Her Majesty The Queen to honour young people from New Zealand with Queen’s Young Leaders Award
Her Majesty The Queen will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to two exceptional young people from New Zealand at a
ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday 23rd June.
As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s Award winners, Brad Olsen, aged 19 and Valentino
Wichman, aged 28, have been recognised by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a
lasting difference in their communities. As a Queen’s Young Leader, they will be representing New Zealand as they join
winners from 45 different Commonwealth countries in London for five days of high-level engagements, all designed to help
them further their life-changing work.
Before receiving their Queen’s Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace, the winners will visit 10 Downing Street and
the UK headquarters of global social networking company Twitter, and meet with senior executives at the BBC World
Service. They will also meet the Commonwealth Secretary General, take part in workshops at the University of Cambridge,
have meetings with UK business leaders, and visit projects that are changing the lives of vulnerable people in the UK.
Brad Olsen is being recognised for his work as a youth advocate, and Valentino Wichman is being acknowledged for her
work on LGBTI+ issues. Selected from a competitive process where thousands of young people from all over the
Commonwealth applied to be a Queen’s Young Leader, Valentino said: “I am really looking forward to the opportunity of
learning and networking so that I can progress my project. It is going to be awesome meeting like-minded individuals who
are trying to make this world a better place for all. This award is already starting to change peoples’ mind sets in the
Cook Islands.”
This year’s Award winners are working to support others, raise awareness and inspire change on a variety of issues
including education, climate change, gender, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities.
The application process to become a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader opens at 8.00pm BST on Friday 24 June 2016. The programme
is looking for people aged between 18 and 29 who are dedicated to creating positive changes to the lives of people in
New Zealand.
Details about how to apply to become a Queen’s Young Leader, together with information about the 2016 Award winners and
Highly Commended runners up, is available at www.queensyoungleaders.com.
ENDS