Global Citizen and Future Leader
Reflecting on my Leadership-In-Action opportunity and my Laidlaw experience, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for this program, my experience, and most of all the people. Over the past 16 months, I have met Laidlaw Scholars in Georgetown, D.C., Hong Kong, New York, and, of course, my own cohort in Dublin. In order to reflect on this experience, I would like to recount a few experiences that stood out to me through this past year and a half.
The welcome event for our Laidlaw cohort was unfortunately scheduled during exam week at the end of our 2nd year. Attending the introductory lecture with an EU law exam impending within an hour, I was not exactly fully present in the room. A few hours later, and the exam over, I joined the tail end of the reception where a few scholars remained mingling, where we first got to meet each other, many of whom I did not know or did not cross paths with during our previous two years at Trinity. A few weeks later, we gathered once again for LEAD Day 1 & 2, and this was really where we got to know each other, and I recall a high energy in the room as we worked through our guest speakers and exercises, even getting tribal and slightly competitive over our leadership style groups that we had been sorted into. In formal and informal conversations throughout those two days, I was blown away by the passion, intelligence, and drive in the room; however, it was largely undirected, and through speaking with other scholars, I realized we all had little idea where we wanted to direct our time and energy beyond the skeleton of a research proposal that got us into the program.
I spent May and June that summer working away on my research project, which was a challenge in itself. It was the first time I had been singularly focused on a topic as well as undertaking something so large on my own. Self-motivation and discipline were often hard to find; however, I developed these skills and grew through the experience. Truth be told, not perfectly. At the end of week 5, I took a long weekend and went to Paris as Ryanair flights were cheap and a few of my mates were in the city. I recommend doing something similar about 2/3rds of the way through your project, as your mind can use the break at that point, after weeks of being so singularly focused.
In the fall, I headed to Hong Kong for an exchange semester, an experience I also highly recommend (there's a theme to my recommendations). During my first couple of weeks in Hong Kong, I got chatting to a guy on my floor, and it turned out he was also a Laidlaw Scholar from the University of Hong Kong in the cohort a year ahead. This was a connection made on the other side of the world by pure coincidence. We discussed our projects, and I told him about my aspirations for my LiA the next summer. Our coordinator, Kate, at Trinity also kindly set up a lead day for another Trinity LL scholar and I with some members of the HKU LL cohort. Returning to Dublin in the spring, I was excited to reconnect with the Trinity cohort, and what better way than a weekend away in Carlingford. Taking time to disconnect during a particularly busy period in college and reconnect with the cohort was a breath of fresh air. The coastal town was a great backdrop to our team-building and bonding exercises (the food was also exceptional, thanks Kate and Darren!). The sharpest observation I made was the change in my fellow scholars. Almost a year on from our first lead days, my fellow scholars had grown wiser, sharper, and much more focused on what they were passionate about. This was most articulated through people’s LiA plans.
The LiA is a wildly open-ended experience where you can work in a wide range of organizations, anywhere geographically, and address any social issue you deem fit. I can not come up with a program with such broad parameters for what you can do with your time and, more importantly, their money. Through my own LiA experience, speaking with other scholars about their experiences, and reading scholars’ blog posts on the Laidlaw network, I have seen that Laidlaw scholars are passionate, intelligent, and, most evidently, inquisitive about the world’s problems. There is a shared understanding that problems beyond our own communities don’t need to be left to others to solve, and by pursuing them we build a global community of like-minded people driven and passionate to lead the world forward. These experiences continually reaffirm these traits and make me hopeful about our future, the impact other scholars make during their time as Laidlaw scholars, and the impact they continue to make long after the program.
A proximity effect has definitely emerged from the program, as meeting with the inspiring cohort every few months has reinvigorated my passion and drive to work hard in my studies and for causes and organizations that matter to me. The global nature of the program has allowed me to have a guaranteed conversation starter with fellow scholars whom I have coincidentally met in New York, DC, Hong Kong, and, of course, Dublin, and I am sure I’ll continue to meet the ‘LL Gang’ in more pockets of the world. The LL program has been a transformative experience and one I am grateful to have shaped over a year and a half of my college experience. I highly encourage anyone and everyone to apply to the program, as you’ll never know what could be waiting for you on the other side of that application.
Looking forward, beyond this fall when my time as a LL scholar comes to an end, the most valuable trait I’ll take away from the program is a high risk tolerance. An audaciousness and confidence to think about and take on large challenges. Inspired by my peers' big challenges, I’ll feel confident that no problem is too big, and no problem is too small to be rectified, as any improvement will make the global community a better place. Even if I do face challenges and everything goes sideways, I know I have a network of amazing individuals to call up, willing to help in the LL cohort.