NeurOx YPAG December 2024 Event: Milestones, Memories, and Moving Forward
By: Emily Tuckett
In December 2024, the NeurOx YPAG gathered for a festive get-together. It was a wonderful day that began with some fun icebreakers, where we divided into teams for a quiz on holiday movies and the origins of various Christmas traditions. Following that, we had an engaging discussion about the future of the YPAG, exploring ideas such as creating more training opportunities and looking at bettering our communication with our researchers.
Next, we participated in an active listening training session led by Zeba Kokan, one of the YPAG coordinators. The session introduced us to different types of listening and their appropriate use, including selective listening, where you focus only on the parts that interest you, and empathetic listening, which involves listening to understand others’ perspectives. We engaged in several group exercises to explore these listening styles and discuss when they should and shouldn’t be applied.
After a lovely lunch, where we had the chance to catch up with one another and meet new people in person for the first time, we took part in a mind-mapping activity. This exercise allowed us to reflect on some of our favourite projects from the past year and what we had learnt from them. It was a great opportunity to celebrate our individual and collective achievements within the YPAG.
Finally, Lucienne Spencer, another YPAG coordinator, presented an overview of the YPAG research impact in 2024, featuring messages from various project leads on how our contributions have influenced their research. Some examples included redefining the research question for the Surprise Project sub-study after discussions around masking and impression management with the YPAG, as well as co-developing radical value disagreements for the Antitheses Project.
Overall, it was a fantastic day of celebrating our accomplishments in 2024 and setting exciting goals for the year ahead. Stay tuned for an eventful year with the NeurOx YPAG!