This week has been difficult, but has provided me with meaningful lessons about leadership that I will carry with me into future experiences. Despite my team of Laidlaw Scholars thinking we were nearly finished with our project, towards the end of this week we received unexpected extended feedback and alterations to our prototype from Genera Territorios. At first, the task and challenge this posed appeared insurmountable, and we were overwhelmed by the quantity of work ahead of us, and how to plan our tasks and time effectively. However, with a lot of hard work and support from within our immediate team, Keni and Aide, and the rest of the Laidlaw Scholars, we have managed to advance a lot, and will hopefully be finished in the next couple of days.
Even though it has been a challenging and tiring end to the week, it has taught me valuable lessons about leadership. My main take-away has been the importance of communication in leadership and project management. Communication throughout a project needs to be clear, constant, and purposeful, and much of our extra work at this late stage could have been avoided with clearer guidelines communicated by the organisation. The process has put into practice the ‘Design Thinking’ model we learned about at the start of this experience; whilst the five stages (empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test) are clear in how our project has advanced, these steps have not been linear, and we have had to return to stages multiple times. This week has also demonstrated to me the importance of teamwork, and the power it has to break down and complete (hopefully successfully) a seemingly impossible task. My team divided tasks based on our experience and skills, and remained conscious of keeping this fair in terms of workload.
Whilst the latter end of this week has been unexpected in terms of work load, I still had fun socially, and experiencing Mexican culture. Last weekend, my friends and I visited Xochimilco. Although this visit did not involve the history lesson we were expecting, it did involve lots of tasting of local goods, especially tequila. Other than partying on colourful boats with my friends, this week involved watching a football game at the Estadio Azteca. The atmosphere was incredible, and it was so cool to see such an iconic stadium, and of course, buy a Mexico jersey to mark the occasion!
My time in Mexico is now coming to an end, and I hope to make the most of the last few days. I hope to complete a prototype that will have a meaningful impact on women and their financial literacy, and that Genera Territorios are content with. I also want to make time for fun with my friends, and create some final Laidlaw memories with them before we leave Mexico City and return to different pockets of the world.
At the football feat. our Mexico jerseys
Hello! My name is Annie, and I am a second year undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge, studying Geography.
My research project is titled ‘Scroll, Share, Speak: Examining Generational Engagement with Feminist Content on Social Media’. My project investigated the engagement patterns of self-identified women in the UK with feminist-related content on social media. The investigation examined how often different generations engage with digital feminist content, and the type of content and platforms they find most appealing. I explored how social media has influenced the way feminism is expressed and perceived, particularly in terms of its effectiveness in driving real-world change and shaping more inclusive forms of engagement.
In my spare time, I love to spend time with my friends and family, go on walks, and play netball.
If you’re interested in learning more about my research, or simply starting a conversation, I’d love to connect.
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