Year 12 student Thurkka Jeyakumar won the regional final of Lions Youth of the Year on Saturday night.
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The PLC student was competing against four other students from the Northern Tablelands, in the competition which identifies leadership qualities in teenagers.
Thurkka and the other entrants were interviewed by a panel of judges about academic achievements and their interests, before they competed in a public speaking competition at Armidale City Bowling Club on Saturday night.
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Joining Thurkka were two contestants from Glen Innes High School, one from Guyra Central School and another from Macintyre High School in Inverell.
In the public speaking contest on Saturday evening, they had to answer two impromptu questions, which involved speaking for two minutes about a topic they had just been given.
Firstly, they were asked what management planning could be undertaken to better protect forests, people and wildlife from natural disasters, and the second topic the five students had to speak about was the value of reading.
Later in the evening, the students all delivered a five-minute prepared speech on topics of their choice, which tackled topics including International Women's Day and uranium mining.
Thurkka's prepared speech was about minorities being underrepresented in our media.
Thurkka has spoken about the issue at similar competitions in the past, including when she won the Armidale Dumaresq Lions Club final of Youth of the Year late last year.
She is the third member of her family to enter the competition, after two older siblings were previous entrants, which is how she first became aware of Lions Youth of the Year.
"I'd also heard really good things from my teachers about it, because Lions gives you a platform to speak about issues you are passionate about, and it's a really wonderful platform for young people," Thurkka said.
Currently studying for the HSC, Thurkka hopes to study law in Sydney once completing high school.
The three judges who adjudicated the final were longtime NEGS librarian Heather Fisher, former Armidale Dumaresq councillor Rob Richardson and Leanne Sweeney from Armidale's NAB branch. The bank is the major sponsor of the nation-wide contest.
The guest speaker was state MP Adam Marshall, who was a contestant in the competition, when he was at high school almost 20 years ago.
Mr Marshall made it through to the national final as a teenager, where he won the public speaking prize.
Other notable former entrants include former prime minister Kevin Rudd, past Queensland premier Peter Beattie and ABC's Sabra Lane.
