Climb, Hike, Cave All The Time. Dance, Occasionally
An Image-Archive Diary of the 2nd Residential Training of the University of Leeds 2026 cohort
On the train ride from Leeds to a beautiful, quaint train station in the Yorkshire Dales called "Horton-in-Ribblesdale", we were all beaming with excitement. The cohort consisted of scholars with a medley of personalities, from the quiet to the extroverted ones.
After dropping off our belongings at the centre, our first activity started with a short walk, and the instructor allowed us to frolic around the wide pasture land with a task of reflection on how and what we want to get the most out of this residential. This simple exercise set us in the right direction and mindset to engage with all the upcoming activities. Being away from city life and the outer world, with no internet, I was intrigued by how I could make this experience rewarding and memorable.
Climbing
Hiking
Google Maps? Nah!
Free-Time Activities
Caving
This Three-Day Residential away with the fellow scholars was incredibly rewarding, through such activities that require us to learn various aspects of being leaders. I learned the value of silence, empathy, trust, teamwork, and resilience through the hands that we lent, conversations we had, and the friendships we built. Thank you to all the instructors and organisers who made this experience possible and kept a bunch of us safe and well-fed.
Hello there! I'm Presto, a first-year Environmental Science student at the University of Leeds. I am still immersing myself in different disciplines of Environmental Science, such as Hydrology, Ecology, Geology, Meteorology, Oceanography, etc... but my self-defined research project stemmed from my upbringing in Myanmar.
Coming from Mandalay, Myanmar, I had been exposed to political conflict driving multiple humanitarian crises, including internal and external displacement, inflation, and human rights violations. However, my interest lies in how armed conflict can quietly accelerate environmental degradation, a relationship that remains poorly quantified in Myanmar.
My research is a spatiotemporal analysis to examine the impacts on the environment in Central Myanmar between 2020 and 2024, and to explore if these changes intersect with escalations of armed conflict patterns.
Outside my academic pursuits, I feel at home practising music, from songwriting, playing instruments, to singing. I try to be an inspired and creative person by travelling. I have been privileged enough to travel to Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Qatar, across the UK, and have lived in Thailand and Vietnam since moving out of my country.
I'd love to connect with fellow Laidlaw scholars.
