The Lions Youth of the Year is a competition for youth in the ACT and across Australia to help foster and practise their public speaking and leadership skills.

Held by Lions Australia, the volunteering club, the Youth of the Year competition is for students aged 15 to 19 years old, and can help give these students skills they can use in their careers and other aspects of their lives.

Mick Brice is a member of Lions Club Canberra City, who, among other activities, helps organise the Lions Youth of the Year in Canberra. Mr Brice and Lions Australia want the best outcomes for young people.

“Youth are the citizens of tomorrow, and we want them to have the most opportunities to do their best in any field they take on,” he says.

The competition involves two parts. First, the student undergoes an interview about themselves, their interests, and their opinions on current events. The second part involves the student going up in front of an audience, giving a prepared speech, and being asked two impromptu questions.

There are multiple rounds of competition: Club (which can begin at any of the 1,400 Lions clubs across Australia), Zone, District, State and Nationals, each having an overall and public speaking winner. The overall winner will move onto the next round where they will compete against other winners. This process continues until the National round, where the winner becomes the overall national champion. With this comes a hefty prize: the overall winner receives $5,000 and the public speaking winner gets $2,500 (on their 18^th birthday, of course!).

Helping young people develop skills

However, the money is not the most important thing in the competition. Mr Brice believes that Lions programs like Youth of the Year can help young people in the future.

“I hope that Lions can provide a source of stability and support as well as guidance to young people,” he says.

“We can steer young people away from our mistakes, and provide hope that good times and opportunities will exist in the future, as they have in our lifetimes, and in so many generations before us.”

Mr Brice believes the competition helps students learn many skills for their future, including thinking on their feet, skills for an interview which would “be very valuable for their future employment”, and, of course, public speaking. However, a “wealth of confidence” is the most important skill young people can take out of this competition, he says.

“Youth of the Year is, if you like, a premium activity, because it the takes young people from across Australia, and pits them against each other in these various levels of competition,” Mr Brice says. “And at the end of it, certainly, in my experience, the result is that the individuals come out almost professional in the way they can speak.”

Alistair Coe, who many know as the former leader of the ACT Liberals, was also once a Lions Youth of the Year winner for the Ginninderra Lions Club. Mr Coe recalls that his journey into the competition began in 2001, when he saw an advertisement for the Lions Youth of the Year competition at his school, and received an application form from his teacher.

“I knew a little bit about Lions,” says Mr Coe. “I knew about their community work and all the different global programs that they have. And given it is such a good organisation, I had confidence that the Youth of the Year would be a worthwhile pursuit.”

Mr Coe remembers as a teenager going to an interview for the Lions competition in one of the Lions members’ houses.

“She was there with a couple of other members of the interview panel. Obviously, it was as a 16-year-old, and it’s a little bit intimidating to go to an interview like that. But they are, of course, very friendly and very accommodating. I think it was a good opportunity to really go beyond my comfort zone. I think in life, very often progress is made when people go beyond their comfort zone. That’s where you really find out what’s possible.”

The Lions competition is not only for aspiring politicians, though. Mr Coe believes it can teach lessons for any career, and for life generally.

“What the Youth of the Year experience taught me was the need for good communication, the need to be presentable, the need to be prepared,” he says. “I think those skills are applicable for any job or any profession. To that end, I really think that the Youth of the Year is a great pursuit for anyone, not just people who are thinking about politics.”

Mr Coe also encourages the youth of today to participate in the competition.

“I think it’s very easy to see these opportunities and to not take them up,” he says. “I encourage people to take the initiative, to go beyond their comfort zone, and to make the most of the opportunity to really push yourself and to make the most of the experience.”

Lions run a range of youth programs

Youth of the Year is not the only program that Lions runs for young people. There are also Leos clubs, which are Lions clubs for young people ranging from 12 to 18 years in Alpha Leos, and from 18 to 30 in Omega Leos.

The youth exchange is another program that Lions run for young people. In a foreign exchange, students swap for about six weeks, in which they can experience a new part of the world.

“We have exchange opportunities in Japan, the US, Canada, Britain and France,” says Mr Brice. “Great opportunity for young people.”

Lions have mainly reached out to young Australians via schools, through contact with teachers. However, in recent years, teachers have become busier, decreasing the reach that the Lions club has with students. Mr Brice wonders if there is a better, more effective way to get Lions, a group with many ageing members, to connect with more young people.

“How could we make it easier, simpler?” asks Mr Brice. “We got the right technique, right approach; could we do it in a better way than we are?”

If you are interested in the Lions Youth of the Year competition, contact your nearest club through Facebook, or follow the link to learn more: lionsclubs.org.au/our-programs/youth-opportunities/youth-of-the-year/

By Tahir Rangwalla, Work Experience Student

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