Lions Youth of the Year Competition

The Lions Youth of the Year Program is a wonderful community program that allows young people in their final year of school to develop their interview, public speaking and leadership skills in a public forum.

Four of our year 12 students - Ildi Clemens, Aidan Clemens, Megan Gamble and Will Hamilton - participated in the club/zone final on Sunday 27th February courtesy of the Maiden Gully Marong Lions Club. 

Each student was required to undertake an interview and present in the public speaking competition. Interview questions are based on student interests and studies and are conducted by a panel of three local community leaders. This year, the interview panel consisted of Mr Phil Britton, Lecturer at the School of Education, Latrobe University; Ms Cheryl Axell, Nurse and Nursing Trainer; Mr Trevor Trewartha, Primary School Teacher and Principal. The interview process allows students the opportunity to practise valuable communication and thinking skills, all of which are increasingly important to their post-school lives.

The public speaking section has two components: two two-minute impromptu speeches and one five-minute prepared speech on a topic of the student’s choice. Naturally, the impromptu speeches provide a great deal of challenge, with students required to respond to the two unseen prompts with no preparation time. This year, the prompts were:

• If you were a fly on the wall, whose wall would you like to be on?
• What qualities make a good leader?

Our students performed very well considering the challenging nature of this part of the competition, particularly in offering a range of insights on the qualities they admire most in good leaders. 

In the prepared speech section, our students spoke on contemporary issues relevant to the wider audience. Will’s speech on the dangers of carcinogens in meat conveyed valuable advice about limiting the consumption of smoked meats. Megan spoke with conviction, drawing on personal experience to explore the ongoing impacts of remote learning on students. Aidan offered detailed insight into the value of science to our lives, specifically vaccine development, while Ildi presented a highly considered evaluation of the degree to which modern society has lost a sense of community spirit. All four students spoke very convincingly and engaged their audiences from start to finish, with Ildi winning the public-speaking section of the competition. 

I would like to thank our wonderful students for their dedicated preparation and effort in the lead up to the competition and their confident presentation on the day. Additionally, I wish to acknowledge Malcolm Qualtrough of Strathfieldsaye Lions Club, Ross Wood, Youth Activities Co-ordinator at Maiden Gully Marong Lions, and the many Lions volunteers who made this event possible. It was also lovely to see the many parent, teacher and student supporters present on the day. 

Students in year 11 who are considering entering the competition next year are encouraged to speak to Megan, Will, Ildi or Aidan. More details about the 2023 competition will be available in term 4.

Ms Leah O’Toole

MiC Lions Youth of the Year