Two years ago, my understanding of leadership was about looking at the world through many 'lenses' by trying to understand other people's motivations and values in order to align them with a common vision. I naively viewed leadership as something where one person can exercise it at one time. I now understand that leadership lies in collaboration, and the role of a leader is evergreen and fluid, constantly being seen in every little action someone does for the betterment of the group. I found this most evident in my research abroad, where I felt like there was no single leader in my group at any point in time, but a synergy formed through collaboration, curiosity, and trust.

I was incredibly vague in the first letter to myself and hoped for certain tangible things to be true for me in the future. In my second letter a year on,  I expressed my gratitude for various aspects of my life and excitement for the road ahead despite uncertainty, not attaching myself to any milestones of success. I enjoyed reading my second letter much more than my first. The increased gratitude taught me about reflective leadership rooted in honest self-appraisal, openness to growth, and commitment to bringing one's whole self to the role. I feel like my letters chronicle a journey from an individualistic, trait-based notion of leadership to an experiential, relational, and situational understanding of leadership as a  process of co-creation for a shared goal.

I believe that my leadership skills have developed in two main ways. Firstly, I fully embraced the power of curiosity and asking 'why?' during my 6-week Leadership-in-Action project  at Magic Breakfast, a non-profit. I learnt that even those in senior positions of power and decision-making can be so stuck in their ways, and not enough people question the status quo. I found that asking why things are the way they are is the first step to making change. Secondly, I believe I improved how much I trust teammates in a group. In my research project, five of us travelled across the Balkans for four weeks. I was very proud of our research on gender issues in higher education. But what I was more proud of was how openly we communicated and how seamlessly we worked when we established such a strong level of trust. I am grateful to call those people friends for life.

What surprised me the most during the LSE Laidlaw leadership journey is the fact that it taught me that I could have such a real, tangible impact on the world. I felt this most when talking to people who are directly affected by it, such as when meeting schoolchildren who benefited from the free breakfasts at Magic Breakfast. I also felt this when discussing with gender policy and university management in the Balkans about how the post-conflict environment influences gender experiences there. 

The Laidlaw Programme had a profound impact on my personal growth and worldview. Conducting field research in communities facing complex challenges like gender inequity and post-conflict reconstruction made these issues viscerally real and deeply personal. Engaging with people directly affected by the topics I study brought home the human stakes in a way that's impossible through classroom learning alone. It instilled in me a much stronger sense of empathy, social responsibility, and moral urgency to use my education for positive change.

Academically, the research experience was incredibly enriching. Putting the methodological tools and theoretical frameworks I've learned into practice in a real-world setting was both challenging and rewarding. I gained hands-on skills in research design, data gathering, analysis and communication that will serve me well in my dissertation on literacy and financial inclusion in rural India. Collaborating closely with an interdisciplinary team enhanced my ability to work effectively across domains, which I will be doing as a pre-doctoral researcher after graduating, at an impactful organisation called the Ellison Institute of Technology.

Finally, the Laidlaw journey crystallized my professional commitment to a career dedicated to sustainable, inclusive development. It affirmed my belief that harnessing computational methods to design evidence-based solutions to global economic and social challenges is how I want to make a difference. I'm grateful for how the programme expanded my horizons and set me on a path of lifelong learning in service of positive transformation. 

I'd also like to extend a huge thank you to Kelly Zerouk, Philip Rauber and Ioanna Gouseti for making the experience so enjoyable and seamless.