During the course of the Laidlaw programme I have learnt a range of applicable, useful leadership skills that I will be happy to carry forward into my career. Some of the key areas that I identified for growth during my application included public speaking, effective science communication and the development of a project leadership skillset. Through the myriad workshops that I have attended over the past two years I feel that many of these skills have been improved. A public speaking workshop taught by faculty from the Lír academy of acting massively improved my confidence in giving presentations. Through the development and execution of my research project I learnt how to communicate effectively with colleagues, to reach out to professors and other experts when in need of guidance and to plan a project from the development, through the field campaign, into the lab and on to the write up and data analysis. I addition, I had the opportunity to take part in a series of workshops educating Fijian rural youth about issues surrounding climate change, during which my science communication skills grew massively. In particular, being unable to use any sort of scientific jargon was a challenge when explaining complex concepts but the exercise did a lot to develop my ability to convey science to the public.