Article by Mia Brzakovic (Laidlaw Scholar 2022, Biomedical Engineering)
On the 20th and 21st of June, the newly chosen Trinity Laidlaw cohort had a chance to meet each other and enjoy great workshops carefully chosen by the Career Service team. On the first day, we had an opportunity to listen to interesting sessions such as Leadership Foundations, Project Leadership Essentials, Networking as a Laidlaw Scholar, Exploring Trust and understanding how to use Laidlaw Programme in the best way possible. The last session, Making an Impact as a Leader in Research in Conversation with Assoc. Prof. Helen Sheridan seemed to get the most interest from our scholars. She managed to take us through her life story with such charm and gloss, but without hiding any ups and downs which are part of a researcher’s daily routine. Her honesty and enthusiasm really brought us more clarity about the whole process which we went through in our projects.
We also had a chance to talk with each other about our projects more in-depth and explore each other’s interests, while learning so much about topics which we were sometimes unfamiliar with. There were topics from pure engineering, to science and ones related to completely new concepts in arts and social sciences.
The next morning we were much more relaxed and already come comfortable with the group so we also enjoyed the sessions much more. Workshop Understanding Leadership Development with Dr Wladislaw Rivkin gave us a completely different perspective on how science looks at leadership and what techniques are available. Although most of us were a bit unsure how the following session will be, The Clear and Confident Voice Applied Workshop by Mr Cathal Quinn, Head of Voice of the Lir Academy, might be one of the best sessions I ever attended. As we were a small group he managed to interact with all of us and help us improve our presentational and pitching skills, teaching us how to better communicate our ideas. It is interesting how all the guest speakers were chosen to come from different fields which led us to new understandings and more clarity on what leadership is and how we, as undergraduate students, can already influence societies and give our time and effort to create the little benefit and change which will bring something better in the future.
Laidlaw Scholars at Trinity 