A Royal Winner: Queens Young Leaders Award
A 24-year-old Jamaican has gone from introducing US President Barack Obama during his 2015 visit to Jamaica and past junior mayor of Montego Bay to a Royal win.
Aubrey Stewart is Jamaica’s Queens Young Leaders Awardee of 2018 and only one of only eight from across the Caribbean.
Stewart is the founder of the Youth Organization for Upliftment – Jamaica, which provides a space where young people can come together and make a difference in their communities. Since its establishment in 2009, the organization has run a number of campaigns, including The Crime Out Campaign, a youth-led peace movement which inspired young people to speak out against violence.
Country coordinator RuJohn Foundation
He is also the country coordinator for the RuJohn Foundation in Jamaica, a role that allows him to help provide underprivileged schools and students with resources such as computers, school lunches and sporting equipment while also arranging yearly activities like celebrity sports camps and acting workshops.
Chairman Youth Advisory Council
In addition, Stewart serves as chairman for the Youth Advisory Council of Jamaica, which represents young people in policy making; is a Jamaica House Fellow where he works with senior officials at the Office of the Prime Minister to contribute to national development and is also a youth ambassador for the Le Antonio’s Foundation, End Bullying Globally initiative.
GG Youth Award
In 2013, Stewart was awarded the Governor General Youth Award for Excellence in Leadership and in the same year, the National Young Leader Award from the Council of Voluntary Services for outstanding Volunteerism and the University of the West Indies Premier Award for Leadership 2015.
Stewart holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Leadership, Strategy and Management from the University of the West Indies, Mona- Western Jamaica Campus where he served as President of the Guild of Students for 2 years and is currently pursuing his masters in government as he believes that there is no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our mind.
Stewart will travel to London with the other winners to receive the award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2018.
The Queen’s Young Leaders Award
The Queen’s Young Leaders Award program was created in 2014 by The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, The Royal Commonwealth Society, and the Institute of Continuing Education at Cambridge University. It was developed by Prince William and Prince Harry to recognize Queen Elizabeth’s lifetime of service to the Commonwealth.
The other Caribbean winners are: Ronelle King of Barbados, Lakeyia Joseph of Dominica, Jenella Edwards of Grenada, Marva Langevine of Guyana, Jodie Dennie of St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Benedict Bryan and Jean-Claude Cournand of Trinidad & Tobago.
