Hi! I'm Maria and I am a current undergraduate scholar from the University of Leeds. I study Law and I aspire to be a corporate solicitor. 

I am a second-year student at the University of Leeds. My research in the summer of 2022 focused on sustainability and equality in surfing culture, and how this relates to surfing's beginnings as a sport and religious practice for indigenous communities in Australia. In my free time I love to surf (shocker), play music and go climbing. 

I am a 2022 Laidlaw Scholar from the University of Leeds.  My research is all about commerical and insolvency law, testing the assumption that "the insolvency of the principal terminates the agency relationship whilst the insolvency of the agent terminates the relationship only if it makes him unfit to perform his duties".  Basically, how does an agent (e.g. the UK seller of Australian wine) running out of or being low on money effect contractual relationships.   Technical bits aside, in my spare time I love to be active - particularly endurance sports.  I am also an avid follower of UK and US politics, with an emphasis on constitutional affairs and defence/foreign policy.

Hey, I'm Jackson. I'm one of the 2022 scholars at University of Leeds. My course is Mechatronics and Robotics; in particular I'm interested in the ways that technology interacts with social and political issues that are important to me, such as environmentalism, the digital divide and the racial and gender biases in algorithms. My research focusses on improving the robustness of energy storage devices, e.g. for electric vehicles and solar panels. You can read a quick summary below! The recent global shift towards electrification is raising questions concerning the robustness of current energy storage devices. Electrical vehicles require many battery cells connected together in order to provide a sufficient amount of energy to power the car and solar panels contain many generating cells connected. However, the assumptions made when designing and developing these storage devices, can become invalid due to the uncontrolled environmental conditions or unpredictable faults with individual cells in the arrangement. In order to prevent failure and premature end-of-life, a unique collection of equalisation circuits can be designed for a system. My research centers on widening the use cases for these equilisation circuits and investigating whether a single set of circuits can be designed in a way that allows it to be used for a variety of applications rather than just one.

Hi, I'm Rebecca! I'm originally from Basingstoke, but I am now living in Leeds, as I am currently in my fourth year of the Law LLB course at the University of Leeds, following a study abroad year at Queens University, Canada. My first summer project revolved around young people's active travel habits, which combines my interest in working with children/youth law and my interest in all things sport. My LIA was based in Maine, USA, and involved working with a charitable summer camp to help facilitate their camp programs, which enables children and adults from low income backgrounds or with disabilities to access a summer camp the same as their peers do!

Hi! I'm Yasmin and I am a part of the 2022 cohort of Laidlaw Scholars. I am currently in my final year of study of the Neuroscience course at the University of Leeds! My research project is on Microglia Activation in Ageing and Neurodegenerative Diseases. 

Hi! I’m Lilian and I study English Language and Linguistics at the University of Leeds. My research project looks at reviewing ‘Listening Rooms’, a research methodology used for capturing genuine student experiences at university.

There are 25 annual Laidlaw Scholarships that provide funding to enable you to develop leadership and research skills through a range of personal development activities and two six week periods of project work throughout your time at Leeds.

Hi everyone! I'm a Laidlaw scholar of the 2021 cohort currently on "The Global Capstone Project." My project consists of working in a group with 2 other amazing scholars to filter references, read texts and essentially produce an academic paper on the UN's sustainable development goals relating to higher education.

Hey! I am Izzy and I am part of the 2022 cohort of Laidlaw Scholars at the University of Leeds. I study BSc Economics and I am interested in mental health, health economics and health policy. I am excited to have a career that allows me to explore my interests further and I am always open to chat! My research project involves undertaking a literature review and analysing responses to surveys completed by students on their sense of belonging and engagement at university. I hope my research can help students settle into university better so that they can reach their potential :)

Hi I am max, I'm interested in development economics and international relations with low income countries . 

Studying Sustainability and Environment Management (International) MEnv, BSc at University of Leeds after a couple of years as a reporter. Interested in ecology, completed research project last year on the effects of honey trade on UK bees, now planning a Leadership in Action project.

Hi I’m Lizzie! I’m studying French and Business at the University of Leeds. My Laidlaw project is about identifying North Africans in the French Resistance during WWII. 

I am Holly and I study German and English Literature at the University of Leeds. I will be working on the research project 'German at Leeds - Then and Now' as I am passionate about language teaching and language learning. I am specifically interested in developing strategies to decolonise language teaching through diversifying the curriculum of German Studies, which I hope to achieve through researching the history of German teaching at my university. I will look at how key moments of crisis in the twentieth century, such as WWI and WWII, in which Britain were in conflict with Germany, affected language teaching and the study of German at Leeds. I hope that this will help me identify how language teaching is affected by global events and political relations between countries in order to develop strategies to decolonise language teaching in the future.   I work as a German Ambassador for the Goethe Institute to help foster interest in the German language globally and nationally. As part of my role, I visit schools all over the country to encourage students to learn German and educate them on the career opportunities open to students with a foreign language in order to help them to navigate their futures.  I am committed to making a change to our community. Recently I took part in a decolonisation project in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and the Design Thinkers Academy in Amsterdam. I was the only student members of the team and I was working with teachers from all over the world and members of Goethe Institute Finland and Sweden. The target of the project was to develop resources to decolonise the curriculum to make German teaching more inclusive of queer people and people of colour. This required great ambition to come up with a solution to make German teaching more inclusive. I conducted interviews with fellow students, prioritising BAME students and members from the trans community to discover their experience of language learning.  I am committed to ethical leadership as I believe all people deserve to feel seen and valued in their education. As part of my commitment to diversifying our curriculum, A few years ago, I took part in a public speaking competition where I spoke about how we need to change our attitude to neurodiversity in young adults and children, encouraging a change in understanding and a re-education regarding mental health conditions and learning disabilities in young people. This approach required great courage and commitment as I had to question our current curriculum and seek to find new and improved strategies to better accommodate and understand neurodiversity, a topic which is often ignored especially in the early years of child education. This required great courage and extraordinary research as I was determined to develop an understanding of not only current issues in the understanding of neurodiversity in children and young adults but also foster new ideas to address these. Furthermore, I believe the best research is that which is challenging and seeks to find new and innovative strategies to overcome obstacles and improve society. I am dedicated to improving the lives of young people. In secondary school I worked as head of the Media Team. I helped to direct my team towards different strategies to encourage young people to develop an interest in journalism, visiting primary schools to educate younger students about career prospects in journalism. I saw how this leadership positively impacted the lives of young people, as throughout the several workshops we ran across primary schools in our local community, we saw how younger students were becoming enthusiastic about their futures, as they became aware of the fantastic opportunities available to them. This experience has really inspired me to apply for a Laidlaw Scholarship as I have seen how strong leadership can engage and inspire, transforming our community. I hope to foster my leadership skills throughout the scholarship, as throughout my education I have experienced how positive leadership can transform lives.

Hi! I'm Izzy from North Wales (or a 'gog' - someone from the North - as we would say in Welsh). I am part of the 2022 scholars cohort and my research project is about Imposter Syndrome and sense of belonging. I study Psychology at the University of Leeds which I am thoroughly enjoying as I love people (and science/ evidence!). I chose this degree as I believe that understanding people's thoughts, motivations and behaviours is what is going to lead us to a more equal and just society. Working as a teaching assistant alongside children with special educational needs last year confirmed my intuition that I would like to go into social justice work after graduating. In my spare time I love to cycle, dance and swim outside.

I am so honoured and excited to have been selected as a 2022 Laidlaw Scholar. After taking an alternative route to university I am enthusiastic to take advantage of the skills and experience I can gain from any and all opportunities and truly appreciate the power of education. My purpose and drive are fuelled by my ambition to have the freedom of choice that education provides. I hope an available choice in my future career will be to lead innovative and socially beneficial projects. I look forward to connecting with you all as an amazing group of scholars.

I am an undergraduate student studying Sociology and International Relations at the University of Leeds.  My work experience is rather varied, having jumped from being an immigration solicitor's assistant, to utilities brokering, to retail, and then marketing. I like to believe I've picked up a few talents from each role! I'm art-obsessed; whether it is a gallery exhibition for photographs or paintings, to music and films. I also love a good book (they are a piece of art too)!