Hi! My name is Anagha (pronounced uh-nuh-guh) and I am an undergraduate at Barnard College in the Class of 2027. I am majoring in Sociology as a pre-medical student; I hope to pursue an MD-PhD in Medical Anthropology.
My research this summer connects my academic interests in medical sociology and queer studies. Through exploring diverse forms of gender affirming care, I hope to understand how medical and spiritual healers help individuals transition.
In my free time, I love junk journaling, singing in Barnard's a capella group, and trying new vegetarian recipes. I'd love to chat about anything from your latest cooking attempts to your favorite (or least favorite) sociological theories - please feel free to reach out and say hi! :)
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
I am a rising sophomore, pre-law student at Barnard College, Columbia University intending to major in Philosophy and minor in Spanish. My academic interests are civil rights law, ethics, intellectual history, education policy, and disability studies. As a Laidlaw scholar I draw from my academic interests and personal experiences to conduct research on the use of restraint and seclusion in special education. I am eager to use my research experience and education in my future law career to further social equality.
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 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!
Hi! I’m Eno, and I'm part of the 2025 Cohort. I’m passionate about contemporary issues in the European Union and how they intersect with law, peace, and conflict. Outside of school, I love to cafe-hop, read, and pick up foreign languages.
Always looking for new friends—feel free to reach out!
Hi everyone! I'm a rising junior at Barnard College of Columbia University, where I am double majoring in Political Science and Human Rights, and minoring in French. This summer I'm researching about art reinstitution and its ethical and legal components. Some of my other interests include social work, human rights, and law. Please feel free to reach me at cd3442@barnard.edu
Drawing from an interdisciplinary framework, I broadly interrogate nationhood, citizenship, statelessness, and the distribution of rights. As a scholar, I hope to make my life a material of storytelling—seeking life with questions, wandering while film-making, and photography to capture spatial temporality.
Hello! My name is Batool and I am a final year Arts and Sciences at UCL. I take classes on environmental sciences, political science and education.
For my summer research project, I co-produced a policy brief with student recommendations for sustainable futures in higher education which is addressed to policy makers in universities in the UK.
For my Leadership-in-Action project, I am conducting a similar research project with WWF-Pakistan. I am organising participatory workshops with university students from Lahore and plan to use this research for my undergraduate dissertation. If you have any questions about these projects, or about conducting a research-based LiA please do not hesitate to message me!
At UCL I was the President of the UCL Sign Language Society where I led a team of 9 other undergraduate students to organise sign language classes and events to raise awareness of deafness for a society which has over 200 student members. I am currently the Vice President of the Ahlulbayt Islamic Society committee, organising charity campaigns and faith-based awareness events on taking action for global issues.
Hi! I'm Madeleine, a rising junior at Barnard College, majoring in Urban Studies and Economics. In my first summer, I conducted quantitative and spatial research on housing inequity in Morningside Heights, utilizing statistical software and GIS tools to analyze data and spatial patterns, to better inform policy decisions.
In my second summer, I am volunteering with Bybi, an urban beekeeping organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bybi focuses on creating sustainable urban environments through beekeeping, local partnerships, and urban apiaries. 🇩🇰🐝🌿🌈🚲🍎⭐️
Hi! My name is Aaryn and I'm entering my third and final year of Biological Sciences at Durham University. I completed my research project in summer 2024, with a Leadership in Action project in Boston, summer 2025. My research project focused on the regulation of stem cells in model organism Drosophila melanogaster (common fruit flies) specifically investigating genes linked to cancer in humans and my LiA is with the Timothy Smith Network. I am particularly interested in genetics and disease, and I would like to pursue a career in clinical research. Outside of my studies, I also work as a student librarian, and I enjoy singing in my college jazz band and musicals, playing netball, reading, and art!
My name is Hannah Ramsey (she/her), and I am a senior at Barnard College studying neuroscience and English, though my research is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing heavily from the fields of medical anthropology, sociology, and narrative medicine.
Currently, I am researching how clinicians' reliance on body composition indicators (BCIs) in health assessments may contribute to the stigmatization of bodies. My intention with this work is to illuminate how moral and aesthetic biases within healthcare teams can negatively influence patient outcomes as a result of the stigmatizing effects associated with body-centric paradigms of health promotion. The goal of this research is to begin conceiving alternative approaches to promoting patients' physical health and subjective well-being that are both body-affirming and size-agnostic.
Apart from this research, I also have personal and academic interests in creative writing, writing pedagogy, and advocacy as it relates to the neurodiversity movement. In my spare time, I enjoy writing poetry, playing guitar, and taking long walks outside!
I am a junior undergraduate student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island studying Political Science and Social Analysis and Research intending to attend law school after graduation. I believe in the power of people and am dedicated to creating substantial change socially and systemically. I am interested in utilizing policy, law, journalism, and education to empower marginalized groups to create change and work toward a more equitable society.
Hi there! My name is Finn Smyth and I am a final year student in Modern History at the University of St Andrews. For the Laidlaw programme my research focused on how Left political organisations across Scotland have performed, organizationally and ideologically, since devolution. I am also interested in modern political economy, and the emergence of modern political communications strategies and how they have been used in political campaigns since the 1980s.
My dissertation this year focuses on the modernisation of the Labour Party in the 1980s, and among recent projects I have been awarded grant funding to research the rise of populism in Europe alongside colleagues at Charles University, Prague.