The Love Yourself Foundation: Research Intern

My COLA Internship was through the Love Yourself Foundation, a local 501 ( c )(3) Nonprofit, which specializes in holistic and creative interventions to bridge the community with self-love, mental health support, and togetherness. Typically, they host different events, including sound baths, yoga, open mic, and massage. However, this semester, they wanted to refrain and research their impact on the community as they develop new programs to support mental wellness.

In the future, I seek to be employed in the therapeutic field, with modalities using online platforms and art-based strategies, as such, I believe this internship has benefited me by giving me a different perspective. There are other resources beyond traditional therapeutic practices. At the end of the day, I really seek to give back to my community and be a part of moving individuals to mental wellness; mental health is essential for everyday functioning and can be overlooked.

During a community event – ArtUOK? – I connected with other community programs supporting mental and physical health. This event also aided in skills of networking with others and marketing a business; in the future, if I seek to open my own office, such skills would be essential. In the engagement portion of my internship, I looked through previous events and developed a sales pitch for communicating with potential donors. While I cannot foresee myself organizing events and marketing to others full time, on a volunteer basis and contributing ideas would suit my comfort level. I enjoyed the work culture and the stance of practicing what you preach (i.e. each meeting, there was collaboration, your opinion was valued, and they began with introspection or identifying an aspect of life you were grateful for).

As a Psychology major and Sociology minor, this internship aided me in developing practical research skills with the development of a meta-analysis. One of the most significant contributions made to the LYF involved creating this meta-analysis as background for a future publication and supporting the LYF’s new programs. As students at UNLV, we typically research in class for a clearer understanding of a topic and to create supporting evidence for our statements in discussion boards and papers; for business research, understanding of the business and what was applicable to its mission was necessary to pinpoint key details, significant findings, and select applicable articles.

Using Google Sheets and MyBib, I learned different ways to collaborate with other researchers and store and collect data. A basic understanding of a meta-analysis, the steps and other research techniques were essential for creating this study from scratch. When doing research it’s important to know the difference between different terms, especially when presenting the research you conducted and formulating a paper. Here, I feel like my research courses did help with basic understanding.

If I were to continue in this field as a psychology researcher, this would require more schooling as most positions expect master's or doctoral degrees. Nevertheless, I found this experience valuable as I took a step to try out new experiences, connect with new people, and be a part of a present in front of others about a research topic we spent the full semester learning about.

My advice for any undergraduate seeking a research internship is to be open to try new experiences. When I started, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we had supportive supervisors, open to help and answer questions.