Durban - A “treasured” meeting with Queen Elizabeth II last week was one of the benefits Aditi Luchman, 26, enjoyed as one of the world’s most outstanding young leaders.
Luchman’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interact with the monarch at her Buckingham Palace residence resulted from her being selected to receive the Queen’s Young Leaders Award.
The award, a gold coin, is now in its third year and, to celebrate the queen’s diamond jubilee celebration, is given to people aged 18 to 29 living in Commonwealth countries.
Its purpose is to recognise and celebrate dynamic young leaders who have done exceptional work in transforming the lives of people in their community.
Luchman, of Sydenham, who now lives and works in Joburg, was among 60 people who qualified for the honour, which included a two-week UK stay.
“Meeting the queen was an occasion I will never forget,” Luchman said.
In her brief encounter with the queen to receive the medal, Luchman spoke of her experiences as a community activist and posed for photographs.
"There was huge excitement and nervousness before we could meet the queen," she said. “But when she chatted to each of us, she seemed very interested in the work we did."
Apart from the royal engagement, Luchman and the others are on a one-year correspondence leadership programme linked to the University of Cambridge.
She received the recognition because of her work over the past seven years with social enterprise organisation WomEng.
The organisation aims to break the stereotype that engineering is for men only, by closing the skills and gender gap in this field through various programmes.
The organisation has reached out to thousands of schoolgirls, university students and women in industry around the world.
Luchman, an engineer, started as a volunteer but took up full-time employment with WomEng last year.
She now serves as their lead co-ordinator and heads up all WomEng activities in South Africa and Kenya.
Her expertise and drive to empower have carried her to various parts of the world to champion WomEng’s cause.
Last year, to mark WomEng’s 10th anniversary, Luchman and her team launched the #1MillionGirlsinSTEM campaign.
The campaign aims to reach a million girls through Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and awareness initiatives in at least 10 countries over the next 10 years.
Emma Dicks, an associate of Luchman's, was a 2015 recipient of the queen's award and influenced Luchman to send her credentials to the queen's Young Leader Trust, the controlling body.
“I had just returned from Sao Paulo in October and I received a call from the trust. I didn't think I nailed the interview and wrote it off as a spurned opportunity."
But she got a call from the trust a month later, only to be told she had been selected for the leadership programme.
During the recent UK excursion, she visited the offices of Google, Facebook and the TV station BBC World.
Another highlight was visiting 10 Downing Street and meeting former UK prime minister John Major.
“He was among the various experts who spoke to us about leadership.
"I was pleased about his interest in youth empowerment and his effort to dispel the notion that politics was only for old white men,” Luchman said.