We are excited to announce our latest round of winners of the AlterSpark’s scholarship program that provides complementary digital psychology training access to graduate students and members of social purpose organizations who use technology to build a better world.
In our latest round, four researchers and change makers received scholarships:
Name: Niyati Shah
Organization: The Public Health Institute and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
URL: http://www.phi.org/, https://www.usaid.gov
Our Palo Alto winner, Niyati, is the Senior Gender Advisor & Team Leader with the Public Health Institute and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She uses technology for social change, particularly as a tool to promote gender equality and empowerment.
Niyati’s goal is to promote behavior change using mobile and web-based technology that will improve the health of marginalized populations, with the focus of her work being to promote change in Asia and Africa.
The Emotion & Motivation for Digital Behavior Change course will help Niyati improve her knowledge of human-centered design and online marketing, so that she can develop a plan, based on science and rooted in research, to foster the transformation of harmful gender norms that impede access to health services and most importantly, human rights.
Name: Inna Arnaudova
Organization: Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California
URL: https://dornsife.usc.edu/bci/decision-making-program/
Inna, our Los Angeles winner, is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Southern California. She works towards understanding the mechanisms of reducing substance use and overeating problems.
Broadly, she is interested in using digital technology in the treatment of mental health problems and the long-term maintenance of treatment gains, especially for underserved populations.
Using what she learns from the Emotion & Motivation for Digital Behavior Change workshop, Inna is hoping to develop user experiences that can engage individuals with mental health problems and increase online treatment retention rates. She hopes that her work will result in a better grasp of the best ways to deliver treatment for those suffering from mental health problems and specifically, addiction and overeating.
Name: Clay Jones
Organization: White Ribbon
URL: http://www.whiteribbon.ca
Clay is our Toronto winner and is a staff member of White Ribbon, a non-profit organization. His work is based on primary prevention, focused on ending domestic violence and gender-based violence.
Clay’s goal is to not only end violence against women, but to also engage men in safe and open conversations about masculinity, patriarchy, violence, power and emotions.
By participating in the Psychology for Digital Behavior Change workshop, Clay hopes to learn new ways he can integrate psychological strategies into his technology, and how to connect with his audience by building long-term, authentic relationships.
Name: Carey Otto
Organization: Carey Otto Design
URL: http://careyotto.com/
Our Seattle winner is Carey, a consultant and digital designer for non-profit organizations like Amnesty International USA and the Undocumented Student Program of the University of California at Berkeley.
Carey’s goal is to help socially conscious organizations advance their missions of positive impact on the world, through user experience and user interface design.
By taking the Emotion & Motivation for Digital Behavior Change workshop, Carey hopes to gain an understanding of how to create stronger emotional connections in the digital space. She aims to take the knowledge she learns in class to help guide her non-profit clients on how to better connect, educate, and motivate their audiences to make the world a better place.
About our scholarship program
To ensure that our workshops on digital psychology contribute towards positive social change, AlterSpark gives away complementary scholarship in its various workshops on digital psychology, to people who use digital media and behavior change to promote a better planet.
Apply for our next round
Our next scholarship intake period is estimated to run in January 2017. If you’d like to apply to the next round of scholarships, stay tuned via our social media and newsletter announcements. You can learn more here: https://www.alterspark.com/training/enrolling/scholarships-for-social-change-for-social-change
