Jenine Shepherd, 24, was named the Best Young Leader of the Year in Education, Art, and Culture at the second annual Anthem Awards for her leadership of the internationally recognized NGO Youths For Excellence Ltd, which presently provides services to seven Caribbean nations as well as the USA.
Youths For Excellence joins other honourees like Lil Nas X, Planned Parenthood, Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation, Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote, the Dalai Lama, March for Our Lives, Etsy, Oprah Winfrey Network, and other powerful game changers. This honor comes hot on the heels of her receiving the Diana Award in 2021 from Princess Diana’s estate, which is the most prestigious award in the world that a young person can receive for social action and humanitarian work, as well as the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in the category of Nation Building in 2018.
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The organization was able to conduct its first back-to-school event there in 2019 thanks to the backing of the prime minister, and its founder was interviewed by OPM Now in 2021 after winning the Diana Award. In 2021, she was also recognized among the Caribbean 30 Under-30 Changemakers. She received recognition in 2022 from the UK-based Organization Roy Anthony Reid Foundation for her exceptional citizenship and academic performance.
Shepherd just received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and economics from Amherst College, the best liberal arts institution in the USA, after being given a full scholarship. She has been able to juggle operating her non-profit organization with her studies.
Anthem winners are selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The awards were launched to amplify the voices that spark global change. The second annual competition received nearly 2,000 entries from 43 countries worldwide.
Youths For Excellence continually serves and provides opportunities for underprivileged children and their families in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States.
The organization will be launching its Farm The Future Project this year in the pilot communities of Rose Town and Grants Pen, which will teach disenfranchised Jamaicans urban agricultural techniques, with a focus on aquaponics.
Shepard noted, “I am humbled at this award and what it means for our work. The Anthem Awards have once again put us in the global spotlight. It is my hope that this attention will attract even more supporters for our work and provide us with the platform to advocate for the needs of the Caribbean.”
