Cobram Anglican Grammar's Rory Brooker has been named the Cobram Lions Club National Youth of the Year.
He will go on to represent Cobram Anglican Grammar and Cobram Lions at the zone level of the program on March 4 in Yarrawonga.
Rory said he had decided to get involved in the competition in an effort to improve his public-speaking skills after his teachers told him about the competition.
“I probably wanted to do it to see whether of not I’d be good at public speaking because it never really was my strong suit, I could get some experience out of it” he said.
Cobram Lions secretary Janet Austin said each Lions club across the country hosted a club level of the event, which was the first of a multi-stage competition culminating in a national final in early May.
The competition begins with a detailed nomination form that highlights in-school achievements, extracurricular involvement and other activities.
Students must then complete an interview with the judges that makes up 70 per cent of their score at the club level competition, with public speaking making up the remaining 30 per cent of points awarded.
The speaking portion involves a five-minute prepared speech and impromptu speaking based on two questions.
Rory said while he thought he had done well in the interview portion, he was less confident about the public-speaking portion because of the other candidates’ performance.
“I could tell they’d both done public speaking at some point... at the time I didn’t think my speech was that good, so I was a bit shocked when I found out I’d won,” he said.
“I was quite surprised but at the same time I was sort of shown that I’m not too bad at public speaking, I was quite proud of it.”
He hopes to continue his good track record at the upcoming zone competition in Yarrawonga.
“I definitely hope that I can do a bit better than my last performance in terms of public speaking,” Rory said.