Two Glen Innes High School students in Lions Youth of the Year regional final

The two Glen Innes High School students were competing against three other students from the Northern Tablelands, in the Lions Youth of the Year competition, which identifies leadership qualities in teenagers.

The students were interviewed by a panel of judges about academic achievements and their interests, before they competed in a public speaking competition at Armidale City Bowling Club on Saturday night.

Both girls had progressed to the regional final, after the were the winner and runner-up of the Glen Innes Lions Club Youth of the Year competition late last year.

Joining the two contestants from Glen Innes High School were one from Guyra Central School, another from Macintyre High School in Inverell, and a student from PLC Armidale.

In the public speaking contest on Saturday evening, they all had to answer two impromptu questions, which involved speaking for two minutes about a topic they had just been given.

Firstly, they were asked what management planning could be undertaken to better protect forests, people and wildlife from natural disasters, and the second topic the five students had to speak about was the value of reading.

Both Glen Innes girls mentioned the impact of the local bushfires recently when answering the first question.

Later in the evening, the students all delivered a five-minute prepared speech on topics of their choice, which tackled topics including underrepresentation of minorities in the media and uranium mining.

Alex spoke about International Women's Day in her prepared speech, highlighting inspiring women in society, as well as her own life.

Courtney's speech looked at the life of her grandmother, who she never met, but examined how times had changed since her grandmother's time.

The winner of the regional final was a student from PLC Armidale, Thurkka Jeyakumar, who now progresses to the district final in Tamworth.

The guest speaker on Saturday night was state MP Adam Marshall, who was a contestant in the competition, when he was at high school almost 20 years ago.

Mr Marshall made it through to the national final as a teenager, where he won the public speaking prize.

Other notable former entrants include former prime minister Kevin Rudd, past Queensland premier Peter Beattie and ABC's Sabra Lane.