“This program is truly a gift:” CogSci Career Catalyst offers professional opportunities for students

September 6, 2023

by Alexander Rony

"This program created a real impact in my career trajectory." - Angel Xu '23

Students from around the world have returned to UC Berkeley to start the fall semester, and many are bringing lessons from summer internships with them. These valuable experiences often further their careers, build lasting connections, and advance their practical understanding of their academic fields.

Students majoring in cognitive science — an interdisciplinary study of the human mind that draws on psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, computer science, and other fields — have the opportunity to utilize the CogSci Career Catalyst program to secure meaningful internships. The initiative jumpstarts students’ professional journeys by connecting them with employers and providing stipends to minimize the financial barriers that prevent many students from participating in low-paying or unpaid internships.

“The CogSci Career Catalyst program allowed me to solely focus on my internship this summer without financial burden,” said Jessica Co, who is double majoring in cognitive science and molecular and cell biology. “This program is truly a gift to myself and my peers.”

Previous participants have improved their skills and found the program helped them achieve their professional goals.

“This program created a real impact in my career trajectory,” said Angel Xu, who interned at Oracle in 2022 and spoke at her commencement ceremony in 2023. “I deepened my understanding of design research through a healthcare project and collaborated with many creatives — made some good friends, too. Now, I’m a full-time design researcher at Oracle!”

Employers gain from the program through access to Berkeley’s versatile cognitive science majors, who are in high demand in a wide array of fields including the technology, education, medical, psychology, and robotics sectors.

“Interns learn about our research and get hands-on experience with experimental design and problem-solving,” said Preeti Verghese, a senior scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. “All the labs at our institute conduct research that depends heavily on programming and data analysis skills. Students from CogSci are great interns because they need very little time to get up to speed.”

If you work at an organization that could benefit from skilled interns trained in cognitive science, please contact Erik Lehto, Associate Director of Development, at (510) 609-5335 or lehto.erik@berkeley.edu to learn how to participate in the program.

Read more about this year’s talented class of CogSci Catalyst Program participants:

Abigail is a senior double majoring in cognitive science and music.

Abigail Canafe

What led you to choose CogSci, and what have you enjoyed about your studies?
Going into college, I was interested in a lot of different disciplines, like psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. I really enjoy that cognitive science allows me to study those subjects in an interdisciplinary way.

Where did you do your internship, and what did you work on?
I was a research assistant for the Health and Organizational Psychology Lab at San Francisco State University. We helped conduct literature searches of recent studies using the Maslach Burnout Inventory to determine whether job burnout has been underreported in organizational settings.

What was your favorite part of the internship, and how did it prepare you for your career?
I’ve been fascinated by industrial-organizational (IO) psychology for a while, but wasn’t entirely sure what the practitioner versus researcher experiences looked like in that field. My research assistantship provided me with first-hand experience and insight into one of the potential career options in IO psychology. My favorite part of this experience was learning about the different types of Maslach Burnout Inventory forms that HR departments and IO psychologists use depending on the group that they're assessing.

Would you recommend the CogSci Career Catalyst program to other students?
I would definitely recommend the program to other students. You really feel supported by advisors and alumni who want to see you succeed.

Hosea is a rising senior majoring in cognitive science.

Hosea Chen

What led you to choose CogSci, and what have you enjoyed about your studies?
At the core of my academic interests is a strong curiosity for social, positive, and cognitive psychology. Cognitive science is a great way for me to combine all of that. So far, the coursework I'm taking for my degree has been really interesting every semester. I go from linguistics to philosophy of mind to developmental psychology, social psychology, and neuropsychology of happiness. It’s been a great time. I can really zone in on what skill sets and knowledge I want to bring under my tool belt.

Where did you do your internship, and what did you work on?
I am a researcher at the Digital Culture Lab, a research lab based in China that is part of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences. This summer, my mentor and I have been trying to understand what most people are like online, how they act, and what kind of content they interact with. We arrive at new insights by synthesizing the census-personality data and research that is out there. For example, we talked about how Barbie the movie manifested across the digital world and culture as a social phenomenon.

What was your favorite part of the internship, and how did it prepare you for your career?
Being able to discuss topics in digital culture by applying our cognitive science knowledge. At every research meeting, there is this fascinating open academic exploration made possible by our intellectual curiosity and knowledge about human behavior. I knew I wanted to go into the tech sector — specifically, the user experience field — after I graduate, and I was thinking about whether I want to go into the research or content production side. This internship gave me a better idea about what research looks like in the workplace as I continue exploring what I want to do in my future career.

XiLin is a fourth year CogSci major.

XiLin Choi

What led you to choose CogSci, and what have you enjoyed about your studies?
I love how interdisciplinary the coursework is, and I've long been interested in research around human behavior and thinking. It offers the unique opportunity and challenge to study a number of subjects and bridge ostensibly disparate aspects of them to inform the broad study of the mind. I've been able to take courses within my major that I had never before considered and found that they completely upended my understanding of everything from infant word learning to the therapeutic effects of psychedelics.

Where did you do your internship, and what did you work on?
I did my internship at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, and I worked on a project that involved finding patterns in human perception of moving objects in an optic flow interface in adults with normal (or normal after correction, i.e., contacts or glasses) vision. I was interested in how a person sees an object's relative motion, given a moving background and a moving observer (the person themself!).

How did the stipend support you during your internship?
The stipend made it so that I didn't have to also take on another job in order to afford rent! I was much more able to focus on this internship.

Would you recommend the CogSci Career Catalyst program to other students?
Absolutely yes! The team is so communicative and helpful and extremely dedicated to helping students find the best fit possible. In a challenging year in the industry, they've proven themselves to be a bright spot, really going out of their way to advise us and offer support.

Jessica is a fourth year double majoring in cognitive science and molecular and cell biology.

Jessica Co

What led you to choose CogSci, and what have you enjoyed about your studies?
Coming into college, I had equal interests in neuroscience, chemistry, psychology, and computer science, and seeing a field that so seamlessly and harmoniously interlocked these subjects was really exciting for me. I've enjoyed that in a given semester, I can learn about the same topic through starkly different lenses — from coding neural networks to studying the neurobiology of human happiness, I've been exposed to many levels of studying the brain that I couldn't get from another program.

What was your favorite part of the internship, and how did it prepare you for your career?
My favorite part of working at the Fisher Lab at UC Berkeley was being able to plan and execute my own project. I was able to genuinely engage in the scientific process of project planning, getting preliminary data, and troubleshooting. I liked having control over how fast or slow my project went, which gave me the flexibility to be ambitious and optimize my project design. Through hands-on experience, I have a better idea of what my experience of grad school will be like, as I have learned not only how to plan and execute a research inquiry, but also I've practiced reading other pieces of science literature and discussing science in community.

How did the stipend support you during your internship?
The CogSci Career Catalyst program allowed me to solely focus on my internship this summer without financial burden. For many students, it is difficult to pursue full-time research opportunities because most do not pay much, if at all, so this program is truly a gift to myself and my peers. Being able to dedicate my summer to learning about the field and career path that I was interested in without worrying about finances has not only given me hands-on experience to take back to the classroom but also, more importantly, it has helped me take this experience into my grad school apps to be a more confident applicant.

Xiaowen is a senior studying computer science and cognitive science.

Xiaowen Liu

What led you to choose CogSci, and what have you enjoyed about your studies?
I applied to Cal intending to major in molecular and cell biology with a neurobiology concentration, but I soon discovered that I preferred dry lab to wet lab and had a consistent passion for the human mind. I consequently changed to cognitive science. I love how cognitive science demonstrates the spirit of liberal education with its variety of courses, where I discovered my secondary interests in computer science and logic.

Where did you do your internship, and what did you work on?
I worked as a design research intern at Oracle, where I conducted exploratory research on dark mode for our Redwood Design System.

What was your favorite part of the internship, and how did it prepare you for your career?
My favourite aspect of my internship is the presentation because it has made me reconsider how powerful the impact of good storytelling could be. By breaking complex research insights into understandable pieces, I'm able to deliver a strong presentation to senior leaders and 50+ designers. It helped me get recognized at Oracle and let me know I wanted to improve on storytelling in my senior year.