Pictured: Alex Morris Baguley, 28 of Leslie Vale won the Colony 47 Transition to Work Award as part of this year’s Young Achiever Awards presented at Wrest Point on Friday night.
The winners in the Young Achiever Awards were announced on Friday, May 31, to an audience of over 380 people, at a gala presentation dinner at Wrest Point.
The Honourable Will Hodgman MP, Premier of Tasmania, announced Matthew Etherington as the prestigious Premier’s Young Achiever of the Year, who was selected from the nine category winners.
Matthew Etherington firstly won the St.LukesHealth Healthier Communities Award from a strong field of young achievers.
Kingborough was well represented by some of our outstanding youth.
Alex Morris Baguley, 28 of Leslie Vale won the Colony 47 Transition to Work Award.
Alex is proof that a positive attitude can overcome challenges.
Despite being diagnosed with several conditions, including Down Syndrome and ADHD, Alex’s family fought hard to ensure she had access to the same education and training opportunities as other people her age.
After finishing Year 12, she worked at Australian Disability Enterprise.
Alex then joined the Hamlet, Inc. training program where she learned about customer service.
To date, Alex has become an integral member of the Hamlet team, completing more than 500 hours of work.
She is now undertaking the advanced training model, learning Barista basics and further catering skills.
Other outstanding achievements go to finalists Grace Williams in the Dental South Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Achievement Award and Dr Rosie Clark, in the St.LukesHealth Healthier Communities Award.
Grace Williams, 20 of Blackmans Bay is advocating for cultural safety, juvenile justice and social health.
She was lead spokesperson for Aboriginal youth on the board of Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, Tasmania.
Grace was project coordinator for the group “Healing through the Art of Yarning,” which led to a national resource in prevention of violence against women and children.
She has been involved in governance training, mental health first aid, youth mentoring and community development in Leprena.
Grace has worked with government agencies and not-for-profits around capacity building, aboriginal culture and the importance of aboriginal story.
Grace won one of the Keeping Australia Beautiful Awards.
Finalist in the St.LukesHealth Healthier Communities Award, 29 year old Taroona resident Dr Rosie Clark, is a neuroscientist and researcher at the UTAS Menzies Institute for Medical Research.
During her PhD and post-doctoral fellowship, she identified novel changes in specific inhibitory brain cells that contribute to the development and progression of Motor Neuron Disease and helped identify a novel therapeutic compound for treatment of the disease.
Rosie has published five papers, received the Bill Gole MND fellowship and won the 2015 Scientific Poster Prize for outstanding biomedical MND research.
She volunteers in the National Brain Bee Challenge, a program for year 10 students and undertakes school workshops in the Young Tassie Scientist’s Community Program.
Winners each received $1,000 thanks to prize patron Axsys along with a magnificent trophy.
Matthew Etherington received an additional $2,000 from the Tasmanian Government and a State trophy.
Campbell Remess was also announced as the Axsys People’s Choice Award winner.
The Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards began in 1989, with the aims to acknowledge, encourage and most importantly promote the positive achievements of all young people up to and including 29 years of age.
The awards celebrate the achievements of young Tasmanians across a diverse range of fields, and encourage them to pursue their goals.
Dr Jessica Manuela from Dental South presented Grace Williams with her certificate of achievement, a finalist in the Dental South Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Achievement Award.
Dr Rosie Clark, neuroscientist and researcher at the UTAS Menzies Institute for Medical Research, presented with her finalist certificate by Peter Murfett, Director, St.LukesHealth.
