so you can take this knowledge forward with you. We found that students find this form of support a lot more helpful plus the feeling of fixing a piece of code that was not working yourself is unmatched!
We have 3 main aims at PsychBuddies:
- Empower students throughout their academic journey at Kent
- Provide a safe space to understand statistics
- Encourage growth and independence towards studies
All of the volunteers and people who help other students have at least been through (or currently going through) the first two years of undergraduate stats. We have masters students, second year students and final year students who are there to support, reassure and give advice without judgement about uni life so you are not alone.