Doctoral internships in South Africa
Doctoral student Mgr. Vincent Anton went to the other hemisphere, to Potchefstroom, South Africa, to North-West University for a mandatory month-long internship in the spring semester.
"The primary motivation for going on the internship was of course the credits, but if I'm going somewhere, it better be worth it! I communicated all the details about the internship with Professor Moss, who even took me on personally. Although she is currently working on a different subject, she has very rich experience related to the topic of my dissertation project. All consultations were therefore beneficial both academically and geo-culturally - after all, the situation in South Africa is a little different in some respects.
In the first few days, I met with the expedition from the Zagreb KIF, which made a five-day stop at NWU as part of the ERASMUS+ tour and provided a fun welcome. The event included a lecture by Dr. Bok on Adaptation to Endurance Training and a faculty presentation to entice African students to take advantage of the ERASMUS+ study abroad offer in Croatia. Especially after the mention of the ski course, few students could hide their enthusiasm.
At PhASRec, I was assigned a place where I could do my own work. The bonus was invitations to workshops and various training sessions. One of these was a training day by NIRx, a company that is involved in the research, development and application of fNIRS technology. This allows to monitor changes in blood oxygenation, so the use is very wide, from purely sporting topics to psychological ones (e.g. interviews, etc.). The timing of the internship was optimal considering the next workshop that was just starting at PhASRec. Its aim is to educate and support staff in the use of Scoping Review as a tool to enhance their research activities," he summed up his internship.
When asked what he filled his free time with, he says: "As seeing the Big5 is a must when visiting South Africa, we used the free days to travel around, especially to the countryside. The biggest downside to this decision is that after visiting the Drakensberg and the surrounding area, our Alps lost their charm."
