Laura Legarreta

My duty as an interpreter was to facilitate communication between English and Spanish speakers in a fast, clear and concise way. I acted occasionally as a cultural mediator between the two parties in the conversation. I assisted in communication between financial institutions, hospitals, detention centers and insurance companies and their clients.

I introduced an international group of Master’s students to the principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), which is the method in use at the university. Subsequently, I guided them through three tutorials so they could practice their problem-solving, listening, speaking and analytical skills together. I also answered their questions about their program, lectures and tutorials, as well as questions about living in Maastricht.

First, I collaborated with my supervisors to design an experiment. Afterwards, I was responsible for recruiting participants via Facebook groups, email and posters. I met participants for two sessions to apply the tests and questionnaires and I followed up with them to send a final questionnaire and to provide compensation. Finally, I analyzed the data collected during the experiment to write the results in my master thesis.

I guided children through a series of reading, writing and arithmetic exercises to help them improve their academic performance. I occasionally had to adapt the exercises to meet the children’s needs. I also wrote progress reports to review them with my supervisor and the parents, in order to identify the areas that still needed work and to design a plan to meet the agreed goals.

I interviewed first semester students that had academic difficulties and provided tutoring to improve their studying, note-taking and time-management skills, thus helping them adapt to the university’s demands. In addition, I collaborated with my colleagues to create and impart a workshop on learning styles for first year students. At the end of the project, I coordinated a team to capture, clean and analyze the data available on the project’s beneficiaries database

I updated the monthly reports on employees that had stopped working at the company and processed their files. I also looked for CVs online and filtered them according to the vacancies’ requirements. Furthermore, I called the selected candidates to schedule an interview with the supervisor and scored the psychometric tests applied during the selection process.

I was part of a team that was in charge of conducting intake interviews, applying psychometric tests and writing psychometric reports according to the clients’ needs. Moreover, I was assigned to create and constantly update a database with the information of every case processed during the semester. In addition, I developed and imparted a training for my own team and for the next three teams on the topic of integrating psychometric test results and writing reports.

I collected psychophysiological data from the participants during experiments, such as heart rate, respiratory rate and skin conductance. Furthermore, I collaborated with the researcher and other research assistants to find relevant scientific literature, clean and analyze quantitative data and write segments of a research report.

My specialization is in Health and Social Psychology. During my studies I learned techniques to foment health-promoting behavior, such as Intervention Mapping and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

I did three six-month internships during the program: one as a research assistant, another one in the psychometric department of the university's psychological attention center, and the final one as an HR assistant in a company.