As I come to the end of my journey as a Laidlaw Scholar, I am excited to share my reflections of how my global citizenship and ethical leadership skills have developed over the course of this incredible programme!
When it comes to global citizenship, the second summer of my Laidlaw experience has certainly expanded this value. To begin with, the experience of travelling alone to a different country has allowed me to have the unique experience of not only learning about the rich culture in Marseille, but also about the cultures of the countries the other students on the programme came from. There was 6 scholars on the Make Sense Marseille programme, coming from various places in the UK, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the USA, therefore it was very enriching to get to know everyone and share stories from our home countries. Furthermore, our host organisation, Make Sense are a global NGO, therefore I received many trainings and courses from Make Sense which enriched my global citizenship skills. For example, upon our arrival in Paris we had 2 full days at the Make Sense office to learn about the culture of the NGO, where they gave us a very informative course on social and ecological transition. This encouraged us to consider our environmental actions, reflect on our carbon emissions and overall consider how we can be more responsible for the broader global community. I found it incredibly inspiring to learn about the culture of Make Sense as they are a very ethical organisation with strong opinions which is something I value greatly, therefore it certainly encouraged me to consider how I can develop my global citizenship skills.
Furthermore, when it comes to ethical leadership, the Laidlaw Scholars programme has encouraged me to develop these skills in both summers of the programme. In my first summer, my research development days were incredibly informative, and certainly developed my ethical leadership skills. For example, we received a 'Leadership with Impact' course from Guy Richardson which encouraged us to consider the skills needed to become an ethical leader, for example accountability, delegation, communication, and many more. Furthermore, in the second summer of the programme I was able to develop my ethical leadership skills even further, for example through the leadership training we received from Marilou at Make Sense. Here, we discussed in depth the importance of collective leadership, a type of leadership which is collaborative and beneficial to all. We discussed the key characteristics needed for collective leadership, for example trust, shared power, transparency, communication, accountability and shared learning. Lastly, the main way in which my ethical leadership skills have developed on my Leadership in Action programme is through the project itself, and the need to consider how our suggestions can be ethical. This is important, as for us, the main goal of the project was to look at how the suggestions we make to our host NGO can have lasting impact and continue after we leave. Therefore, we put a plan in place with a specific timeline of how our suggestions can continue to have impact after we leave, as it would certainly not be ethical leadership to come to an organisation for 6 weeks and leave without creating any lasting impact.
In the future, I will certainly carry these lessons with me and continue to act as a global citizen and lead ethically. I plan to do this specifically in my extracurricular leadership roles by implementing the 'collective leadership' approach suggested by Make Sense, as in my extracurricular roles at university I can certainly be guilty of attempting to do everything myself, which can have negative impacts on myself and the team. Overall, I am so proud of the ways in which my leadership skills have developed over the course of the programme, and feel incredibly thankful for the experience.