Bengü Kalo - Journey of my dreams

When looking back, I remember a rush of emotions of any nature on my first day at IUS. I was happy to start the journey of my dreams, curious about what the future holds, and scared to be alone in a foreign country. As it happens, I chose IUS because it was located in Southeastern Europe, and had a culture familiar to me as a Turk, as well as English being the language of instruction.  Here, I received my B.A in Psychology and M.A in Clinical Psychology before moving onto the University of Edinburgh.

I had the opportunity to learn about neuropsychology when I was an undergraduate psychology student at IUS. After I graduated and gained some work experience, I went to İstanbul University Medicine Faculty Hospital for experience and supervision as a neuropsychologist for a month. I assessed and wrote reports for neurology patients and helped teach new students about how to use neuropsychological tests in the Neuropsychology Laboratory. 

Through my internships and volunteering experiences, I realized that I enjoyed both neuropsychological and clinical fields of psychology and I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. During my studies, I volunteered at the IUS StudentCounseling Centre for a year, was involved in a research project that was conducted by my lecturers at IUS and presented our joint article with another student at a congress in Istanbul. At the end of the year, I graduated with a high CGPA. My ties with the university flourished and we published an article in a peer-reviewed journal with two of my lecturers at IUS. 

During my Clinical Psychology postgraduate studies, I continued to read books and articles about neuropsychology whenever I had time. I came to the realization that my passion for this field grew as time went by. Straight after graduation I set off on another journey - this time at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. I studied in the Human Cognitive Neuropsychology MSc programme, in which I mainly followed visual neuroscience lectures of world-renowned academics. I continued to be an active student by attending many neuroscience conferences and playing a part in the neuroscience branch of a STEM outreach that is held by the university. After finishing the taught courses with a high grade-point average, I started to work on my dissertation with two wonderful supervisors. Until quite recently, I was working on how the visual cortex is organised by using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging - which is a technique for measuring brain activity. 

Studying in a university emphasizing the importance of accessible scientific research made me interested in advocating for open science. As I am about to graduate, I make use of my free time as the University of Edinburgh MSc Students’ Representative of an open science movement. I also write for a well-known science platform in Turkey to make neuroscience and clinical psychology findings accessible to a lay audience, where my content was featured as a recommended article.

I believe one of the greatest favours that we can do for ourselves is to set a goal and chase every opportunity that will take us one step closer to our dreams. To the young and passionate students out there; volunteer in the field you would like to work one day and do your best while you are at it. 

Bengü Kalo