Profile
Ola Demkowicz
My CV
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Education:
I have studied through The University of Manchester, Huddersfield University, and Leeds Metropolitan University. Before university, I went to North Halifax Grammar School and then Calderdale College.
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Qualifications:
GCSEs from North Halifax Grammar School – helped me develop foundational skills for working and studying further
BTEC in Childcare and Education, at Calderdale College. This was a vocational course in childcare that trained me for the field but also helped me understand curriculums and the role that individual people can play in support children and young people.
Undergraduate degree in Early Years, at Leeds Metropolitan University and then at Huddersfield University. This helped me hone my academic skills and gave me really helpful insights into child development and behavioural processes – especially helpful because I was working in education.
Master’s degree in Psychology of Education, at The University of Manchester. This helped me better understand psychology and the role it plays in education, and also helped me explore adolescence more rather than just early childhood, which my undergraduate degree was on.
PhD in Education, at The University of Manchester. This helped me become an independent researcher and helped me decide what I wanted to focus on in my work and what I wanted to contribute.
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Work History:
- Research assistant
- Pre-school leader
- Early years practitioner
- Home carer
- Waitress
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Current Job:
Lecturer in Psychology of Education
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About Me:
I’m a researcher and lecturer at the University of Manchester. I research young people’s mental health, and also teach on psychology, education, and children and young people’s development.
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I live in Manchester with my partner and our very noisy cat, who likes to interrupt meetings and walk across my keyboard (like this: ;lkjkjhhjlkh;lkjlkj;lkjkjygtuykgkjgyugasdfasdf). In my spare time I play the ukulele and love exploring different foods.
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I am interested in young people’s mental health. That includes working to understand what impacts on mental health, such as issues like inequality and stress, and why those mean that mental health difficulties can happen for some people. Recently that has included trying to better understand how the pandemic has influenced young people’s mental health and wellbeing. I am also interested in understanding how we can promote good mental health and make people’s lives better – like figuring out how young people can be supported by those around them, or understanding how policies and systems can change to make things easier.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up early and usually have some breakfast and go for a run or do some yoga. I spend lots of time reading and writing at the computer, but I also get to have interesting meetings with other researchers and young people discussing our research and meeting with university students, too.
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When I sit down at my computer in the morning, I check my diary to see all the things I planned to do that day. I do some emailing first thing too – it’s nice to get emails out of the way so I can get properly stuck into the real work!
Sometimes my days focus on teaching or student support, or marking university students’ work. But other days I get to sit and do my research, such as writing an academic paper about young people’s mental health, applying for funding to do more research, or planning out how we might go and talk with young people about how they’re doing. I like meeting with researchers and young people as part of these research activities as we get to bounce around ideas and make interesting plans – there’s lots of interesting problem solving and optimism in these meetings!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Optimistic, caring psychologist
What did you want to be after you left school?
An Educational Psychologist (a little bit different from what I do now!)
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Yes! All the time, I found school very difficult and got in trouble a lot for not taking part or being "rude" to teachers.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Very hard to choose! Maybe Nina Simone.
What's your favourite food?
Pasta with literally anything on it
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To make a positive difference for young people, to be healthy and to be happy!
Tell us a joke.
I, for one, like Roman numerals (I'm possibly the only person that finds this hilarious)
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