internshipweek2response2onweek1prompt

Describe the company culture at your internship, including how people interact, communicate and work together.
At the Center for Human Development, the Researchers and Research Assistants work very well together, although the planning and coordination that makes such cooperation possible isn't an easy process. I have been with Dr. Jernigan, Erik (postdoc fellow), Connor (project coordinator), Natasha (Researcher), and the Research Assistants Shereen, David, Brian, Beatrice, and another guy whose name I always forget. All of them get along really well and always know what they need to be doing due to Google Calendar, which has all the appointments, meetings, and such posted and ready to view by the staff. It's a very friendly, quiet environment in which everyone is working and knows what they're doing, whether it be researching, testing, or analyzing. Even the administration is cordial and warm contrary to my belief that researcher and manager don't mix well.
Although things run smoothly at the UCSD Center for Human Development, I've sat in on enough meetings that there is conflict and communication issues with UCSD and the other sites participating in the PING study (Hawaii in particular....hopefully nobody from there reads this). Even though UCSD is the main site, the other locations where the study is being conducted don't always feel they need to follow San Diego's lead. One of the big issues was varying consent forms and differing eligibility requirements for the same study! Participants have to be willing to takes psychological tests, MRI scans, and give saliva samples in order to give comprehensive information the PING Database. However, some sites admitted participants who didn't want to give their DNA and didn't want to do this or that. The whole point of the study is having all of those elements that can be uploaded to the database and used as a control for future studies on psychology, imaging, genetics, or all of the above. Omitting one aspect defeats the whole purpose! Communicating this to the other sites and trying to fix other issues that come up is the biggest problem in PING right now. But the research environment and the people I work with get along great. We're doin' just fine.