{"id":6194,"date":"2026-03-25T10:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/?p=6194"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:47:11","slug":"internship-highlight-christabel-gono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/internship-highlight-christabel-gono\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship Highlight: Christabel Gono"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christabel Gono<\/strong><\/p>\n

BScMedical Pharmacology student<\/strong><\/p>\n

About the internship<\/strong><\/p>\n

My internship involved working on\u00a0designing and delivering inclusive outreach activities\u00a0aimed at building public trust in how clinical trial data is used. This opportunity meant a lot to me\u2014not just as a Medical Pharmacology student, but as someone passionate about making science accessible, ethical, and people-centred.<\/p>\n

From working in the Centre for Trials Research to evaluating the real-world impact of outreach events, it was exciting to learn, grow, and contribute to a project that sits right at the intersection of healthcare, communication, and trust.<\/p>\n

Opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had the chance to attend the\u00a0Festival of Digital Health\u00a0as part of my internship \u2014 and it was such a valuable experience!<\/p>\n

Hosted by the LEAP Digital Health Hub<\/strong><\/a> and Health Data Research UK (HDR UK)<\/strong><\/a>, the day brought together people working across research, policy, and tech to talk about how we can make health data and digital innovation more inclusive, impactful, and patient-centred.<\/p>\n

As someone working on a\u00a0public engagement project exploring how routine maternity data is used, it was inspiring to hear from others tackling similar challenges around equity, trust, and transparency in health research.<\/p>\n

The most defining experience of my internship\u00a0with the Centre for Trials Research was running a\u00a0public engagement stall\u00a0at the\u00a0Healthy Lives\u00a0event in Cardiff West Community High School!<\/p>\n

As part of my project on\u00a0inclusive and diverse engagement around routine maternity health data, I created a range of interactive activities designed to spark curiosity and conversation about how routine health data is used in clinical trials and why representation, trust, and accessibility matter at every stage.<\/p>\n

Activities included:
\nA giant jigsaw puzzle to explore the journey of routine data<\/p>\n

A \u201cMyth vs Fact\u201d flip wall to challenge assumptions about health data use
\n\u201cData Detective\u201d scenarios where participants matched data to different routine data types.
\nA bilingual language wall to reflect on key terms in both English and Welsh
\nEvaluation token jars to capture feedback in a visual and accessible way<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through my internship, I learned to be intentional about representation in every aspect of public engagement. Whether it was choosing inclusive and diverse imagery for my puzzles, or designing different formats, from a kid-friendly jigsaw to a more detailed adult version, I aimed to create meaningful entry points for a range of audiences. This helped expand the level and type of conversations we could have, ensuring the activities were both accessible and thought-provoking for everyone who took part.<\/p>\n

It was such a rewarding experience seeing\u00a0families, young people, and community members\u00a0engage with topics like\u00a0trust, consent, inclusion, and data diversity\u00a0in a creative and meaningful way. This event really brought home the importance of making research feel\u00a0relevant, human, and welcoming to all communities – and fun, too!<\/p>\n

This was without a doubt the most rewarding experience of the eight-week journey, something I had been working towards and looking forward to from the very beginning.\u00a0Seeing it come to life, and witnessing the impact it had in real time, has been incredibly fulfilling.<\/p>\n

Poster Exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had the chance to present my summer internship project titled\u00a0Public Engagement in Health Data Science: Designing Outreach for Impact and Inclusivity\u00a0at the On-campus Internship Poster Exhibition with the Centre for Trials Research<\/strong><\/a>. It was such a rewarding experience.<\/p>\n

Presenting this work at the exhibition gave me the space to reflect on how meaningful and inclusive engagement can empower communities and strengthen public confidence in health research. It was also inspiring to see the range of impressive projects showcased by other students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through this internship I also had the chance to learn more about the role of routine maternity health data and how it can highlight gaps and disparities in care. Engaging with this work has inspired me to explore postgraduate options in public health and to consider how I can integrate this area into my future pathway. I am especially motivated to contribute to improving maternity outcomes for Black mothers and other global majority groups, where clear inequalities still exist and meaningful change is urgently needed.<\/p>\n

A huge thank you to my supervisors, Kim Munnery and Fiona Lugg-Widger, for their support throughout the project, and to Linda Adara for her help during the public engagement event.<\/p>\n

This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>

<\/div>\n

For more information on Christabel\u2019s internship experience, you can access the Centre for Trials Research blog post here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christabel Gono BScMedical Pharmacology student About the internship My internship involved working on\u00a0designing and delivering inclusive outreach activities\u00a0aimed at building public trust in how clinical trial data is used. This […]","protected":false},"author":7158,"featured_media":6197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1004],"tags":[],"custom_author":[1058],"class_list":["post-6194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oncampusinternships","custom_author-katherine-evans"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":6194,"cy":6201},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KqgK-1BU","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2026\/03\/Picture-5-scaled-1.jpg","pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6207,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194\/revisions\/6207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6194"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=6194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}