Jake Sallaway-Costello
Social science can be part of solving any problem.
Jake Sallaway-Costello
Co-director of the Real Junk Food Project Central
Studied: BSc Psychology with Clinical and Health Psychology, 2015
The course content at Bangor was topically diverse and offered lots of opportunities to study areas of psychology I hadn't covered at A-Level.
"I specialised in health psychology, and from there narrowed focus to nutritional psychology, working for Food Dudes Health part-time during my final year. After graduating, I worked for the Centre for Activity and Eating Research, which led to a move to Birmingham to do a PhD in public health.
“Whilst at Bangor, I took part in the Bangor Employability Award and got heavily involved in all the support and activities offered by the careers and employability team, who were amazingly encouraging.
“I also took weekly Welsh lessons at Coleg Menai and enjoyed being involved in the ‘dysgwr’ activities run by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.
“I currently work as a lecturer at the University of Nottingham, where I work in the Division of Food, Nutrition & Dietetics as the curriculum lead for social and behavioural nutrition. As the only psychologist in my team, I work closely with my colleagues - mostly nutritional biochemists, dietitians and food scientists - to link my teaching around the "why" of eating behaviour, to their "what" of nutrients and the food system.
“I also founded a social enterprise called 'The Real Junk Food Project Central' in 2017, implementing findings from my studies in the real world, which is still running successfully now and produces over 150,000 meals a year for vulnerable people in the West Midlands.
“I had some great lecturers in the School of Psychology who directly influenced how I teach and support my students today. The School has an enthusiastic community of scholars who see the massive potential in psychology, and I think this is likely why I now ‘see the psychology in everything’, and value the potential for the role of social science in solving any problem.”