Brittany Wright \u201919 wanted to get experience doing research outside of Furman. Thanks to a grant from The Furman Advantage she was able to do just that at the University of South Carolina\u2019s Arnold School of Public Health last summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with professors on Furman\u2019s campus a lot, so I kind of wanted to expand my network and get some more connections,\u201d she said. \u201cWith that money I was able to get an internship no problem, because my professor didn\u2019t have to pay me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That would be assistant professor Rachel Davis, who oversaw a study titled \u201cUsing Tailored Narratives to Increase Cross-Racial Empathy and Reduce Implicit Racial Bias: A Preliminary Study Toward Eliminating Racial Health Disparities.\u201d In it, the empathy responses of white volunteer participants toward a black protagonist are tracked in a series of hypothetical scenarios.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were measuring study participants\u2019 implicit racial bias as they read the story,\u201d Wright said. \u201cMy job was to use participants\u2019 demographic information \u2026 to try to explain their implicit racial biases and their empathy scores toward the main character.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright will discuss the experience at the\u00a011th\u00a0annual Furman Engaged!<\/a>\u00a0on April 9.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been on a panel before, so it\u2019s a little nerve-racking. But I hope students come, I really do, because I think it could help them a lot to figure out how many internships are out there,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really easy to explore and find one on your own. Furman is very supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n