At Cornell University, students across disciplines are passionate about changing the world. Open to first- and second-year students, the Laidlaw Leadership and Research and Program provides generous support for student research, offers hands-on leadership development and reflection, and encourages students to reinvest their knowledge to help others succeed. Laidlaw Scholars are part of an international network of like-minded leaders.
Youness Robert-Tahiri
Founder, HaHaHelps & MSocSci Psychology Candidate, University of Cape Town
Hello! I’m a psychology researcher and the founder of HaHaHelps, a comedy-based psychosocial programme designed to support young people in residential care.
I am currently completing an MSocSci in Psychology at the University of Cape Town, where my dissertation examines the feasibility of HaHaHelps with adolescents in South African child and youth care centres. My broader interests include youth mental health, psychosocial intervention development, implementation, participatory approaches, and the use of humour and play to support connection, emotional expression, self-efficacy, and coping with uncertainty.
HaHaHelps grew out of my Laidlaw Leadership-in-Action project at SOS Children’s Villages in Cape Town, where I designed and facilitated an improv-comedy programme for adolescents. Since then, I have continued developing and delivering the programme with young people in residential care and am now studying how it can be refined, evaluated, and ultimately adapted for use in other communities and settings.
Before this, my Laidlaw research at the University of Toronto examined relationships between childhood adversity, aggression, and self-regulation.
I’d love to connect with other Laidlaw Scholars and alumni interested in youth mental health, social impact, intervention development, social entrepreneurship, or simply finding creative ways to turn research into something useful in the world.