Mount Alexander Shire Youth Awards 2019

The Mount Alexander Youth Awards are held every two years and are a celebration of local young people who live, work, study or play in the shire. The awards aim to recognise and highlight the work young people are doing and the contributions they make to the wider community.

Congratulations to the 2019 winners:

Cohen Saunders – Youth Leadership Award in the Community
Josh Rodgers – Youth Leadership Award in the Workplace
Ada Levis – Youth Leadership Award in Music and the Arts
Harriet O’Shea Carre – Youth Leadership Award in the Environment
Amy Bachmann – Youth Leadership Awards in Sports and Recreation
Oscar Johnson – Youth Leadership Award in Education.

The award celebrations are a Council initiative, supported by the Victorian Government’s Youth Week Grants and held as part of Victorian Youth Week.

Meet the winners:

Cohen Saunders

Youth Leadership Award in the Community

Cohen is an inspiring young leader who has made a significant contribution through many volunteering roles in the community and at school. One of Cohen’s roles is with local farmers, Gung Hoe Growers. Cohen has consistently volunteered at the farm once a week for the past 18 months. He gets up in the dark, rides his bike 45 minutes in the rain, hail, heat or frost to volunteer in the early hours before school. Due to his passion for sustainable farming, Cohen has led small groups of his peers to visit the farm and also volunteer. He has also taken on leadership roles within the school, on the Student Representative Council (SRC) and School Council. He has also successfully sought funding and coordinated projects to improve the school grounds.

Josh Rodgers

Youth Leadership Award in the Workplace

Josh is a teenage entrepreneur from Newstead who has shown outstanding personal achievement in the business sector. He has used the skills he learned as a barista and trainee coffee roaster to start his own coffee roasting business. He uses a 100% solar powered coffee roasterie that he built himself on his family’s property. He is committed to innovative business techniques and to supporting small farmers.

Ada Levis

Youth Leadership Award in Music and the Arts

Ada is a talented musician and young leader in the local music community. She is passionate about music and radio and volunteers a lot of her time to support the industry and to increase her skills. She has two weekly radio shows, which she presents before school. She is the bass player in the all-female band, Stop That Mammoth. Ada also volunteers on a number of committees including the Social Media and Programming Committee at MaineFM, the FReeZa Committee at Council, and the SRC at her school. On her weekends she is studying a qualification in radio broadcasting.

Oscar Johnson

Youth Leadership Award in Education

Oscar has shown significant leadership in helping to develop skills in others. He successfully applied for funding to lead an anti-vandalism project at his school. This involved teaching other students how to use spray paint to create artwork and murals. He also worked with Groovin the Moo Musical Festival to lead an art project with his class, sharing his skills with other students to create cushions for the festival. Despite having left school at the end of last year, Oscar has come back this year to work with students on a mural design, incorporating elements of measurement and scale as part of maths classes.

Amy Bachmann

Youth Leadership Awards in Sports and Recreation

Amy is a passionate equestrian excelling in her chosen field of dressage. Amy has been on the Victorian inter-school team for five years. She is now one of the leaders of the team, helping the younger riders with their training and supporting them at competitions. Her leadership role in the team also involves providing encouragement and motivational support to the younger competitors.

Harriet O’Shea Carre

Youth Leadership Award in the Environment

Harriet is a dedicated environmental activist. She is an integral member of the Students Strike for Climate Change campaign. She has helped coordinate strikes and led other young people to participate. Harriet was part of a delegation of young people who met with Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Canberra to discuss what the federal government can do to protect Australia and the global environment. She has helped to draw significant public attention to the issue of climate change, appearing in the TV, radio and print media. She has also attended climate training in Melbourne.