Employment > Job Description
Volunteer Research Assistant – Harvard Child Language and Developmental Psychiatry Lab
Description:
A unique and exciting opportunity for a highly motivated student or recent graduate to provide administrative and research support to a Principal Investigator (PI) at Judge Baker Children's Center. This individual will work closely with the PI, providing administrative support while gaining experience and knowledge of research skills. This volunteer position supports a research project on Latino children of immigrants supported by a National Institute of Mental Health research grant.
Current goal is to work on existing cleaned-up data set available for analysis and publication. Data was collected during extensive child, parent/family and teacher assessments includes child language competence in both Spanish and English of Latino children of immigrants, cognitive and achievement testing, diagnostic psychiatric interviews, and questionnaires and surveys. Training will be provided.
Principal Responsibilities:
• Handle general office duties and provide overall administrative support to the PI, including coordinating the Investigator’s appointment and trip schedule, handling mail, and answering telephones
• Assist with grant/manuscript preparation including editing, formatting, photocopying
• Assist with budget management and monthly fund reconciliation
• Assist in data analysis, literature reviews, project updates, writing of grant proposals and scholarly reviews; and in various tasks part of the project’s daily operations.
• Work closely with and assist the research coordinator, doctoral student and/or postdoc.
Requirements:
- Minimum 16 hours per week; higher availability is highly desirable. Schedule is generally flexible. One-year commitment minimum.
- Applicant should be enrolled in program for or have a bachelor's degree in: psychology, speech pathology, child development, child language acquisition or related field (master's or doctoral degrees desirable but not required).
- Applicant should have excellent writing, organizational and computer skills.
Preferred but not required:
• Bachelor’s degree or higher. Extremely bright and motivated students will also be considered.
• Writing experience.
• Experience or interest in psychiatric, developmental and/or language research in children, particularly Latino children of immigrants.
• Data collected includes extensive neurocognitive assessments including child language, nonverbal cognitive and achievement, diagnostic psychiatric interviews, and questionnaires/surveys (for emotional/behavioral problems, and sociodemographic, acculturation, immigration and other risk factors and variables).
• Start date: September
• Minimum 16 hours per week; higher availability is highly desirable and preferred. Schedule to be negotiated.
• Minimum commitment 1 year (2 years preferred)
This position is ideal for someone:
Strongly interested in research and empirical publications (data available now)
Interested in obtaining experience in developmental language and psychological/psychiatric research, planning to apply for graduate studies.
We offer:
• Access to libraries, facilities and multiple opportunities at Harvard Medical School-affiliated Judge Baker Children’s Center, which offers a monthly lecture series (the highly reputed Child Mental Health Forum), and houses other major research projects, clinical services, a therapeutic day school and other therapeutic programs, the DCF hotline, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, etc.
• Being part of a collegial research team in a major academic/research center
• Training and regular research meetings and supervision
• Opportunities for graduate students to pursue a dissertation on thesis based on our extensive data set
• The chance to acquire or perfect highly sought-after research writing skills.
Contact:
To apply, please email to mhollinshead@jbcc.harvard.edu:
1.) Letter of interest and resume
2.) The names and position of three references
3.) Copy of college transcripts
4.) Three letters of reference
Mailing address: Claudio O. Toppelberg, MD, Principal Investigator, CLDP
Judge Baker Children's Center
53 Parker Hill Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02120