Hey guys! My name is Chase, and I am a Georgetown student interested in addiction and drug policy. My Laidlaw work is fueled by experience in U.S. government and political spaces (such as internships in the U.S. Senate and with legislative advocacy groups). My research specifically examines the beliefs and attitudes contributing to support for medication-assisted treatment in rural areas. Outside of Laidlaw, I love to run, cook, play piano, and discuss food. 

Hi! My name is Evalyn Lee, and I am in my fourth year at Georgetown University. I am studying English, Art History, and French! Fun fact(s): I write satire for my campus newspaper, The Georgetown Heckler, and am passionate about Mokapot coffee. My research focuses on the 18th-century poet, Elizabeth Singer Rowe. Despite the limited scholarship on the poet, Rowe was an influential political writer who made significant contributions to literary history, including the development of the novel. Through my research, I hope to add to the scholarship that highlights the work of early modern women writers.  For my Leadership-in-Action project, I will be partnering with make_sense and Les Jardins d'Haïti, an intergenerational third-space for seniors, in Marseille, France. 

Hello! My name is Ruri Duffy and I am a rising senior at Georgetown University, studying International Politics and Law in the Walsh School of Foreign Service.  During my research summer, I am working with sociology professor Yuki Kato on an Oral History project investigating foodways in communities of color in recent DC history. Through interviews between DC youth and their older relatives, we are exploring how and why urban food provisioning practices have changed in these communities in response to environmental and social factors. I hope to connect these findings to broader discourse on food justice in the United States. 

Hi! My name is Ella Shi and I'm from Seattle, Washington. I am a current sophomore at Georgetown University studying Human Science. Outside of academics, I love journaling, scrapbooking, painting pottery, and really anything involving creativity!

Hi, I’m Isabella! I am a rising third year student at Georgetown University studying American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies with a research focus on sexual violence, Christian nationalism, and gender policy. I am an educator and advocate for sexual violence prevention at both a cultural and legislative level.  This summer, I will be working with Dr. Nadia Brown and a fellow scholar to understand the occurrence and effects of violence against local-level women politicians. I am particularly interested in the influence of digital abuse involving AI and the effect that sexual harassment has on women’s political participation.  Please feel free to reach out! Email: ibw9@georgetown.edu

Hi! My name is Ariadna (Arina) Maksin and I'm a rising sophomore at Georgetown University. I currently research and study neurobiology, which stems from my interest in understanding and targeting the biological mechanisms underlying substance addiction (particularly opioid abuse). My Laidlaw project investigates the role of KCC2, a potassium-chloride cotransporter protein, in morphine addiction. I hope to ultimately integrate wet-lab addiction research with both biotherapeutic and public policy fields to create sustainable treatment and prevention strategies for addiction in the US.  Outside of research, I love creative writing (particularly poetry) and I'm hoping to double major in English. I also enjoy dancing – I'm on hiphop and bhangra teams at Georgetown – as well as playing piano, exploring new cuisines, and reading. Feel free to reach out here or at am4981@georgetown.edu!

Colleen manages the Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme at Georgetown University. Through her work, Colleen aims to increase accessibility in fellowships advising for all Georgetown students with a special focus on reflective practices intended to help students identify and develop personal and career goals. Prior to joining Georgetown University, Colleen served as the Assistant Director for Early Career Initiatives with NASPA- Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, where she managed professional development programs for undergraduate student, graduate student, and new professional members. Colleen holds a master’s degree in Student Development in Higher Education from the University of Maine and bachelor’s degrees in Women and Gender Studies and Anthropology from the University of Delaware.

Hello! I recently graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology Research from the University of Toronto. I’m passionate about youth mental health and how humour can be used to support resilience after adversity. My Summer 1 research project explored the relationship between childhood adversity, aggression, and self-regulation — deepening my understanding of the psychological impacts of early trauma. In Summer 2, I led a Leadership-in-Action project at SOS Children’s Villages in Cape Town, where I designed and facilitated a comedy-based mental health program for teens. That experience led me to found HaHaHelps — an organization that uses improv comedy to support youth mental health through accessible, community-led workshops. I am currently conducting a feasibility study of the program in South Africa as part of my master’s dissertation in Psychology at the University of Cape Town, with plans to expand to more communities globally. Please feel free to connect :) Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/younessrobert-tahiri Email: youness@hahahelps.org

Hello! I am a rising sophomore interested in the intersection between health, environment, and advocacy. During Laidlaw, I am excited to research the impact of radiation on the Pacific Islands, specifically regarding contamination in local fruit and vegetation of Kiribati island. 

Hi, everyone! I'm Martin. I'm a third-year student at Georgetown majoring in Biology (with a concentration in Molecular Bio), and I'm planning to minor in Japanese. My focus has always been on cancer biology; so many people I've known have been affected by it, and my life's goal is to contribute to a cure. I'm half-American, half-Bulgarian, the child of two diplomats; I speak English fluently, and intermediate Bulgarian, Japanese, and Spanish. I have a lot of different interests outside of science: basketball and baseball, chess, politics, music, and a whole other list that's way too long for this blurb. Here's a random fact about me which I think is kinda cool: I once saw the tallest manmade thing on Earth (the Burj Khalifa) and the tallest thing on Earth, period (Mt. Everest) from the window of the same flight! My research project for Laidlaw this summer is an application of the fields I've spent so much time studying- the focus is on cancer genetics, molecular biology, and laboratory technique. The goal of this project is to uncover information about a certain protein called SON, which is thought to be involved in the processes of gene splicing and transcription into RNA. Errors in these functions often result in cancer, so figuring out the roles and behaviors of proteins like SON could really help future endeavors like genetic libraries and drug discovery programs. I won't bog this down with an excessively detailed explanation of my method, but in brief, I'm using CRISPR technology to edit the SON gene and add DNA which encodes something called a protein tag. CRISPR can use a few different DNA repair techniques as a sort of "glue" to insert this protein tag; I'll be testing two of these techniques (NHEJ and MMEJ) to add depth to the experimental process. When the modified gene gets translated into SON protein, this tag gets produced as well. The tag can be lit up and investigated with a fluorescent microscope to determine where in the cell the SON protein localizes; it can also be targeted for degradation, allowing me to research the behaviors of cells with no SON protein and thus deduce its function through this knockout treatment. Which of these goals I can accomplish depends on the time and resources I have available, but I hope that summary sheds light on the problems I'm trying to tackle with this research project. In a word, I want to find out what SON does, and I'm going to use CRISPR-mediated protein tags to find out.

Hello! I’m Jiyon, a third-year student at Georgetown University from New York City. I am studying at the University of Oxford for the 2025-26 school year. I’m majoring in Economics and minoring in Mathematics, with my academic interests lying in public economics, governance, climate policy, and labor economics. In my first summer as a Laidlaw Scholar, I assisted a research project in Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy on identifying causes of heterogeneity in U.S. state tax systems and associating variations in tax progressivity with different infant health outcomes. Separately, I have looked at how different types of public spending across U.S. states can improve social capital for the elderly. I am passionate about finding public policy solutions that improve quality of life, promote effective governance, and create durable socioeconomic institutions. In my second year of the scholarship, I am completing my Leadership-in-Action placement with The School and Family Works in London, where I am seeing firsthand the effect that multi-family therapy sessions in schools can have on student engagement, parental relations, and future outcomes.

Hello! My name is Mara, and I'm a junior at Georgetown University studying Psychology with a minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice. I'm passionate about understanding how support systems, community structures, and institutions shape outcomes, particularly for those involved in the criminal legal system. Outside of academics, I enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, exploring vintage/thrift stores, and crafting! This summer, my research project examines cross-filed Civil Protection Orders (CPOs) filed in the District of Columbia. I hope my project will highlight the nuanced nature of intimate partner violence (IPV) and domestic violence (DV), while uncovering areas of the filing process that can be improved to increase access to justice in CPO hearings. Feel free to reach out and connect! Email: maralewis1017@gmail.com Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mara-lew

Hi! My name is Emma Zhu, and I’m a sophomore at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where I’m majoring in Regional and Comparative Studies with a focus on the United States and Asia, as well as the global Asian diaspora. My academic interests lie at the intersection of history, migration, and transnational political movements. This summer, my research explores the 1982 garment workers’ strike in New York City’s Chinatown—an extraordinary and often overlooked moment in Asian American labor history. Led primarily by Chinese immigrant women, the strike brought together over 20,000 garment workers in a powerful act of collective resistance. Despite differences in dialect, regional origin, and socio-economic background, these women overcame deep structural and interpersonal divisions to organize one of the most successful labor actions in Chinatown’s history. My project investigates the strike’s transnational and transcontinental inspirations, including how global labor movements, migration patterns, and nation-building movements back home influenced their organizing methods and messaging. I am especially interested in understanding how women who were often excluded from formal labor narratives carved out their own space to mobilize, negotiate with union leadership, and ultimately reshape the trajectory of immigrant labor organizing in the U.S. My research this summer is grounded in archival work and oral history interviews and draws from intersecting traditions in ethnic studies, feminist labor history, and diaspora studies. I hope this project will contribute to broader conversations about the political lives of working-class immigrant women and the cross-cultural alliances they formed both locally and globally. Outside of Laidlaw, I really like watching films, cafe-hopping, visiting museums, and traveling. 

Hi! I’m Sophie Kleina, a Psychological and Behavioural Sciences student at the University of Cambridge. I’m passionate about language learning and preservation, which is why my Laidlaw research project focuses on the Kashubian language- a regional and Indigenous language of northern Poland, and a heritage I’m proud to be part of. My academic interests span sociology, linguistics, psychology, and education, and I’m especially drawn to work that supports cultural diversity, educational access, and meaningful social change. I care deeply about doing work that helps people, strengthens communities, and protects the richness of human language and identity. I’m always eager to learn from others and collaborate on projects that make a difference- feel free to connect!

Hello! I’m Trisha, a graduate of Cornell University from Texas, USA. I majored in Environment and Sustainability with a dual focus on food systems and wildlife conservation, and minored in International Relations. My interests in combining my enduring passions for writing and wildlife conservation have driven me to explore multiple perspectives on highly-controversial issues such as trophy hunting, retaliatory animal killings, and illegal wildlife crime. Thus, during my first summer as a Laidlaw Scholar and as a member of the Morally Contested Conservation team, I wrote a literature review on the interconnectedness of climate change and human-wildlife conflicts in East and southern Africa. In June and July 2024, I furthered this research by traveling to the University of Oxford and to the Burunge Wildlife Management Area in Tanzania, and returned to Oxford and Burunge in June and July 2025 to report my results.  As an aspiring conservationist, I am passionate about making technical scientific information more accessible to the general public. I speak Marathi, Spanish, and Swahili at varying levels of fluency and plan to continue to grow my language skills to communicate conservation challenges across continents and cultures.  The Laidlaw Scholars Program was an invaluable component of my undergraduate experience. The friendships I made, as well as the research and language skills I began to develop, encouraged me to continue to ask and seek answers to complicated questions about global affairs and environmental science. If anyone has questions about the Laidlaw Program, is interested in collaborating, or just wants to say hello, please feel free to email me at trisha.bhujle@gmail.com!