On Global Citizenship and Ethical Leadership

An essay discussing my experience as a Laidlaw scholar as a whole, and how it has shaped my perception of being a "global citizen" and of ethical leadership.
On Global Citizenship and Ethical Leadership
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This scholarship has been an incredible and unforgettable experience for me. I have always been rather timid, and historically, have lacked confidence in my academic capabilities. Leadership is also not a naturally occurring skill for me. Being a recipient of the prestigious Laidlaw Scholarship has provided me with the academic validation I needed to acknowledge my competency, alongside so many opportunities that I truly would not have been able to achieve without the Network and the funding from the foundation.

My experience with the Laidlaw Scholarship for the past two summers has been enlightening in terms of what my interests and priorities are. This scholarship challenged me to no end – and I have learned so much about myself, my academic interests, ethical leadership, and how possible it is indeed, to contribute to global issues as an individual.

The research I completed in my first summer of the scholarship was incredibly impactful for me as it provided me with a newfound passion for neuropsychology – specifically learning about stroke and the long-term effects that can occur afterwards. The stroke research conference I attended after completing my research was deeply inspiring for me and allowed me to network and be exposed to the realm of academia that I had always perceived as inaccessible. I am so privileged to be able to do an extension of my original research from the first summer for my final year Psychology dissertation project this year. This is deeply significant for me personally as I have found it difficult to find a topic to be passionate about within my degree for the past few years due to the lack of choice in my modules. It is most important how my research internship from Summer 1 truly enlightened me about my academic interests.

Regarding the topic of ethical leadership and being a global citizen – I have been lucky enough to have been provided countless opportunities throughout this scholarship to explore such notions.

As I have previously noted – leadership is so challenging for me as I am usually happy to step back and let others take charge. I had never considered this prior to the scholarship, but this concept of global citizenship is in my opinion inherently intertwined with ethical leadership. Doing this scholarship prompted me to confront myself on what was more important – my fear of leading incorrectly or contributing to global issues that I care about. I have always tried to display my stances on such matters – for instance, by attending publicly organised protests and demonstrations or working with local charities and volunteering in small ways – and yet I always felt unsatisfied or discouraged that no change would happen because of my minute contributions. I do acknowledge that every hour volunteered mattered – however, my perspective and my talent for downplaying my abilities due to fear limited me so much back then.

Within the Laidlaw network, each scholar has their own contribution that is specific and different. Yet: each scholar’s research is equally as significant and impactful as the other. I realised that my contribution was in fact important, and that literally no one else was doing the research that I was doing. And yet, this does not minimise the importance one bit. Thus – my first summer, in which I completed my research internship with Dr Vancleef, taught me these lessons.

However, my first experience with being a leader during my Laidlaw scholarship was at Peat Rigg for the Scholars’ Leadership Residential Weekend. Not only was this so much fun, but I was also able to try new activities while practising leadership. One memorable experience for me during this weekend was caving. It was my first ever attempt at caving, and yet I was the allocated leader for a group of 10 adults. I was made to navigate and lead in almost complete darkness, in the damp, cold and cramped caves at Peat Rigg. This particular activity was deeply impactful to me due to its challenge and how it showed me that I was able to lead a group well. It was also incredibly enjoyable albeit slightly terrifying at times.

Despite this, I learned the most about ethical leadership and being a global citizen during my second summer, in Mexico City. What I loved especially was just how we were taught to approach our tasks. We had training on Design Thinking, Project Management, and Leadership. Every single action we completed in Mexico City with make_sense was considerate and empathetic. Learning about Design Thinking, especially in the first weeks had really put the project immediately into perspective. If not for our Design Thinking training, I would not have had such a nuanced and well-rounded approach to my project. I appreciated the constant reminder of the framework, as we completed our projects in “real-time” according to the well-curated schedule – each phase of the framework was another week, i.e. Weeks 1-3 reflected the stages of “Ideation” and “Prototyping”. I believe that this will be useful for my future as I will ensure that I take this framework into account in all of my future projects. I especially loved the emphasis on empathy and staying grounded. Meeting the communities we were working with and working for; travelling to truly understand the culture and immersing ourselves in it was incredibly significant in how I approached my project in the end. If not for this emphasis, I feel as if I would have been too detached to the community I was working with, especially due to the distance (Mexico City to Yucatan, where iin ki kalante is based). Working with make_sense, Muuch Creative and iin ki kalante in Mexico City was brilliant and I really learned so much about working in a non-profit organisation, and the impacts that we can foster as individuals working together as global citizens. This feeling was so much more touching towards the end of the summer as I really started to acknowledge that the summer was ending and that all of us scholars were flying back to our home countries so soon. It really illustrated just how global this was. Knowing how brilliant and clever each scholar is, and how each of them is going to continue contributing so much knowledge and kindness to our communities is so reassuring and so inspiring to me. I hope to use all of these lessons in empathy and leadership that I have learned in the past two years in my future research and various endeavours, regardless of what discipline it will be in.

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Go to the profile of Rachel Clinton
over 1 year ago

Love This! Very Inspiring for me as I move toward my Education and Leadership Goals.

Thank you!