Za-Zie Kuipers
Za-Zie uses her knowledge and skills as a program manager and social psychologist. That particular combination of a Master’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Communication Science immediately touches on two disciplines that we use to facilitate behavioral change in security & privacy. That’s a very logical path for Awareways, isn’t it?
“I started my studies in Nijmegen with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, which I found the most interesting thing to do after high school. Then I didn’t want to go in the clinical direction, because the possibilities of other directions appealed more. The master’s in Behaviour Change was a much better fit; working on creative interventions and positive behaviour change. I completed that track in the middle of corona time, partly remotely. That’s why I wanted to do another master’s; it was an odd time to enter the job market and I hadn’t finished learning how to communicate positive behavior. That became communication studies, and specifically commercial communication – as the most interesting of the four specializations for me.”
“Now that I’ve been at it for a month, the initial focus is on program management and familiarizing myself with client services. Next up will be finding the balance with the other components. Of course you have to get used to it at first, but you learn quickly and are given the space to do so. At the same time, I am already joining the monthly consultations in the Social Psychology cluster, so I can combine my specializations very nicely!”


Floor Warmelts
Floor studied Communication Studies in Amsterdam (VU), specializing in Media Psychology. She completed that chapter with a thesis titled, “The Influence of Spontaneous Self-Affirmation on Climate Change Skepticism,” which examined the extent to which spontaneous self-Affirmation influences climate change skepticism. She previously did a bachelor’s degree in Communication & Multimedia Design in Utrecht, where she graduated as a brand designer. There she was able to put her creativity to good use, with a keen eye for detail.
The latter comes in handy now that Floor is going to combine her role as program manager with work in the Marketing & Communications Cluster. During college, she already had her own business because she was in high demand for design jobs. “I really enjoy that – branding, positioning, for different types of companies. It has brought me a lot, also towards my work here. On the one hand with regard to client contact around the deployment of our programs, but also by working on the creative interpretation myself.”
“Communication studies I added to that very consciously, because I felt I hadn’t finished learning and I wanted to zoom in on content, so scientific research in addition to the use of media expressions.” That combination, in turn, lends itself very well to our filling the position of program manager, which focuses on human behavior (and how to change it!) in addition to customer contact. The bachelor was mainly focused on user experience design, the master on how psychological processes work in the media user. How does the brain work, how are humans put together, how are choices made? Both come together nicely in program management. What is a good fit for a client? What is the goal, how do we get there, and then work with them at the table to deploy the right resources.”
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