Her Majesty The Queen will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to an exceptional young person from Jamaica at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday 23rd June.

As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s Award winner, 25-year-old Tijani Christian is being recognised by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in his community. As a Queen’s Young Leader, he will be representing Jamaica as he joins 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.

Tijiana Christian has been recognised for his work promoting sustainable livelihoods through community farms. Selected from a competitive process where thousands of young people from all over the Commonwealth applied to be a Queen’s Young Leader, Tijani said: “I am so happy to be a recipient of The Queen’s Young Leaders Award. To be recognised for my work and be presented with an Award by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace is such a huge honour. I can’t wait to meet all the other winners in London and get involved in all the exciting activities that are taking place throughout the week.”

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 equality, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities.

The application process to become a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader opens at 8pm 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 Jamaica.

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.