Community & Business
15 March, 2025
Local youth step up to the plate
IT was all St Stephen’s at the recent Mareeba and Atherton Lions Youth of the Year competitions with three of the Catholic College students, including one who has lived in Australia for only a year, taking home all the awards.
For Atherton’s competition it was Year 11 student and Australian resident of just one year, Diwani Mapolisa, who won Youth of the Year and the public speaking award.
Over at Mareeba’s competition, school captain Harley Cek claimed Youth of the Year and Yun Kang Dang took out the public speaking award.
Diwani’s achievement is quite impressive considering she has only lived in Australia for a short period of time after moving from Zimbabwe early last year.
She then started as a student at St Stephen’s and has hit the ground running since.
“I decided that the competition was my chance to use my voice to speak out on issues that I am passionate about,” Diwani said.
“I wanted to use the opportunity to be a voice for the voiceless.”
“My prepared speech was titled, ‘Your Silence is a Crime’, and was centred around bullying.
“I spoke on how we have developed a “one man for himself” culture and reprimanded the stigma held towards workplace whistleblowers.
“I ended my speech by calling for us as a society to bring back community by caring for one another and using our voices.”
Diwani was “shocked” to have been chosen as the winner of the competition amongst her peers.
“I am honoured to have been chosen as the representative of the wonderful community of Atherton,” she said.
The Mareeba Lions Youth of the Year competition was “well supported”, according to club director Tom Braes, with nine students from Mareeba State High School and St Stephen’s participating.
“The topics of discussion ranged from artificial intelligence, technology and children, and reforming the National Anti-Corruption Commission,” he said.
The Youth of the Year was taken out by Harley Cek, who spoke about the corporatisation of farming and the public speaking award went to Yun Kang Dang who spoke about climate change.
Harley “felt a great sense of pride” after he won and was extremely grateful for everyone who had helped to get him there.
“I’ve competed in public speaking for some time now and was runner up for the competition last year, so it was a great feeling to have won in my final year of schooling.
“I really admire how the competition encourages young people to maintain well-read and presents them with opportunities.
“I spoke about the corporatisation of the agricultural industry, specifically in our region, as the topic resonated with me given that my parents are former farmers.
Harley was also awarded as the overall winner at the Lions District Q2 Zones 2 and 3 Youth of the Year final that was held in Atherton over the weekend.
He will now progress to District judging which will be held in Townsville this weekend.
