I'm a current undergrad student at Barnard College pursuing a double-major in Theatre & Human Rights, with a minor in East Asian Studies. I'm often asked why I’m studying such seemingly divergent fields. For me, these subjects go hand in hand: my diplomacy and human rights practice are informed by an empathy uniquely cultivated from my experience in the arts; my acting on theatrical stages is enriched by my understanding of what is happening on the "world stage." Mastering both mediums is my answer to the seemingly unsolveable divisions we face today. My work bridges these fields in an innovative, urgent and radical effort to highlight our shared humanity at a time we need it most.

Hi! I am a rising junior at Columbia University studying Economics and Human Rights. My interests are on public policy, education, and immigration. In my free time I love crocheting, watching movies, and exploring the city with my friends!

I am an undergraduate at Columbia University, currently studying Chemistry & Human Rights.

Hi everyone I'm Wiann a rising sophomore at Columbia College studying Economics and Race & Ethnicity and I'm excited to do research in the Sociology of gender this summer with Laidlaw!

I'm a student from Mexico 🇲🇽 who wants to learn more about the world! Love community, cycling, and reading. 

Hello! I’m Trisha, a fourth-year student at Cornell University from Texas, USA. I’m majoring in Environment and Sustainability with a dual focus on food systems and wildlife conservation, and minoring 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. I will be returning to Oxford and Burunge in June and July 2025 to report my results.  As an aspiring environmental policymaker and journalist, I am passionate about making technical scientific information more accessible to the general public. At Cornell, I am an Institute of Politics and Global Affairs Scholar, through which I interact with policymakers monthly to discuss pervasive issues in international politics. I also speak Marathi, Spanish, and Swahili at varying levels of fluency and plan to continue to grow my language skills to communicate environmental issues across continents and cultures.  For fun, I love to turn even the most mundane materials into recycled art, spend hours on end working through jigsaw puzzles, and go for runs while listening to podcasts. And as a diehard foodie who loves to travel, I’m always looking for recommendations of places to visit or new recipes to try!  The Laidlaw Scholars Program has been an invaluable component of my undergraduate experience. The friendships I’ve made, as well as the research and language skills I’ve begun to develop, have encouraged me to continue to ask and seek answers to complicated questions about global affairs and environmental science. If anyone has questions or feedback about the Laidlaw Program, is interested in collaborating, or just wants to say hello, please feel free to email me at trb238@cornell.edu. I hope we can meet in person someday!

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'm currently piloting the full program in South Africa, 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! My name is Lily, and I’m pursuing a degree in psychology and music. My research is interdisciplinary in that it includes psychology, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral studies, and music. I’m studying how listening to emotionally-intense music impacts the later ventriloquism effect, which is a measure of multisensory binding between visual and auditory stimuli. Then, I will investigate if this effect changes when the visual stimulus is imagined using visual mental imagery. My work is motivated by my deep interest in the interactions between visual mental imagery and mental health, specifically with flashbacks in post-traumatic stress disorder. In the future, my goal is to get an MA in music therapy to become a neurologic music therapist and a PhD in neuroscience to continue research.