Now that I am coming to the end of the Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme 2025/2026, this blog provides an account of my experiences with the programme and my reflections on both the research and leadership aspects.
The research project was my first foray into Mathematical research. Among academic research articles, Pure Mathematics papers have quite a high barrier of entry; it is very typical to not have met the definitions of many of the Mathematical objects central to the paper until a Master’s level course. To start off with, reading papers in the area of my research topic was intimidating. I tried to combat this by starting my research preparation very early: my research supervisor sent my a copy of Howie’s Fundamentals of Semigroup Theory as soon as I was accepted into the programme in March, and I started reading it in tandem with the research paper he had sent me which the project was based off of.
I soon learned to approach reading for research very differently than reading to get good marks in an undergraduate course. For one, courses like to approach a subject from the ‘ground-up’, and in doing so spend a lot of time doing ‘housekeeping’: proving a function is well-defined, proving an object is indeed a group or a topology, or carefully showing that a process converges. This is all very important and proper, of course, but often time isn’t very helpful in understanding the underlying idea behind a subject. Being comfortable with not being able to ‘see the ground’ Mathematically-speaking is a very important skill to develop when reading research papers. This was one thing I started to develop in my first research project that I think was very valuable going forward.
Before undertaking my Leadership-in-Action (LiA) project during the second summer of the programme, I first partook in a number of Leadership-not-in-Action (I made this phrase up) activities and courses. The chief among these was the Oxford Character Project (OCP), a bespoke, online leadership course delivered by the University of Oxford over a period of six months which emphasised character-based leadership. The six sessions focused on discovering character, transcendence, humanity, courage, integrity, and developing character as a lifetime practice. We were encouraged to reflect critically on our own strengths, weaknesses, values, and approach to leadership.
This provided a useful foundation for my subsequent LiA project. This was a central project working with the partner organisation Timothy Smith Network (TSN), a non-profit, community-based organisation serving the Greater Roxbury area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 2003, the mission of TSN is to bridge the digital divide by expanding access to technology, working to develop digital skills, and providing technology education, particularly among communities which have been historically underrepresented in the technology sector. TSN partners with community organisations, schools and industry to provide people of all ages with the tools, training and opportunities needed to pursue higher education and careers in the technology and digital sector.
TSN's flagship programme is the Boston Design Academy (BDA), a six-week internship open to Boston Public School students which provides young people with hands-on experience in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) through project-based learning in various digital disciplines such as 3D modelling, website design, and coding in Arduino. The aim is to allow young people to develop both technical skills and the confidence to see themselves as future innovators.
I worked as an instructor in the Digital Design Intensive (DDI) module, which aimed to give interns exposure to 3D modelling via Blender, video game design via Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), and website design through Google Sites, HTML and CSS. I taught the website design section, which came last in the programme and served a dual purpose as both a technical project in its own right, and a medium through which the interns could show off their other two projects in Blender and UEFN by building a personal portfolio website. I began by teaching basic web design terminology and design principles, using Google Sites as a more friendly environment to introduce the material. We then progressed to HTML and CSS, which the interns used to build both an About Me page and a Steam Store-style page which advertised their UEFN game.
However, I did not spend all of my time teaching, and indeed much of my time spent in the first four weeks of the LiA was not teaching. My role in this time was quite dynamic. For instance, I spent one morning assembling an armada of carts and trolleys in the basement of Tufts Medical School so that we could more easily transport the 3D-printers, laser-cutter and other equipment back-and-forth from the basement and between the three classrooms. I also aided the interns in their weekly Friday workshops where TSN brought in guest speakers to broaden the interns’ portfolio of technological knowledge.
Reflecting on the leadership component of the programme, I think one lesson I have learned is that leadership is not just having the capacity to lead. The 3Cs framework makes a distinction between capacities, changemaker values, and character, and my LiA experience made me appreciate how these depend on one another. My work at TSN caused me to develop leadership capacities in practice by communicating technical ideas to students with very different levels of experience, adapting my approach when things did not go to plan, and taking responsibility for tasks which fell outside of the narrow remit of my defined role. I have also developed more of a global mindset and understanding of what it means to be a global citizen during my LiA. Spending time working in Boston, particularly in an organisation whose work is rooted in addressing inequalities in access to education and technology and bridging the digital divide, challenged me to think beyond the immediate environment in which I study and live. Going forward, I hope to carry this perspective into my academic and personal life, to remain engaged as a global citizen, and to lead ethically even when doing so is more difficult than pursuing the most convenient or personally advantageous outcome. The OCP’s emphasis on character as an ongoing practice has made me see that this is not something that can be completed by the end of the Laidlaw programme, but needs to be carried forward into the future.