The winners progress to the zone final in Yass on June 14 and, if they secure victory there, to the national final in Sydney on July 25.

The voice of youth competition is split into junior, 11-15 years, and senior, under 18 years, divisions, where the competitors can choose to talk about a range of subjects.

The juniors will have to do a six minute speech on either community spirit, a light bulb moment, a lucky escape, rewind or the price of progress while the seniors must talk for eight minutes on history’s page, friend or foe, bridge over troubled waters, detour or mind games.

Participants from Griffith High School, Wade High School and Marian Catholic College will take part in the competition.

Voice of Youth coordinator Carmel La Rocca that the rewards reaped by past contestants was more than enough incentive to enter.

“We (Rostrum) had our 50 year anniversary in Griffith last year and some old members of the club have become politicians and amazing public speakers, everyone gets benefits from a public speaking,” Ms La Rocca said.

“They all spoke very highly of the benefits that they got out of belonging to a public speaking forum.

“It helps them to become community leaders and gives them confidence to get up and talk.”

While the competition is for high school kids only, everyone is welcome to attend and listen to the future leaders of Griffith in action.

Griffith High School student Tom Geddes-Kelanty is an avid public speaker and was excited about the challenge.

She recently took out the Youth of the Year public speaking competition and is a member of the school debating team that is taking part in the Premier’s Debating Challenge.

“I just really like public speaking and the topics looked really good so I thought I'd give it a go,” Tom said. “I chose the light bulb moment to talk about because I was at drama camp last week and the performance I did actually had been about light bulb moments. So I thought I could use that in my speech.”