Lucy graduate, Denise Kohlhepp, was awarded a distinction for her Master’s, the Simms Prize for First Class Results, and the Best Dissertation Award.
Denise have been awarded a distinction for her Master’s and BPS accreditation, together with the “Best Dissertation Award” from the Faculty of Education. She has also received the Simms Prize for First Class Results in her Master of Education from Lucy Cavendish College.
Why did you choose your degree?
I have always been fascinated about how environmental factors can influence the brain throughout development. It was always my plan to return to research after my first Education Master’s in Biology and English and having gained teaching experience internationally.
Before undertaking my master’s in Psychology and Education and the British Psychological Society (BPS) accreditation at the University of Cambridge, I was head of department and teacher at a British boarding school for several years and occasionally teaching at the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. After my master’s degree at Cambridge, I have started a PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, Harris Manchester College, supervised by Professor Gaia Scerif and Dr Karen Mansfield, and funded by the ESRC Grand Union DTP.
What inspires you?
Physical activity, nature and community have been important parts throughout my life, and I am inspired by older people running marathons at the age of 70 with a smile on their face. I love exploring new places and cultures, and I am especially intrigued to learn about different life perspectives and how the likes of yogis and monks are so in tune with their body and mind. In our increasingly stressful society we often lose touch with nature and our body-mind connection.
I am very curious about the effects of green environments and exercising in social groups on health and wellbeing. Through research I would like to achieve a small contribution towards helping young people staying in touch with their body and mind through movement. Mental health problems in children and adolescents have negative consequences for cognitive development and educational achievement. I am excited about how physical activity affects the links between cognition and mental health in young people over time. My aim is to provide novel understanding of the underlying causal pathways as to why physical activity can protect and improve young people’s mental health. I want to influence policy makers by informing guidelines that support vulnerable children by encouraging physical activity for healthier, happier and more successful lives.
What was your dissertation about?
My dissertation at Cambridge was supervised by Professor Jenny Gibson from the Faculty of Education and Professor Joni Holmes from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. I conducted an exploratory cross-sectional study on the dataset by the Centre for Attention, Learning and Memory (CALM) that aimed to establish if there were any differences between a group of monolingual and bilingual struggling learners aged 5-18-years old on cognitive flexibility, working memory, attention, overall executive function as well as learning (i.e. spelling, reading, mathematics). The most important finding was no group differences between mono- and bilingual struggling learners in any of the investigated measures of executive function and learning, suggesting that bilingualism does not harm children with a range of learning difficulties. Practical implications for education and policy include advice against forced monolingualism, establishing a dialogue with caregivers and practitioners for individualised language decision-making towards encouragement for bilingual exposure to harness its potential benefits.
I feel honoured to have been awarded a distinction for my Master’s and BPS accreditation and to have received the “Best Dissertation Award” from the Faculty of Education and the Simms Prize for First Class Results in my Master of Education from Lucy Cavendish College. I am very happy to have been selected for such a wonderful award. Having been a secondary school teacher at a boarding school before returning to academia, I really appreciate the origin and purpose of this prize. I am very much looking forward to returning to the college for the Celebrating Students Success Formal Hall in March 2023.
What's the best thing about being part of the Lucy community?
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic I could not spend much time at the college or Cambridge, but I really enjoyed the yoga classes at Lucy that started online during the pandemic which created a calm and invigorating space for the college community near and far. Now that travelling has become possible again, I am looking forward to exploring the college and the University further as an alumni.