I can't believe I am nearly at the end of my Laidlaw journey! It seems like I opened my acceptance email yesterday!

Firstly, I feel like I have developed in so many ways while being in this program and I will take all that I have learned with me into the future - It has been insightful, challenging and very rewarding to say the least and whilst my time here is coming to an end I wish all new and continuing scholars the best of luck in their Laidlaw journeys!

Now, onto the outputs...

Q1: 500–900-word blog post. Summary description of the project goal, objectives, and outcomes. Include a project description, the stakeholders, the experience, the leadership learnings, the impact and how it will be sustained.

My leadership in action project this year was based on taking my research that I completed in summer one and teaching it to secondary school students. Before starting the project, I was excited to share what I had learnt with the pupils, and I was hoping to generate new interest in my research’s subject area. There was an initial problem with my project as the research I conducted was to form part of an academic paper to be published and thus needed adapting to be appropriately aimed at the pupils – this posed a challenging yet fun task for me to complete as I got to break my research down to its simplest pieces to deliver it to the secondary school pupils.

The Project goal:

The project goal was to create an awareness in the pupils about how climatic changes can yield huge impacts on ecosystems both past and present and to generate interest within them for them to explore the short-term and long-term impacts that climate change and climatic changes have on our lives every day.

The Objectives:

The objectives of my project mirror that of my project goals but they also delved into further areas. For example, one of my objectives was to have the pupils understand my research overall - to do this, it had to be broken down into six sections which were more ‘edible’ than having to face the entirety of the research, its background, and the future developments in one go. Another objective was to foster an investigation within the children about the greater impacts that the climatic change would have on the ecosystem – for example, what would happen to the rest of the ecosystem if the forams were removed completely by the anoxic waters?

The Stakeholders:

The main stakeholders of this project were the secondary school pupils. I wanted to present them with a new subject area and get them to investigate it for themselves and to start asking questions as to why such conditions affected the entire ecosystem.

The Experience:

The experience was rewarding from day one. Working with the pupils enabled me to see the content from their point of view which was invaluable when I worked with them in the mini-workshops as it enabled me to understand how to help them if they felt confused about the subject matter.

The first week was a bit slow to start as it included introductions and a breakdown of what was to follow in the next few weeks, but once those formalities were over, we jumped straight into the content which was to be covered. This part of the initial session asked the pupils to think back on their knowledge of ecosystems and consider what they thought a palaeoenvironment was and why. It then encouraged them to think about palaeoenvironments and finally, it introduced them to the study area: the Baltic Sea.

From the second week onward, we covered the remaining content focusing on keywords and how they linked into the wider picture. By enabling the students to understand the keywords, they were able to start piecing the work together themselves which was a rewarding experience to witness. Introducing the research question to the pupils early on was important as it enabled them to start linking back to the content of the first week and to the overarching research question and aims. The breakdown of the objectives did prove trickier as it featured more complex terminology but with a little discussion and teamwork, the pupils managed to get their heads around each of the terms which enabled them to reach a better understanding.

Leadership learnings:

I had to learn how to best present the work to the children as different children react better to different teaching approaches. I found it a thoroughly rewarding experience when I was able to help a pupil understand the more complex aspects of the topics which they were struggling with. I found that the small group sessions fostered critical thinking skills within the pupils which enabled them to piece together the content week by week. In addition, by team teaching with the geography teacher to help the students understand, I was able to see which approach the teacher used and implement my own similar approaches with the students to help facilitate their learning. The one-on-one work with the students helped me to develop my leadership approach to be more flexible depending on the situation and target market.

The impact of the project:

The project raised awareness within the classes of how something like the change in the salinity of water can impact an entire ecosystem. It has enabled them to discuss how fragile ecosystems are and what can cause lasting impacts within them. It also enabled them to understand the palaeogeography of Europe which is something that they had not covered yet but was something that they thoroughly enjoyed. It also gave them a new perspective on looking at European geography. It also stirred interest in higher education and themes of study. Some students asked me about studying at university and what the courses could contain. I was delighted that they approached me with such questions as I had hoped my course would create interest in studying similar content in higher education at university.

How will it be sustained?

The project posed some difficulties when it came to sustaining its impact on the pupils however, we managed to find a solution.

The project will be sustained as when I worked with the children in workshop-focused groups, we homed in on ecosystems featured within their syllabus which enabled them to relate to content they were more familiar with. We discussed how climatic changes impacted their studied ecosystems – an example being how the environment and the ecosystem changed during glacials and interglacials and whether this has had a lasting impact which can be seen today.

This part of the syllabus will enable future classes to discuss the impact of climatic changes on ecosystems, both the Baltic Sea ecosystem and others featured within their syllabus. This solution allowed the research to be both relatable and productive for their studies in their GCSE journeys.

Q2: 5-minute vlog equivalent blog post reflecting on what I have learned throughout the program, focusing on ethical leadership and being a global citizen. It needs to include how I will continue to act as a global citizen and lead ethically.

In the first year of the program, I learned which leadership style best suits me. This came to the forefront when we went on a residential focused on leadership. It put us into several leadership situations which required different approaches to best organise and complete the task. It allowed me to find my leadership style which was both valuable but also enjoyable to have completed.

The research element in year one pushed me outside my comfort zone and into a field which I had never studied before. Whilst it sounded daunting, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands, and I haven’t looked back. It enabled me to understand how best to complete first-hand research which I know is an invaluable skill to have as I approach my dissertation, but it also allowed me to develop as an academic and to work alongside world-leading academics to produce work for publication. This work will help people to understand how climatic changes can impact the lives of so many people and so many organisms even though the change seems so small. It was a good foundation for my year two placement working with the secondary school students to help them understand how climatic changes can have such a huge impact on our lives.

The second-year placement developed my ethical leadership as I had to adapt my approach to each student I worked with, to help them gain the best understanding of the project. It helped me to gain a greater appreciation of how important different leadership styles are and how they can each extract the best results out of particular situations. The project has given me valuable insight into how to be an ethical leader because it introduced me to several different situations requiring different ethical approaches and techniques to best communicate and work alongside others to produce good work. I also developed as an ethical leader as I found it insightful working within the school's guidelines for appropriate conduct whilst working with the students because it enabled me to see how different ethical approaches need to be employed in different sectors of employment. These learning experiences I will take with me into the future both in my academic and working life but also into my personal life as they will enable me to better work in, adapt to and understand situations and problems in my life that I am equipped enough to overcome.

Whilst the programme helped me to learn more about myself in terms of leadership styles and my strengths and weaknesses, it also enabled me to learn generally. I was able to speak with and work alongside many amazing scholars who had all created, researched and produced outstanding work to be proud of. Their interest in their fields of study hooked me into understanding their work and the reasons why they were completing it. It was thoroughly enjoyable to hear so many passionate people present new and impactful work.

Internally at Durham, it was also enjoyable to network with our scholars at our conferences and to celebrate the completion of previous scholar's work and time in the programme. They are a hard-working group of people who I wish the best for in the future!

A global citizen is someone who has a developed understanding of the wider world and how they fit into this. They have an active role in their community, and they strive to work with and alongside others to make our planet a more peaceful, sustainable, and fairer place for us all. Research is an invaluable skill when it comes to personal growth and development as a global citizen because it equips you with new knowledge, new perspectives and skills which enable you to make informed decisions in certain situations where you are advocating for positive change. Research also provides you with a greater understanding of global issues enabling you to contribute to these issues with solutions for positive improvements and change. By having such a research-heavy focus in year one of the program, we were pushed to understand new topics, connect with new people and present new findings in our own respective fields to hopefully enact positive change in the world.

I feel that I have developed as a global citizen during my time on the programme because I have been enlightened, through research and outputs, about how we need to help others to make this world a fairer place for us all. Scholars such as Zoe Adlam have produced both powerful and influential outputs focusing on the law and how people without the correct resources are left vulnerable in times of need. Her work resonated with me and enabled me to understand the importance of being a global citizen and standing up for those who need our help.

My time on the program has flown by but it has been a wonderful learning curve to have been on. I will take all my learnings with me into the future as a more developed academic, leader, and global citizen.