Sofía Cuetos
My name is Sofía Cuetos, I’m from Venezuela and I came to Madrid because I wanted to push myself and go somewhere unfamiliar. I’m studying the Bachelor in Behavior and Social Sciences but in my free time, I love to cook. I find it very therapeutic and love seeing other people enjoying what I’ve made.
"I always say that the issue with this program is that every class is so interesting so it gets harder to pick a favorite subject."
Understanding the human race to make an impact
Sofía believes that studying human behavior is essential as we are all humans who live and work with one another. Once we understand human behavior, we can change it, influence it, understand why it doesn’t work sometimes and reflect on ourselves as well. Intrigued by humanities and fueled by a desire to understand people better, Sofía chose to study the Bachelor in Behavior and Social Sciences. She also had heard that a program at IE University offers many professional opportunities.
Sofía enjoys many aspects of her program: the classes, the professors’ knowledge and the ability to apply her learning to real life. In her first year, she enjoyed the presentation skills class and she continues to use the skills she gained in her program and internships today. Her second year presented the opportunity to deep dive into her program even more and she thoroughly enjoyed the Psychology Cognition and Emotion class. Aside from the theory, the class taught her more effective study methods, enriching her understanding of herself in the process.
This year, Sofía is enjoying her Behavioral Economics and Anthropology class—benefitting from a different dynamic where the class is based on discussion rather than memorization.
As a Bachelor in Behavior and Social Sciences student, Sofía has set herself apart from the crowd with courses in economics, anthropology, sociology and psychology and is well trained in looking at problems from a different perspective. Specifically, Sofía can look at problems through different lenses, some of which conflict in ideologies such as economics and behavioral economics.
Her experience at IE University isn’t solely based in the classroom though. In her first year, Sofía participated in the IE Volleyball Club in Segovia and led the team to success as captain. It was an amazing opportunity for her to meet new people after the pandemic. She now works for a sexual education campaign in collaboration with many other IE University clubs.
Professionally, she has earned herself an internship at a management company focused on behavioral science in Peru called Heurística, as well as an internship at IE Business School.
Looking to the future, Sofía has a wealth of opportunities at her feet for post-graduation. She is interested in public policy and wants to generate long-lasting and positive behaviors. Her dream would be to work at the Behavioral Insights Team. Further down the line, she would consider going back to university and studying for another degree to expand her mindset and skill set.
Policies often have the intention of encouraging certain behaviors but what Sofía highlights as the problem, is that there isn’t enough understanding of the audience or the context to work. Humans aren’t as logical as we like to think. Sofía’s focus on behavior and social science will help her bridge this gap, enabling her to see things from multiple perspectives and find a suitable and effective solution.
To prospective students of the Bachelor in Behavior and Social Science, Sofía emphasizes that they will see some biases and heuristics multiple times but that it’s important to keep up-to-date on them and the theories and applications behind them, as well as to study cases.
