Prior to starting grad school, I started working as a remote research assistant at the University of Michigan’s Society, Population, and Environment (SPE) program. Dr. William Axinn oversaw my work on projects related to the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS). The CVFS examines family change and has collected full life histories of more than 10,000 individuals for over 20 years. This is a comprehensive family panel study of individuals, households, and communities in the Chitwan Valley of Nepal.
My work with the SPE team primarily involved assisting faculty and staff on preparing research papers and projects that cover a broad range of topics, including population studies, family change, mental health, and reproductive health. I reviewed and helped summarize the research papers that are available on the CVFS website.
This position also gave me experience disaggregating data to analyze patterns of social change and family formation over time. Additionally, (and little did I know at the time) that this experience would prepare me for my Web Design: Responsiveness and Accessibility class! Basically, this position introduced me to frontend design as I spent time working on the CVFS website to ensure all publications and information match the publisher website.
