Just over 18 months ago I received an email welcoming me onto the Laidlaw Leadership and Research Scholarship as part of the 2024 cohort. I was immensely proud to have been accepted and I couldn’t wait to get started with all the programme had to offer. It’s strange to think that I am now at the end of a journey that went by in what felt like no time at all. I had so many incredible experiences on my Laidlaw journey that I struggled to recall them all here, but here we are. I completed the two large components of the scholarship; research using computer modelled soil erosion in summer one and a Leadership in Action project in Peru in summer two; I also participated in leadership training days, completed the Oxford Character Project program, and presented my research poster at the 2024 Laidlaw Scholars conference in Leeds. Looking back on my experience as a Laidlaw scholar, I would summarise what I have taken from the programme in two words: reflection and collaboration.

Reflection

I have always considered myself a practical and somewhat cynical person. In the past, I have felt that these two attributes don’t lend themselves to the world of ‘personal development’, a term that frankly made me cringe just to say. As such, I had my reservations about the leadership development sessions that instigated my Laidlaw scholarship journey. I’ll admit, it took me some time to embrace the self-scrutiny that comes with personal development and understanding what it means to be a leader in your own personal context.

Though I'll admit it's a cliché, given time, these development sessions have genuinely changed the way that I approach my life. For the past year or so, I have now established myself as the person in the friend group that insists on reflecting on our high and low moments of the day, the term, or the year, and encourages my friends to think critically of themselves (constructively of course!). Not only do I now think more meaningfully about how I am conducting my life and how this may or may not align with my goals, but I have also fostered more meaningful relationships with my friends and family by encouraging them to take similar moments of reflection with me.  A part of this journey in reflection has been learning how to verbally express and draw reflections out from others. I am slowly but surely getting better at having difficult conversations, and my confidence in taking others with me in these conversations is growing too. I value this skill immensely and I believe it will be the key to leading with empathy as I go out as a citizen and leader in the big wide world. I have made these reflective thoughts and discussions a regular part of my life, and I intend to keep this habit going strong!

This aspect of personal development has been complemented by the wise words of some of the speakers I’ve interacted with along my Laidlaw journey. I understand leadership to be something that is learnt through experience as well as knowledge, and it has been a pleasure to get a taste of the experiences that have been shared with us in the speaker series sessions. For me, leading ethically is about being willing to learn and adapt as personal and external circumstances change, and so meeting a range of people from different walks of life has set me off on this learning experience; I feel ready to learn from the nuances which reside in every person I will encounter on my journey to being a better, more ethical leader.

Collaboration

Collaboration then, seems an intuitive following principle, moving personal reflection and learning from others into a group setting. For me, leadership is of course stepping up and taking an executive decision when it really comes down to it, but it’s also about listening to the voices around you, all of which inform that final decision or action that’s taken. I really valued the opportunity to do this at the Laidlaw Scholar’s conference last year in Leeds. It was fascinating to learn from my peers about what they’d explored over the course of their scholarship, but also to share my experiences up to that point. I saw how diverse the skillset amongst Laidlaw scholars is; we all come from not only different academic backgrounds, but everyone’s research or LiA was inspired by different life experiences. Coming together in such a collaborative setting gave me confidence in our collective future, and I think understanding that each and every one of us is a resource for learning and making change has helped set us all off on a course pioneering for positive change.   

I believe listening and learning is also the key to developing yourself as a global citizen. My LiA experience working with a sustainable development organisation and rural communities in the Peruvian Andes gave me a taste for the indigenous knowledge out there in the world and how valuable it is that this knowledge is preserved. I had the pleasure of working with an organisation where collaboration with local communities was at the heart of everything they did; everyone had an equal place at the table regardless of the origin of their knowledge. It opened my eyes to how so many cultures, like my own in the UK, have lost communal and historical knowledge - whether that’s related to plant properties or how to interact amicably with nature. Though so many of us are A-Level and university graduates, this knowledge is of a different nature. To me, this is why collaboration is so important for effective leadership and global citizenship. Having many different voices around the table is much more conducive to making fair decisions with benefit for all in question. I will most definitely take this lesson into the future with me, whether in society leadership roles at university, or in the world of work.

Overall, I have valued my time on the Laidlaw Leadership and Research Scholarship immensely, and my time on the programme will be something that stays with me for a very long time. Not only was I given the opportunity to take a deep dive into my academic and social interests, but I also got to know my fellow scholars, from Durham and beyond. I have formed so many new working and social relationships along my Laidlaw journey which I am so grateful for - you know who you are!

Laidlaw; it’s been a pleasure.