Young Leaders Award winners 2016 honoured by the Queen |25 June 2016
Angelique Pouponneau from Seychelles was among a group of winners of Her Majesty The Queen’s Young Leaders Award 2016 who were honoured by the Queen
in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening.
His Royal Highness Prince Harry attended the event in support of The Queen, which recognised exceptional young people from across the Commonwealth who are making lasting change in their communities.
Former Prime Minister and Chairman of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Sir John Major, David Beckham and Sir Lenny Henry were also in attendance.
Speaking at the ceremony, Prince Harry said: “The Queen’s Young Leaders award recognises what you have achieved, not for yourselves, but for your communities, for your peers, and for those less fortunate.
“You have already been an inspiration to so many; but I hope this award will inspire you to go out and achieve even greater things in the future, empowered by the network of leaders you now sit among.”
David Beckham said: “I am thrilled to be here once again to help Her Majesty The Queen in congratulating a new group of inspiring young leaders. I know those who won last year are continuing to build on the opportunities the award has provided them. I look forward to following the progress of the class of 2016 and have no doubt we will be seeing a lot this year’s exceptional group of young people as they continue to make lasting change in their communities.”
In what is a royal first, Buckingham Palace opened its doors to vlogger Alfie Deyes, who was given special access to document the occasion via his social media channels. Speaking about his involvement in The Queen’s Young Leaders ceremony, Alfie said: “To be the first vlogger to be given access to Buckingham Palace has been a massive privilege. It was amazing to meet all of the Queen’s Young Leaders and to hear about all of the incredible work they are doing around the world.”
In the year of Her Majesty The Queen’s 90th birthday, The Queen’s Young Leaders, have all been taking part in a series of high-level engagements across London and in Cambridge over the course of the past week.
This has included taking part in a challenge set by global social networking company Twitter, meeting senior executives at BBC World News and visiting 10 Downing Street. As part of the programme they also received leadership training at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education, met UK business leaders from Standard Chartered, AMV BBDO and PWC and heard from leaders from UK charities working to deliver life-changing projects. This year’s Queen’s Young Leaders programme concluded yesterday with a visit to Marlborough House to meet the Commonwealth secretary-general and high commissioners, followed by an exclusive event at The Shard.
The search for the 2017 Queen’s Young Leaders Award Winners opened at 8pm BST yesterday. If you or someone you know is doing exceptional work in their community apply or nominate them at www.queensyoungleaders.com
The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, in partnership with Comic Relief and The Royal Commonwealth Society, has established The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme in honour of Her Majesty The Queen’s 60 years of service to the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee. Guided by the values of the Commonwealth Charter, the goal of the Programme is to enable young people to step up as leaders and improve the lives of people across the Commonwealth.
Each year from 2014 to 2018, 60 exceptional young people will be selected to receive a Queen’s Young Leaders Award and become ‘Queen’s Young Leaders’ – one for every year that The Queen had served as Head of the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee.
This year’s Award winners are aged between 18 and 29 and are working on a range of issues including: education, climate change, gender equality, mental health and disability equality.
As part of the Award, winners will receive bespoke mentoring and online learning provided by the University of Cambridge.