Snapshot

Terms and Dates:

  • Academic Year 2025-26
    February 25, 2026 to April 28, 2028

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 two-year cohort program for emerging leaders lays out a path for you to invest your skills, knowledge, and experience make global change. 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 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 about your unique leadership strengths, further develop your skills through critical reflection, and prepare to encounter difference from a creative and mindful place.

Leadership-in-Action Experience

Develop a six-week independent leadership-in-action project contributing to a community-based project in an international setting. We'll help you identify an international organization where you can learn from real-world leaders enacting change in their communities and beyond. Your travel and living expenses are supported by a stipend.

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.

Laidlaw scholars stand among researchers in Kenya looking at a field of corn.
"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, seen on the far right

Research

Your second summer as a Laidlaw scholar you'll work 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.