Cade Spencer, Robert May, Serena Honekin, Mindy Duggan, Keah Sharma, Sterling Williams-Ceci, and Roberta Hannah, under the leadership of Lindsay Granger-Weaver

Problem/Importance: Interacting with the lives of marginalized communities from different lived experiences and privileges than our own can be a daunting task on an emerging adult. As much as we want to do good, we understand that our imposition into these places can cause adverse effects. Similarly, with leadership being so heavily emphasized, how do we maximize our development into socially responsible leaders? Especially with many of interacting with our own identities, it is important to respect this identities while maintaining the diverse integrity of the cultures. To be world leaders and being present in community organizations, we must be cognizant of our positions. 

Perfect LiA: A perfect LiA is adapted to the situation to impact the people of interest and individualized. There should be some ongoing benefit that lives beyond our presence with minimal harms.

Partners: The Laidlaw Scholars come from a variety of backgrounds with so many valuable experiences that can be used to diversify the lens through which we view the work we do. Our cohorts are already doing this work to take as much care as possible in these spaces, so this work is being done. This work just needs to be synthesized and made into a living diary where we can share knowledge and experiences.

Proposal: Our LiA proposal is to conduct a review of the previous LiA projects to understand the challenges faced with entering spaces that are not necessarily our own. We will travel to different sites to discuss the experiences of the Laidlaw Scholars. The reflections will include how they grapple with being mindful of new spaces in order to maintain diversity while doing good. This will result in a handbook where scholars can be prepared for being careful leaders before their projects, unpack and amend their DEIJ conscious actions during their LiA, and reflect on their experiences afterwards. 

Ownership: This project should be the scholars'. As a foundation, the Laidlaw Foundation is great at managing our experiences to emphasize the ideas of leaderships. On the other hand, these experiences are personal to those doing the project and while the insights of the Foundation and universities are great for general feedback, we prioritize first hand accounts as those will be most helpful to emerging second years. 

Ask of the Foundation: We ask the Foundation to keep an open mind to our recommendations. Our efforts are with the intentions of making the scholars the best leaders possible for their given circumstances.