ECU student wins prestigious WA Young Person of the Year Award

Courageous, empathetic and resilient: words befitting of 2025 WA Young Person of the Year Award winner and Edith Cowan University (ECU) student Maddison Thomas.

A passionate advocate for education support and mental health, she also took home the Carers WA Milestone Award at the 2025 WA Youth Awards.

Rising through challenges

Maddison was raised in state care until the age of 16. She then chose to move in and live with her mother, who experiences mental and physical health issues and become her carer. Despite Maddison's selflessness and courage in the face of adversity, she was confronted with another extraordinary challenge as both she and her mother became homeless.

This spurred Maddison to advocate for herself and her mother through the public health and housing systems to obtain the help they desperately needed.

With stable care and housing support in place, Maddison persevered and successfully completed Year 12 and has set the goal of becoming a secondary school English teacher through her studies at ECU. She hopes to empower her future students with the same support and guidance that she has acquired through her own journey.

Maddison is currently studying ECU's University Preparation Course (UniPrep) as a pathway to her dream of becoming a teacher.

The WA Youth Awards

Established in 1999, the WA Youth Awards recognise young Western Australians aged between 10 - 25 years for the impact they have had on the community.

The Awards aim to create strong foundations for youth advocacy in WA and empower young people to be supportive and inclusive leaders in their field or community.

ECU Community Leadership Award

L to R: Professor Braden Hill, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Equity and Indigenous) with finalists of the ECU Community Leadership Award: Daisy Pilsworth, Rachel Burns, Lilijana Nicholls and Benjamin Terrazas (current ECU student).

As part of the WA Youth Awards, the ECU-sponsored Community Leadership Award acknowledges young people who are peer leaders, who inspire and create change through sports, education, culture, or any other areas where peer leadership is essential.

Rachel Burns, ECU Community Leadership Award winner

The winner of this year's ECU Community Leadership Award is Rachel Burns, an intersectional lived experience advocate who has founded her own movement: Integrity Initiative.

The focus of this impactful initiative is on creating autonomy, dignity, and removing stigma around the mental health system in Australia.

ECU's own Benjamin Terrazas was a finalist for the Community Leadership Award for his work and community outreach through the Football Futures Foundation, Play It Forward, and MiniRoos multicultural settlement programs.

For further information see the Minister for Youth's media statement: Passionate young advocates recognised at the WA Youth Awards.

For a full list of winners visit the WA Youth Awards website.