I have been a laildlaw scholar for 3 months now, and I can honestly say that my life has already changed in so many ways that I would never have expected.
My journey in the Laidlaw began at the Welcome event, where I first started to meet Laidlaw scholars, and listened to the older scholars share their experience and wisdsom. Hearing what they had been able to achieve and the difference they had made in the world was truly inspiring, and though it felt like those achievements were beyond me, I am starting to learn that I am able to dream much bigger than I had thought before becoming a scholar.
After having briefly met some of the members of my cohort, I was able to get to know them a lot better during our first residential to the Village hotel in Headingley, where we began to bond whilst also learning about ourselved, and gaining valuable insights on how to be better leaders and to work as a team.
It was the second residential that really pushed me out of my comfort zone and in doing so brought me closer to my fellow scholars. Crawling through dark caves and scrambling up mountains in the rain really taught me to face my fears and to be okay with discomfort. There were times when I was desperate to give up and I felt that the activity was pointless, but I realised that sometimes there doesn’t have to be a purpose, other than simply to experience it and to look out for what you can learn from it.
Since then, I have been working on my research project where I am looking into alternative ways to feed pigs, which might help reduce the environmental impact of pig production, without sacrificing growth and performance. Before starting my research, I had the opportunity to visit the local pig farm and see the the pig production process in person, which was an unforgettable experience and boosted my curiosity in this topic. It has been fascinating to learn about something that I previously knew nothing about, and to gain an insight into the world of farming and nutrition.
So far I have been doing a lot of reading and collating of evidence, with the hope that I will be able to come to a conclusion as to what is the best feeding method. As I come to the end of this phase of my project and start to think about what my conclusions might be, I am realising that there is lots of contradication and confusion in the literature, so I am intrigued to see where the rest of my project will take me.