Polly Henry

Polly is active on numerous causes and projects, some of where she assists indigenous students settle in to school and volunteering for organisations such as St Vincent De Paul, Amnesty International and the Oaktree Foundation. This year Polly shaved her head for the World Greatest Shave and raised $4,000 for the Leukaemia foundation. Polly has been heavily involved in contributing to the United Nations Youth Association NT, where she assists arrange meetings on a high school level and organises trips and events. Polly assists in workshops such as poverty awareness which include the setting up, and running of the global Poverty Project Presentation.

Daly Kelly

At the age of 22 Daly has been involved in many community activities as a volunteer for St Vincent De Paul society for over 4 years whilst simultaneously completing his Bachelor of Engineering at Charles Darwin University with First Class Honours. After only a year of volunteering with St Vincent De Paul Society Group he was elected as the Youth Conference President, where he represents at council meetings providing mentoring for new leaders and members. Daly has assisted in a new Buddies program where he volunteers to take children from disadvantaged backgrounds for a day of fun activities once a month.

Lachlan Way

Lachlan has been a Volunteer at the Howard Springs Fire Brigade for many years, he has been a active member involved with training aspects of the brigade and recently was promoted to Team Leader, one of the youngest to hold this position. Being such a devoted volunteer he was picked to represent the Northern Territory Northern Region at the 2009 Australasian Fire Fighting Championships in Rotorua, New Zealand. This year Lachlan became a volunteer member of Wildcare NT where he collects and rehabilitates injured reptiles to enable them to be released back into the wild.

Judith McFarlane

Judith McFarlane started out as a dedicated music student in high school starring in many solo performances and choir groups. Over the years she has landed main roles and lead parts in many Musicals, such as the Sound of Music in 2008. Judith decided to pursue her love of the arts by applying for an Arts Degree and Diploma in Music at Melbourne University and also applied for a place at Trinity College. Trinity College is renowned for their chapel choir and annual musicals and is very involved in social change and human interest rights which is perfect for Judith wanting to make a career helping her focus on Community Psychology.

Dion Beasley

Dion lives at Tennant Creek and is the founder of the clothing label Cheeky Dog which has now received national recognition. Dion’s career as an artist also expanded with the first exhibition of his works on paper in 2008 and with the help of Artback NT, Dion worked on ten new hand colored limited edition prints. Dion’s work displays his observations of the life in an aboriginal community, and has now been exhibited in galleries throughout Australia. It is doubly inspiring because he has achieved this while overcoming the challenges associated with muscular dystrophy and hearing impairment. His works reflect the NT’s culture and also helps raise awareness of people with disabilities.

Netanela Mizrahi

When Netanela moved to Darwin in 2005 she joined a music centre where she was officially recognised as a classical violinist by the Darwin Symphony Orchestra’s director and management board. Netanela was invited to join a small professional core on the orchestra in the position of a second violin. Netanela received the Administrators DSO Conductor Award at the 2009 annual DSO Government House Awards ceremony. Netanela is soon to play the violin at the world premier performance of Michael Stimpson’s work about Charles Darwin’s Life and has continued to be creative in the arts by joining the Leah Flanagan Band which have just been nominated for the Golden Fiddle Award.

Heather Langham

Heather at the age of 18 was selected to play in the Australian Women’s Hockey Team to compete in the Junior World Cup qualifiers against New Zealand and then selected to play in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival held in Sydney where the team finished with a silver medal. Heather has since been selected for the Australian Senior Women’s Hockey Squad the Hockeyroos and was awarded a scholarship by the Institute of Sport. Heather joined St Johns Ambulance as a volunteer to provide support within the community while at the same time gaining hands on experience that may be useful in her study of medicine.

Kassandra Dunser

Kassandra is a 14 years old tennis player and during the past 12 months she has achieved stand out tournament results at a junior level where she reached the quarterfinals of the ITF Wellington under 18s in February and in July 2009 Kassandra became the first Territorian to win a match on the European Junior Tour. Kassandra has been awarded a Tennis Australia partial scholarship, the youngest territorian ever to be offered this, she is also the youngest player to break into the top 100 tennis players. As a great ambassador for tennis, Kassandra gives back to the community through fundraising and taking part in Tennis NT coaching courses.

Rhys Dowling

Rhys is one of the Territories finest squash player, he won his first trophy at the age of 11 and over the years has won several local and interstate competitions. In 2009, Rhys was awarded the MC Hazel Award for the Best and Fairest player and represented the Territory in the Arafura Games winning a Bronze in the Men’s Teams and Gold in the U15 Boys special plate event - Milo All Stars tournament. Rhys also contributes to his squash community by assisting with coaching and training of juniors on the weekends, he is looking forward to a long future in Squash and ultimately aims to be the Australia #1 and World Champion.

Shauna Mounsey

Shauna's career has gone from strength to strength where she started her career as an environmental scientist then climbed the corporate ladder to become one of four corporate lawyers in a large international consultancy company. Shauna's career continued to move upwards when in January 2009 she became the only Environmental Lawyer in the Clayton Utz Darwin Office. In September of that same year Shauna was head hunted by Ward Keller Lawyers to head up there environmental practice area, where she has the opportunity to provide specialist environmental advice, whilst attracting a large number of clients to the firm. In addition to this, Shauna is also a co-author of Global Climate Change: Australian Law and Policy.

Jake McCauley

Jake McCauley took on a huge role as the General Manager of a financially struggling AFL Central Australia and worked throughout 2009 around 60-90 hours a week, with the determination to re-engage local stakeholders and lift the profile of AFL in Central Australia. In the second half of 2009 AFL Central Australia became a profitable organisation once again Jake has been working to develop football in remote Indigenous communities throughout Central Australia, and has also enabled a number of Central Australian Footballers to enjoy representative football, experiences that they previously wouldn’t have had the opportunity to enjoy.

Randall Mullen

Randall pursued his career as a diesel mechanic and commenced his study in Certificate 111 in Automotive, specialising in heavy vehicle mobile equipment. Randall was a runner up in 2008 for Apprenticeship of the Year and after graduating, he spent a few months working in the trade before setting up his own business in February last year. Randall is currently working solely and hopes to be able to employ additional staff members in the future to keep up with the huge work demand. As Randall’s business expands he plans to fly light planes and helicopters to better service Katherine and the surrounding areas.

Nerida Liddle

Nerida is a 16 year old student at Darwin High School and is proudly looked upon by her peers for her efforts to raise awareness about energy consumption, through her implementation of the organisation ECO – Energy Conservation Organisation. Nerida’s community work with organisations such as Conservation Volunteers Australia, has seen her involvement on various projects, such as marine debris surveys, weed management control, planting local trees and litter removal. Nerida has been awarded the Northern Territory Landcare Award as well as the People’s Choice Award for her environmental work.

Catherine Orme

Catherine is currently working full time with Greening Australia NT whilst undertaking study in the field of environmental management to further her knowledge of Natural Resource Management and environmental education. Catherine has volunteered for a number of community groups like the Environment Centre NT and the Lakeside Drive Community Garden. Catherine has recently taken on a role in biodiversity conservation working on the Healthy Catchment, Healthy Harbour program which focuses on privately owned land in the Darwin Harbour catchment, addressing the impacts of grassy weed species, to help in reducing hot late dry season fires and protecting habitat.

Kevin Stephens

Kevin runs his own environmentally friendly irrigation business – Lawn Ranger Landscaping and Irrigation Services. Kevin’s interest in the environment has led him to delve into using more native water smart plants and trees for his landscaping projects. As his business grows, Kevin hopes to include a native nursery on his property specialising in species that are tolerant to the Territory climate and region which wont require a lot of Water. Kevin is an active member of Irrigation Australia and NT Horticulture Association in the hope to educate, mentor and learn further skills to build a more water wise and abundant environmentally friendly community.

Katie Strobel

Katie recently completed her double degree in Science and Education at Charles Darwin University. Katherine’s honours project “Acid Rock Drainage Microbiology (ARD): living on the edge” is looking at the microbiology associated with mine sites in the Northern Territory. This year Katie has been assisting a PhD student with her project study for the Australian Institute of Marine Science where she volunteers her time helping study the ageing of shark samples. Katie also finds time to be involved in the community, this year hosting a “Mo-Vember fundraiser” in her work place to raise awareness of anxiety and depression.

Jacinta Kelly

Jacinta graduated from Charles Darwin University with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering with First Class Honors and awarded the prestigious University Medal as the graduand with the highest grade point average. Jacinta received a Commonwealth Scholarship which assists students who are financially supporting themselves while studying, for achieving excellent academic results. Jacinta’s involvement in community activities such as a volunteer at the Young Engineers Australia where she promotes and inspires young children to move into the science and engineering field saw her awarded the Australian Federation of University Women Award.

Jana Lai

Jana is an enthusiastic young scientist who recently completed a highly successful Honors project at the Menzies School of Health at Charles Darwin University. Through her studies Jana has developed two key bacteria pathogens in childhood pneumonia and was awarded the Ros Bracher Honors scholarship to support her work. Jana is already paving the way for her studies as she has just completed a trip to China with a research team to assess a study site for a vaccine in an earthquake zone, this is the next step for her future career in child heath research. With her love of science and the territory she has a passion for encouraging young territorians to pursue their career in science.

Simon Baker-Jones

Simon has assisted since a young age for the personal care of his younger sister who suffers from Spina Bifida and is a paraplegic and in 2007 Simon also took on the responsibility and care for his mother who was diagnosed as being legally blind. In 2009 Simon was offered a position at an interstate University to study Bio Medical Science, however Simon made a decision to stay in the Northern Territory be close to his family and take a less certain road and study Pharmacy . Simon was encouraged to apply to study Medicine interstate in 2010 and was accepted, although not an easy decision to leave his mother and sister he is now currently involved in his first semester of study.

Keely Ah Kit

Keely is a young Territorian who works full time as a Community Support Worker for Tangentyere’s Aged and Community Services, where she delivers a range of community support for the frail, aged and younger people with disabilities living on the town camps. Keely works alot of unpaid voluntary hours to provide individualised support for her clients, assisting those with disabilities visit families and helping them to get involved in community and cultural activities. Keely is also strong advocate for those who have literacy and numeracy problems, by assisting those she cares for with managing their finances and ensuring they access their correct entitlements.

Erelia Willoughby

Erelia is 20 years old, and began assisting with the care for her five younger brothers, four of which have all been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Erelia works fulltime and studies part time in order to assist her parents financially and emotionally with one of her brothers, Dylan, who suffers from High Functioning Autism. Shortly, Erelia and her husband will be taking care of all five boys whilst her parents take their first break. By staying and supporting her family Erelia, has contributed significantly to Dylans confidence levels and enabled him to become an active member of the Darwin Community.

Skye MacFarlane

Skye is 15 years old and has had a remote upbringing which has given her strong involvement with all types of regional activities and has become an imperative part of her family’s property.  Skye is known for her involvement in just about anything from volunteer community work to raising money for needy charities, and raising awareness for youth development within the cattle industry. Over the past 2 years Skye has been involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards program and has nearly completed her silver level which helps her develop leadership skills, team work and goal setting, she is also aiming to raise money to secure a position on the tall ship “Young Endeavor”.

Roley James

Roley at the age of 16 took on the management role on his families isolated cattle property whilst his father was ill in hospital. The role for over 3 months involved managing over 12,000 cattle and 7 employees. Through leading his farm he has managed to see the need to become more efficient, productive and economically more viable. Roley is now half way to obtaining his Fixed Wing Plane license so he can invest in a Drifter aircraft, which assists with monitoring and mustering cattle. Roley is a great rural leader and this was acknowledged when he won the A.S.H.S 2009 Juvenile Camp Drafter of the Year Award.

Nathan Frick

Nathan is currently living and working in Nhulunbuy where he has undertaken a project entitled the HELP project, Health, Education, Legislation and Pathways the first of its kind in Australia. A project aimed specifically at young Australians living in rural and remote areas, Nathan aims to encourage young people to work together irrespective of race or background. Nathan has recently launched his own company uGen Media and Consulting, the purpose of uGen is to create a framework for youth and community organisations to better support each other through the co-development of resources and the sharing of knowledge and experiences.

Kevin Kadirgamar

Whilst studying full time Kevin is involved in many community activities and was recently appointed the undergraduate student representative to the council of Charles Darwin University and chosen as the Australian delegate at the Harvard National Model UN in February 2009. Kevin was one out of 14 delegates selected by the United Nations Youth Association of Australia from a national pool of applicants. The delegation undertook an educational and consultative tour of the United States over a 2 week period where Kevin was able to focus on international relations showing what one young person can do when they stand up and make a difference.

Jessica Davies

Jessica moved to Perth to further her education due to limited resources in Darwin and hopes to be an Ambassador of Curtin University to promote to other young Territorians about the extensive opportunities at the university and support network to those unable to study in Darwin. Jessica was recently one of 9 students chosen to complete an honors research project on the impacts of cognitive deficits caused by Parkinson’s disease upon drive, performance and behaviour. Jessica’s research was so impressive she was chosen to present her findings at the prestigious 12th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for elderly and disabled people in Hong Kong in 2010.

Adam Pulford

Adam’s involvement in local youth groups and organisation has been rewarding, not only for Adam but also for the local youth. In 2008 he became the Divisional President for 2008/09 United Nations Youth Association and in the beginning of 2009 Adam relocated to Adelaide to commence his double degree, a Bachelor in Arts and a Bachelor in Economics. Adam has remained involved with the community even after moving to a new state, he continued to support UNYA from afar, where he took on a new role of coordinating UNYA Australia’s NT Regional Engagement Tour for 2009. The national conference was held in July 2009 and Adam was elected as the National Vice President of Education for the organisation for 2009 and 2010.