Helen Nicholls

Hi everyone! I run the CraftHER Leadership-in-action program by @Swara - Voice of Women. Here's our IG: www.instagram.com/craftherbyswara/ I’m Asha Scaria Vettoor, an entrepreneur and Laidlaw Scholar from the University of Oxford. I run Swara, a social enterprise based in India that creates income opportunities for women through ethical fashion and storytelling. We also host CraftHER, a 6-week Leadership-in-Action program that brings Laidlaw scholars from around the world to Kerala to learn from women-led enterprises, grassroots organisations, and artisan communities. I’m passionate about building bridges between global learners and local changemakers in my community and always up for a conversation on social entrepreneurship, ethical supply chains, or running programs in remote parts of India.

Hey! My name is Jemma and I am a 4th year business student at Trinity College Dublin. Throughout my studies so far I have found an interest in business sustainability and the ethical considerations in business practice. The balance between government intervention and business leadership in the strive for a sustainable future is one that fascinates me. My research project is focused on the environmental and social certifications available in the sustainable fashion industry and how these can be improved to consider the accessibility of the industry. After all, every person, regardless of budget wears clothes and should have access to information detailing the impact of their purchases.  I grew up in Bahrain and Singapore where I studied at UWCSEA before moving home to Northern Ireland. I love going on sea swims and walks with friends, I have recently picked up running like the rest of the world and I love food and cooking. A side interest of mine is looking into the impacts of the food industry on public health and the environment. My favourite podcasts are A Diary of a CEO and the Huberman Lab podcast, my music taste is all over the place, I like a bit of everything. 

Hello! I’m a psychology researcher and the founder of HaHaHelps, a nonprofit organisation developing and delivering 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 programme 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.