Lions Club of Goulburn City Youth of the Year heads to State Final

Announcing Trent as the overall winner, chairperson of the judging panel, Patricia Groves remarked on the very high standards set by all contestants at the recent competition.

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Trent Jeffrey from Mulwaree High School was joined by Eliza Kemp from Crookwell High School and Spedding Pearce from Snowy Mountains Grammar at Jindabyne.

The three students faced a five member judging panel consisting of Carol James, Patricia Groves, Steve Chapman, Ketryna Coupe and Janelle Lawson.

The District Final began with an interview process where students expanded on their school and community activities, leadership and cultural activities, and answered a range of general knowledge questions.

The afternoon public speaking section of the program saw Trent, Eliza and Spedding answer two impromptu questions.

"Professional sports people can have a large influence on young people. Do you think that professional sports people should be idolized? Why, Why not?" and "If you were prime minister for a day, what would you change and why?"

Each contestant had to speak for two minutes.

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All three students also delivered a five minute prepared speech, "The Homeless Truth" from Trent, "The advantages of being involved in sport" from Eliza and "What is school for?" from Spedding.

The winner of the Public Speaking section was Spedding Pearce from Snowy Mountains Grammar with a speech that highlighted the failures of the educational system.

Chairperson of the Lions' Youth of the Year, Bob Collins, said all three were outstanding students who had very clear views on both community and national issues and were most likely to lead and influence youth and society successfully.

Trent will now go on to the next round of judging, the State Final in Maitland on April 9.

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