Snapshot

Terms and Dates:

  • Academic Year 2024-25
    March 15, 2025 to March 31, 2027

Advisor:

Margaret Price

Cornell Affiliations:

Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies

Website:

Laidlaw Leadership and Research Program

Overview

Opportunity Description

The Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Program promotes ethical leadership and international research around the world—starting with the passionate leaders and learners found on campuses like Cornell.

With generous support for your leadership development, a summer abroad putting your skills into action, and research, this 2 year program for emerging leaders lays out a path for you to invest your skills, knowledge, and experience to help others. As a Laidlaw scholar, your talent and motivation are cultivated through international experiences, leadership training and research, and networking with like-minded peers.

Interested in joining our next cohort of scholars? Join us for an upcoming Information Session. The application deadline is 1/31/25. 

The Program's Key Components

Leadership Training

Leadership training is an essential component of the program that continues throughout your time as a Laidlaw scholar. You’ll learn core leadership values and skills that include how to be a global citizen, prioritize collective action and critical reflection, and meaningfully engage with your community. 

Leadership-in-Action Experience

Spend your summer abroad to gain intercultural competency, learn from mentors in the field, and reflect on your role as a leader and researcher in creating a better world. You will be able to choose from a variety of options: 

Laidlaw scholar Eli Newell takes a photo of plants with his phone.
"Participating in the Laidlaw Scholars Program has been a great privilege of my time at Cornell. The two-year duration of the scholarship has allowed me to be intensely involved with my professor’s research program at Cornell and with her partner in Kenya, introducing me to the best colleagues and most rewarding experiences." —Eli Newell '24
  1. Placement at a partner NGO with a cohort of your fellow Laidlaw scholars learning from real-world leaders and exploring how these organizations are enacting change in their communities and beyond. 
  2. Apply to a Laidlaw central leadership program. Through the Central Laidlaw projects, Cornell scholars have worked on community health promotion in Fiji, human rights issues in Zambia, climate change in Mexico, and conservation education in Uganda. 

These skills are directly transferable to future work across disciplines, while also introducing you to different life experiences and expanding your 
perspective.

Networking

Over your two years in the program, you will get to know like-minded scholars who are passionate about Laidlaw's shared values. The international network of Laidlaw scholars extends beyond Cornell University to a global community that shares an online space for continued collaboration.

Research

You will spend a summer as a Laidlaw scholar working on campus on an internationally-focused research project that is supervised by a faculty member or an experienced research team. Your work is supported by a weekly stipend. 

We support you in finding a research project with an international focus and faculty mentor for your second summer of the program. 

Learn more about the Laidlaw Scholars Program.

Apply Here