When Year 12 student and college captain Lincoln Williams isn’t hitting the books, the drums or the surf, he is campaigning for social change at the highest level and using his love of science to make life easier for others.

At only 17 years of age, Tatachilla Lutheran College student Lincoln is a member of the state-level Student Representative Council (SA SRC), where he works with like-minded student leaders from across South Australia to create meaningful and positive change in the local community.

As part of his role on the SA SRC, Lincoln is working to lower the local government voting age from 18 years to 16 years. The campaign, dubbed Our Future Our Vote, has seen Lincoln survey local students in his electorate to determine how they feel about the current voting age in local elections, how prepared they feel to vote, and what resources they need to feel more prepared to vote.

“Our combined poll results showed pretty clearly that the majority of students who participated in our research would like the voting age for local elections to be lowered, and if it was lowered, they would turn out to vote,” says Lincoln.

“Most students who responded to the survey also indicated that in order to feel more informed at the polling booth, they would like to learn more about the voting process at school and have greater access to information about how political decisions are actually made.”

Lincoln recently participated in a federal hearing that examined the effectiveness of civic education in schools across Australia and used the opportunity share his campaign findings with decision makers at the highest level. 

He spoke to the importance of integrating unbiased civics education into the Australian Curriculum so that young people could more easily assess the suitability of political candidates with an informed eye, as opposed to simply adopting their parents’ political views.

“Being part of the SA SRC as given me a real insight into how the political system works, how campaigns are run (and won) and the role of diplomacy in being an active citizen,” Lincoln says.

If this wasn’t inspiring enough, Lincoln was recently recognised with a community service award by the Onkaparinga Prayer Breakfast Committee for his civic leadership and student advocacy. The award was bestowed in part because of Lincoln’s efforts to enhance the school experience for his classmates, having solely pioneered an automated dispenser for bathroom products on behalf of the Tatachilla student body. 

The dispenser was proposed by Tatachilla students themselves and Lincoln offered to design, build and code it. His invention draws on his passion for mechatronics and engineering, using a microcontroller (Raspberry Pi) and cloud technology to allow the college to track the dispenser’s use and modify its functionality remotely.

Once implemented, students will be able to dispense products – including feminine products – from the wall-mounted machine with a simple swipe of their student ID card. Lincoln hopes to launch his invention at the college before the end of the year. 

But this isn’t the first time that Lincoln has used his scientific nous to make a difference on a large-scale. He has also used his own bespoke technology to build mobile phone apps for retail outlets across Australia, including Royal Copenhagen, which offer businesses a digital alternative to the traditional loyalty card. 

Looking forward, Lincoln hopes to put his love of maths and physics to good use by forging a career in aerospace engineering, possibly in the United States.

“I have always been a curious person, and I see the field of aerospace as a platform that will allow me to contribute to humanity's exploration of the universe,” says Lincoln.

“It’s been really exciting to see companies such as SpaceX launch, land and blow up their rockets and watch NASA’s livestreams of space station dockings and Mars landings.

“In ten years’ time I hope to be working as an engineer in the space industry, travelling the world and snowboarding as often as possible,” Lincoln says with a smile.

Armed with a deep capacity for problem-solving, a strong sense of social justice and an inherent humility, Lincoln is on the fast track to achieving these dreams and more, living his life with courage, ambition and compassion: all the values that Tatachilla Lutheran College holds dear and that its college captain embodies in abundance.

About Lincoln Williams

When Lincoln was 11 years old he built a Rube Goldberg machine and earned himself the Innovation Award for Year 6. The machine, which used items such as dominoes, string, falling objects, marbles, ramps and kitchen utensils to trigger a series of chain reactions, highlighted his early love for engineering. 

When he is not agitating for social and political change, Lincoln can either be found playing in the Tatachilla Lutheran College rock band, Southside, hanging out at the beach with friends or listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

He currently leads Tatachilla’s student clubs in STEM and music.