Workshop Structure
Helped design the overall learning sequence, moving students from research exposure to hands-on practice, reflection, and career application.
Workshop Design · Psychology Education · Career Development
VIN Your Mind: Explore the Psychology Journey
Anel Reed, Thanh Nguyen, and I co-designed and facilitated an interactive workshop for undergraduate psychology students at VinUniversity in Vietnam. The workshop moved students from experiencing authentic research tasks to identifying their transferable skills and applying those skills to real-world career opportunities.
01 · Workshop Design
Designing a learning journey from research to career application
Rather than organizing the session as a traditional lecture, we designed a sequence of short presentations and hands-on activities that progressively asked students to apply what they were learning.
01
Experience
See how psychological research works and practice collecting behavioral data.
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02
Interpret
Work with research findings and practice turning statistical relationships into meaningful explanations.
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03
Identify
Recognize research, communication, critical-thinking, and collaboration skills developed through psychology.
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04
Apply
Translate those skills into evidence of value for employers and future career pathways.
To give students a common language for thinking about their development, we connected VinUniversity psychology learning outcomes with APA 3.0 and international undergraduate psychology competencies. Students could then use those frameworks to recognize skills they had already developed through classes, projects, research, and extracurricular experiences.
02 · My Role
Co-designing the workshop and translating learning goals into activities
Activity Design
Developed interactive exercises, worksheets, discussion prompts, presentation materials, and student-facing instructions.
Skills-to-Career Translation
Took a major role in developing the job-pitch component and examples showing how psychology experiences could be translated into employer-relevant skills.
Facilitation
Co-led research activities, supported small-group work, guided discussion, and presented psychology competency and career-development content.
03 · What I Designed
Turning broad learning outcomes into concrete student experiences
01
Mapped psychology competencies
Synthesized APA, international psychology, and VinUniversity learning outcomes into accessible skill categories students could recognize in their own experiences.
02
Built experiential research activities
Used developmental research materials so students could practice behavioral observation and coding rather than hearing about the research process only through lecture.
03
Created scaffolding for reflection
Developed structured prompts that helped students move from describing an academic experience to identifying the abilities demonstrated through that experience.
04
Connected psychology skills to market needs
Introduced labor-market skill demands in Vietnam and asked students to compare those needs with the competencies they identified through psychology training.
05
Designed a career-translation challenge
Created a collaborative activity using real job postings in which students identified relevant experiences and explained why those experiences could contribute to a particular role.
Featured Workshop Tool
Mapping academic experiences into transferable skills
A class project, research assignment, presentation, or extracurricular activity can demonstrate skills that extend beyond the immediate assignment. The challenge is making that connection visible.
The Mapping My Skills activity gave students a structured way to connect what they had done with research, communication, critical-thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration competencies.
04 · Student Activities
Learning by doing
Each activity was designed to make a different part of the psychology learning process visible—from observing behavior and interpreting evidence to articulating transferable skills.
Activity 01
Mini Research Coding Challenge
Students watched a video from a developmental psychology study and coded a child's responses using a structured data-collection sheet.
Students practiced
Observation · Behavioral coding · Data collection · Following a research protocol
Debrief
Students compared their observations with the research team's coded data and discussed how raw behavior becomes analyzable information.
Activity 02
Data Detective Challenge
Students examined statistical relationships, identified meaningful patterns, and proposed possible explanations for why variables might be associated.
Students practiced
Data interpretation · Critical thinking · Statistical reasoning · Evidence-based explanation
Key concept
Students were explicitly asked to distinguish correlation from causation before sharing their interpretations.
Activity 03
Mapping My Skills
Students reflected on classes, research, projects, and extracurricular activities and connected those experiences with psychology learning competencies.
Students considered
Research skills · Communication · Critical thinking · Problem-solving · Cultural understanding · Collaboration
Activity 04
Job-Market Reality Check
Students contributed the skills they believed they had developed and then compared those responses with evidence about broader skill demand in the Vietnamese labor market.
Learning goal
Help students recognize how competencies developed through psychology could transfer to multiple professional contexts.
Activity 05
Pitch Your Mind: Skills-to-Market Challenge
Students formed small teams and reviewed real-world job postings. Each team selected a position that best aligned with its interests and experiences.
Teams then brainstormed how their psychology training could help them respond to an employer's needs.
“Why would you be an ideal candidate for this role?”
To make the task accessible to students who were still exploring career possibilities, we provided a structured translation process.
Experience
What did I do?
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Skill
What ability did this require?
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Evidence
How can I demonstrate it?
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Employer Need
What does this role require?
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Contribution
How could I use this skill there?
As a psychology student, I've learned to...
In my class / project / research, I...
This experience helped me develop...
In this role, I could use that skill to...
Teams presented their reasoning to the larger group, giving students practice communicating academic experience in language that connected directly with a workplace context.
05 · Workshop in Action
From individual reflection to collaborative practice
The workshop alternated between individual reflection, small-group problem solving, whole-group discussion, and student presentations.
Across the workshop, students moved between individual reflection, collaborative problem-solving, applied practice, and presentation.
06 · Design Principle
Reduce the distance between “what I studied” and “what I can do”
A central design challenge was helping students move beyond simply naming the courses and projects they had completed toward recognizing what those experiences demonstrated about their capabilities.
The workshop therefore did not simply tell students that psychology develops transferable skills. Activities repeatedly asked students to produce the connection themselves: observe behavior, interpret information, identify a skill, connect that skill to an experience, and explain how it could create value in another context.
Workshop Design Goal
Move students from “I took a psychology course” to “Here is what I learned to do, where I demonstrated it, and why it matters.”