Hi, my name is Matt and I am the Global Leadership Programmes Officer at the University of Leeds. I help to manage and run the Laidlaw programme at the university.

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

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.

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.

International Business student at the University of Leeds I currently work as a Student Ambassador, a maths tutor, and I have my own little crochet business on the side! My research project 'Imposter syndrome and Sense of belonging' delves into student perceptions of the condition, and the flaws surrounding the measures used to diagnose it.

Law student at the University of Leeds, with a passion for Human Rights Law.

Hi, I’m Hazel and I’m studying Law at the University of Leeds- this year I'm specializing in Environmental Law with my dissertation analyzing the role of legal personhood in the protection of bodies of water in UK. I chose to study Law because it is a system with many flaws and- much like my plants that I love to take care of- and it requires constant attention and pruning to grow in a healthy manner. My passion involves analyzing aspects of the law and how it represents historical prejudices; how do we adapt our laws to form a more representative model? Where do we plant our next seeds? My LIA is with Volunatrio Global in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I will be working with my superviser Milena Sapey to create a network of self-sufficient food chains and educate the Pacheco community on sustainable agricultural practices.

I'm currently a first-year student at the University of Leeds, studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering.  My research project is on Electric Vehicle charging point infrastructure planning, addressing a critical aspect of the transition to sustainable transportation. It seeks to optimize the design of EV charging infrastructure in public spaces. Through the evaluation of diverse charging configurations and the application of local/regional datasets, I will generate optimal location and capacity guidelines. These findings will aid local government authorities in establishing efficient and equitable public EV charging infrastructure.

My name is Stella and I’m a scholar of 2023/2024 Laidlaw cohort. As a French and History student, I am currently completing my Year Abroad in Paris working as a 'stagiaire' at ONaCVG where I deliver tours around memorial sites commemorating the Resistance fight in Paris 1941-44 (Fort Mont-Valèrien) and also the Holocaust and forced deportation operations in France (Mémorial des martyrs de la Déportation).  I am interested in all things feminist, intersectional, (de)colonial and sociological. If you have any questions about my research or can recommend any new books or podcasts for a fellow culture vulture, feel free to get in touch with me (Linkedin works too!) 

Hi! I’m Lily and currently study advanced psychology at the university of Leeds. Theorising why something has happened is something I consider myself good at (also known as overthinking). One of the perks of psychology is that you are forced to socialise with people, which a few years ago would have been my my introverted selfs nightmare. However, interacting with individuals from such diverse backgrounds has developed such a passion to help people and has lead to massive growths in my confidence.  Now specifically having interests in forming interventions and strategies to improve the quality of life and mental stability of vulnerable individuals from groups such as survivors of domestic abuse, service users and addicts. My research project is called “thinking inside the box” centred around reverting back to our primary archival sources to provide a different perspective on the political resistance in Latin American rather than relying on information that has been extensively modified. Specifically introducing archive-based teaching methods and evidencing that they can act as critical and liberators pedagogies. Ultimately wanting to challenge the curriculum by using authentic methods of assessment and promote autonomous skill acquisition that provides practical application to their futures. In my spare time I am a gym rat (unfortunately) and I like trying out new sports such as snowboarding which I am currently horrific at but it’s still very fun!  i would love to discuss psychological research or potential career paths with new people, so do drop a message :)

Hi, I'm Alice, a Biochemistry student at the University of Leeds. I love science as I am fascinated by understanding how life works at a chemical and cellular level, but I also have a very arty side, with passions including painting and music.   This Summer I will be doing a research project into improving the efficiency of pig-feeding methods, to decrease environmental impact and reduce waste. I will be looking into how current phase feeding methods can be optimized by more closely meeting the nutritional requirements of the pigs at each stage. 

  Hi! My name is Lizzie and I am in the 2023 Laidlaw Scholar cohort.   I am an International History and Politics student at the University of Leeds. Throughout my first year of studies, I have found myself gravitating towards the field of East Asian History and Politics. In particular the politics of South Korea, especially the leadership of the 21st Century and the corruption that is rife in the government.    I have chosen to complete a self-defined project which will focus on how the actions of the South Korean government has affected the youth. I will be largely discussing the Sewol Ferry Tragedy and the Itaewon Crowd Crush disaster. I will be investigating the influence of chaebols and top-down culture and the roles they played in the aforementioned events. I shall also be analysing the roles of both Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk-yeol in both disaster, respectively.  As my project is self-defined, I have a lot of leeway in what I choose to include, therefore I may touch on other topics such as the rise of anti-Feminism, particularly in young South Korean men.   In addition to my core studies, I have a passion for language learning (especially wrongly labelled 'dead' languages) and for Islamic history, particularly the role of women in Islam.  Linked are articles and videos that are related to my research which give a general overview of both tragedies.  https://youtu.be/5_A8dq2fA5o Documentary about the sinking of the Sewol Ferry  https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/11/16/seoul-crowd-crush-itaewon-victims/ Washington Post article regarding circumstances of Itaewon Crowd Crush  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/31/seoul-halloween-crowd-crush-young-victims/ Washington Post article which shares the names and stories of some of the victims of the Crowd Crush  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/08/world/asia/south-korea-sewol-ferry-grief.html NYT article about the ongoing pain of the families following the Sewol sinking

Hi, my name is Poppy and I am a University of Leeds Law Student. This undergraduate study has developed my passion of how the law applies to different groups of invididuals with a particular focus on the inadequate treatment of women. This interest led me to propose a self-defined research project which I completed last summer. This surrounds how women who have been domestically abused from various social groups are treated differently by the criminal justice system. I am focusing on England and Wales since this is my jurisdiction. The social groups that I am considering are BAME, LGBTQ+ and disabled women and effectively contrasting this to the experiences of the white heterosexual woman. I am so excited to start this research and be able to inspire positive societal change through hopefully flagging up areas for further governmental emphasis.  I am currently on my LIA at GVI Ghana undertaking both a Gender Equality for Girls and Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Internship. 

Hello! My name is Arron. I am an undergraduate Physicist at the University of Leeds, currently on the Integrated Masters Programme. I will be completing my research in the field of robotics in medicine. More specifically, the use of motion capture data for the robotic rehabilitation of patients suffering from neurological conditions and/or trauma. I love applications of Physics in all senses, including medicine, Formula 1 and aerospace engineering. I am looking for contacts in the field of robotics in order to collaborate and share methods of approaching what is often the exact same fundamental problem!

Hi, I'm Sebastian, I'm a creative professional with experience in the communications field. I recently completed my leadership-in-action project in Medellín, Colombia, focused on supporting local non-profits with innovative funding and communication strategies. My Laidlaw research delved into the topic of mental health and communication strategies for older adult populations. I am passionate about community engagement and sustainable solutions, collaborating with diverse teams to drive impactful results. I am now onto my placement year at the University of Leeds, while also continuing my social volunteer work with local organisations such as @sasha_uol and @rainbowjunktion. I'm also always more than happy for a chat but the best results are reaching out on LinkedIn ⭐

Hello there! I'm Aditya Jindal here, an international undergraduate student at the University of Leeds pursuing my degree in Economics and Finance. My research project is based on cultural diversity with broader aspects of business and employability. My first summer is focused on a literature review and I'm excited about this new experience. I'm a big sports fan with a knack for playing Table Tennis, Basketball and Cricket in particular. You could also find me regularly sitting in a library studying Business, Psychology, German, or anything else. Always available to connect, feel free to contact me if you're interested in my research project or just want to talk in general.