Photo: Jordan Romero is an American mountaineer who was thirteen years old when he reached the summit of Mount Everest. 

New York, N.Y. The James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation, in conjunction with Orphans International Worldwide, has the mission of Raising, Supporting and Educating Young Global Leaders. Towards this end, the foundation confers the Luce Young Global Leadership Award and its Luce 24 Under 24 Awards. grants bestows

Age & Accomplishment

These individuals have accomplished remarkable feats in their respective fields, demonstrating that age is no barrier to achieving greatness and making a significant impact on the world.

Four

• American pediatric cancer patient Alexandra Scott started “Alex’s Lemonade Stand,” raising millions for cancer research.
• American Mikaila Ulmer founded Me & the Bees Lemonade.

Five

• American Sophie Cruz wrote Pope Francis asking him to advocate for undocumented immigrants like her parents living in U.S.
• British composer, pianist, violinist and conductor Alma Elizabeth Deutscher composed her first piano sonata.

Seven

• American LGBTQ+ activist Jazz Jennings publicly identified as transgender with Barbara Walters on 20/20 (2006).

Eight

• American actor Dakota Fanning was the youngest Screen Actors Guild Award nominee.
• German-Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first symphony.

Ten

• American Jim Luce organized “Youth for Gilligan” to support gubernatorial race of Jack Gilligan, who won.

Eleven

• American Marley Dias launched #1000BlackGirlBooks with goal of collecting and donating books featuring black girls.

Twelve

• JoJo Siwa (American singer, dancer, and influential LGBTQ+ youth icon first appeared on television with her mother)

Thirteen

• J. Luce Leader Eugenie Carys de Silva completed her Master’s degree in Intelligence Studies at Harvard University.
• Joan of Arc led the French army in a major victory against the English at Orléans. 
• American teenager Jordan Romero climbed Mount Everest.
• American Marsai Martin became executive producer of a film in Hollywood.

Fourteen

• British actor Millie Bobby Brown appointed UNICEF’s youngest-ever Goodwill Ambassador.
• Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci received a perfect “10” in the 1976 Olympics.
• Hawaii native Auli’i Cravalho performed as the voice of Disney’s Moana.
• Laura Dekker, a Dutch citizen born in New Zealand, sailed around the world solo.
• Cuban-American Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski first flew an aircraft.

Fifteen

• French native Louis Braille invented His eponymous reading system.
• Chess prodigy Bobby Fischer became a chess grand master.
• Chicago native Tavi Gevinson founded Rookie Magazine.
• Pakistani Malala Yousafzai survived a Taliban assassination attempt.

Sixteen

• Alexander the Great colonized Macedonia and founded the city of Alexandropolis.
• American gymnast Simone Biles was the youngest ever Olympic medalist in gymnastics.
• American female S.E. Hinton (Susan Elosie Hinton) completed writing The Outsiders.
• Australian Jessica Watson sailed solo around the world.

Seventeen

• Indian-American ophthalmologist Balamurali Krishna “Bala” Ambati graduated from Mount Sinai’s School of Medicine.
• Ukrainian-Canadian Wayne Gretzky became a professional hockey player.
• Korean-American Chloe Kim of California took Olympic gold in snowboarding.
• Brazilian soccer player Edson Arantes do Nascimento – better known as “Pelé” – scored his first World Cup goal.
• Florida native Brittany Wenger developed a breast cancer detection app.
• Joshua Wong led Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong.
• Pakistani Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Eighteen

• American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish won all four major Grammy categories in one year.
• American basketball player LeBron James made his NBA debut.
• Canadian-British tennis player Emma Raducanu won U.S. Open.
• Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots ruled both England and Scotland.

Nineteen

• South Korean Kim Yuna took Olympic gold in figure skating, 2010.
• French national Marquis de Lafayette helped General Washington fight the British.
• Swedish Greta Thunberg began protesting her government’s limited action against climate change at her school.
• Harvard student, American Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.
• “Tank Man,” the anonymous Chinese who stood up to a tank on Tienanmen Square in Beijing.

Twenty

• Galusha Pennypacker appointed Brigadier General of Union Army by President Lincoln.
• English aristocrat Mary Shelley, friend of Lord Byron, published Frankenstein.
• American singer Taylor Swift won her first Grammy.

Twenty-One

• American Kylie Jenner became the youngest self-made billionaire.
• Utah farmer Philo Taylor Farnsworth invented the television.
• American novelist Gore Vidal wrote The City and the Pillar (1925).

Twenty-Two

• American singer-songwriter and actress Stefani Germanotta began her career as Lady Gaga.

Twenty-Three

• Nigerian-American writer Tomi Adeyemi published NYT Bestselling novel Children of Blood and Bone.
• American Nellie Bly exposed the dysfunctional mental asylum on Roosevelt Island, New York City.

Twenty-Four

• American writer Truman Capote received the O. Henry Award in 1948.
• British novelist Charles Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers.
• French writer Victor Hugo published his debut novel.
• Yale student, American Henry Robinson Luce, founded Time magazine.
• Wooster/Waseda student Jim Luce became youngest Japanese-speaking American in Japanese bank on Wall Street.
• William Pitt became prime minister of England.