Hi, I’m James Lambert and I have been honoured to be the 2015 Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) Project Director for JCI UK.

What is TOYP?

It is a flagship global JCI project to recognise the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the world. Honourees are aged between 18 and 40 and have excelled in their chosen field - which could be anything from technical innovation, to cultural achievement to voluntary leadership.

My experience of TOYP

In late 2013 I was keen to get involved in a national project and I heard about TOYP via one of the national newsletters. I got in touch with Ilona Alcock who was the TOYP Director for the first JCI UK awards to find out more it and signed up to the team straightaway! I was lucky enough to be able to represent JCI UK at the European TOYP Academy in Istanbul. The Academy was a great way to meet people from other TOYP projects in Europe and learn from their experiences. 

After being part of Ilona’s team for the 2014 awards I took over the reins last summer.  As with all projects there have been some difficulties but reading about all of the inspiring entrants has made the work extremely worthwhile and I feel extremely proud to have been involved in TOYP.

The judging for the 2015 awards has now been completed and the TOYP Honorees for 2015 are:

• Luke Addison
• Lewis Bowen
• Jane Burston
• Sophie Carrigill
• Alice Driver
• Zafren Mohammed
• Matthew Otubu
• Nathaniel Peat
• Eliza Rebeiro
• Vikas Shah

Eliza Rebeiro, Luke Bowen, Sophie Carrigill and Vikas Shah - just 4 of our JCI UK exceptional TOYP 2015 Honorees

Further details about the honorees will be published soon and an awards ceremony will be held on Friday 20^th November 2015 as part of the National Convention in Barnsley.  Please see www.jciuk.org.uk/toyp for further details about TOYP

The UK Honorees will be entered into the global competition in May and a shortlist of 20 will be announced in early August with the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World being announced in late August. These lucky 10 will be invited to an awards ceremony as part of World Congress in Japan in November.

Would you be interested in being part of TOYP 2016? If you would like further information please get in touch with me at toyp@jciuk.org.uk

Finally, don’t forget to start looking for worthy recipients as nominations for next year will open in September!!

James