I am a first-year BSc International Relations and History student at the London School of Economics and Political Science. My relevant experiences span research, writing, and social impact initiatives around geopolitics and socio-economic development. I wish to understand and address the structural drivers of global asymmetries, particularly educational, gender, and postcolonial inequalities. This summer, for my LiA, I will work with the British Red Cross, evaluating its “Flooding: Aware, Prepare, Care” adult education programme. Using mixed-methods research, including qualitative fieldwork and programme evaluation, I will assess how effectively the intervention improves flood risk awareness and preparedness.

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.

LSE Laidlaw Scholar & Champion Hi, I'm Alyssa - an second-year undergrad at the LSE studying Social Policy and Politics! For my Leadership in Action project, I spent the summer at Zero Gravity, a social mobility organisation, leading a STEM mentoring partnership with GSK and matching mentees across a few other corporate programmes. Zero Gravity is the reason I made it into LSE - I was one of their mentees in sixth form, so working on the other side of the platform meant a lot to me. I'm interested in consulting, social mobility and widening access to education. Always happy to chat to anyone thinking about a similar path, or just in general! :)

Dhanush Karthik Rajan