Participating in the Laidlaw Scholars Programme has fundamentally changed how I think about research, leadership and global citizenship. Through my research on cancer immunotherapy, my experience at the annual conference, and the Oxford Character Project, I have begun to think more carefully about how to act with integrity and courage and make decisions that reflect my values. With my Leadership in Action project still ahead of me, this first stage of the programme has helped me identify the kind of contributions I want to make and the values I want to carry into that work.
This began to take shape strongly through my research, which focused on generating macrophages, an immune cell, to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) so they could be redirected to attack tumour cells more effectively. I was drawn to this area because I had become increasingly interested in the role of the immune system in cancer. The immune system can recognise and remove abnormal cells, yet cancer can also evade that response and use its surroundings to support further growth. Immunotherapy aims to respond to that problem by using immune cells in a more precise and targeted way.
As I worked through the literature and carried out lab work, I became more aware of the limits of current cancer treatment. Many targeted therapies can slow tumour growth, but they may also affect healthy tissues, which makes precision difficult in practice. That made me think more carefully about what it means to develop treatments that are not only effective but also selective and safe. My project introduced me to one possible route toward that goal: using engineered immune cells to recognise features uniquely expressed on malignant cells and respond more directly to them. Working on this topic made me more aware of the attention to detail required when research sits close to questions that may later affect patient treatment and quality of life.
One of the strongest lessons from this project was the importance of honesty about limits and patience in practice. Working in cancer immunotherapy made me more aware of how much remains uncertain, not only in relation to treatment design but also in relation to the tumour microenvironment and the difficulty of achieving real selectivity without harming healthy tissue. That made me more careful about making claims and more attentive to what the evidence could actually support. The practical side of the work reinforced this as well. Cell culture required consistency, care and a willingness to accept that progress is often slow and unpredictable. When experiments or cultures did not go to plan, I had to keep working carefully rather than forcing quick conclusions. This changed the way I think about ethical leadership. I have started to see it less as confidence or visibility and more as judgement, patience and accountability, especially when working in areas that may one day affect patients’ lives.
The annual conference experience added another layer to my understanding of the programme. Presenting my research pushed me to explain why this topic matters beyond a solely academic setting, and it helped me practice speaking about my work in a way that is clear, careful and open to feedback. Hearing other scholars present their work reminded me that many of us are engaging with related concerns and questions about health, equity, sustainability and public welfare, even when our projects sit in very different disciplines. This experience strengthened my understanding of global citizenship as a willingness to learn from people with different disciplinary backgrounds and lived experiences.
I was able to reflect more directly on my values through the Oxford Character Project, which gave me clearer language for the kind of leader I want to become. What stayed with me most was the idea that values need both consistency and flexibility. For instance, integrity creates the trust that leadership depends on, but it also requires thought and adaptability as circumstances change, even when its core principles of honesty and accountability remain constant. The session on courage also stayed with me. I came away from it with a stronger sense that fear is not something to eliminate once and for all, but rather something to understand. Careful discernment prevents courage from becoming recklessness; some fears are warnings that call on us to pause and reconsider, while others mark the edge of growth and appear when we are stepping into unfamiliar ground but still need to move forward. I also found myself reflecting on the distance that occasionally exists between the values I claim to hold and the habits I show in daily life. This part of the programme encouraged me to think of ethical leadership as something revealed in ordinary choices as much as in major decisions.
The reflection on my values has been especially helpful as I begin preparing for my Leadership in Action project, which will focus on strengthening community-centred outreach workflows for post-tuberculosis lung disease (PTLD) screening and follow-up in Lima, Peru. Based on what I have learned so far, I want to approach this work with humility, openness, respect for local knowledge and a willingness to listen with intention. My research has helped me develop evidence-based decision-making and critical thinking, and the conference and leadership training have prepared me to think more carefully about communication, collaboration and service. I hope this project will help me move from producing research outputs to making a more practical contribution, and toward a partnership with the organisation that continues beyond the formal end of my LiA. I also want to remain alert to the risk of assuming too much, acting too quickly or imposing my own ideas where listening should come first.
At this stage of the Laidlaw programme, the main lesson I will carry forward is that leadership is most meaningful when it begins with accountability. I now think of global citizenship as using knowledge responsibly, staying attentive to others, remaining committed to fairness and acting with care to help create conditions in which others can thrive. My research, the conference experience and the leadership training I have completed so far have prepared me to enter my Leadership in Action project with a stronger sense of purpose and a clearer understanding of the kind of scholar and leader I want to become.