What I learned as a student at LSE

When I first set foot on the London School of Economics campus, I expected rigorous lectures and dense reading lists. What I didn’t anticipate was how profoundly LSE would reshape my worldview—and my trajectory. Much like the dynamic, layered neighborhoods Jane Jacobs championed, my academic experience here has thrived on intellectual diversity and the unexpected intersections of ideas. One day I’m immersed in rational-choice political models; the next, I’m unpacking postcolonial critiques of development. Each perspective challenges top-down assumptions and reinforces Jacobs’s insight that lasting change often grows from the ground up—through context, complexity, and the messy vibrancy of real life. In thinking about inequality, climate change, and migration, I’ve come to see the value of looking beyond abstract systems to the lived realities shaping our cities and societies.

- NIGHT OWL ANNA MAE YU LAMENTILLO

Beyond the intellectual feast, it was the people who truly expanded my horizons. In seminars and late-night study groups, I debated urban-planning strategies with classmates from Sao Paulo, Bogota and Toronto, learned about community-driven health projects from friends in Kenya, and saw my hometown through fresh eyes thanks to insights from a visiting scholar from Manila. Negotiating cultural differences—like our wildly divergent definitions of “consensus” —taught me humility, patience, and the art of listening before speaking. My initial proposals were often dismantled and rebuilt by peers whose lived experiences enriched every idea.