Youth Focus - Elizabeth Martin

Youth Focus is a new initiative undertaken by Girl.com.au and is designed to provide motivational and enlivening stories about today's youth.

Elizabeth Martin is a Camden resident who has just won a $27,000 scholarship with William Blue International Hotel Management School. There were a total of 74 applications for the Scholarship. Each application received was sent on to Christie Consulting, Organisational Psychologists and Consultants, who conducted a phone interview with each applicant.

From the phone interviews a short list of nine finalists were selected. The finalists were invited to come for a panel interview and asked questions by the five judges who came from within William Blue, Christie Consulting and the hotel industry itself. It was a tough selection process to select the winner, but the judges were unanimous in their decision to award the scholarship to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth has just finished Year 12 at Elderslie High School. She was very involved in her school community and participated in various sports, debating and public speaking, dance, choir and the school band. She has represented (and won numerous awards for) Elderslie High School in public speaking and debating competitions. Elizabeth received the Principals Award for best all-rounder and was chosen as Vice Captain in Year 12.

In 2002 Elizabeth was the Camden Lions "Youth of the Year" and was regional finalist for the Lions Youth of the Year Debating Team Zone championships. She was also a member of the Camden Junior Council and participated in the Camden Youth Centre. She has played netball for Camden RSL for 10 years.

Elizabeth has shown a very keen interest in hotel management and has already undertaken a vocational education and training course in hospitality as part of her HSC.

She is very excited about her course at William Blue which starts next February. The course is designed around the world of work, and is fundamentally a business course taught within the framework of the hospitality industry. Students can articulate to a Bachelor of Business at most Australian universities.

At the end of her course, Elizabeth will gain two qualifications - the Australian Advanced Diploma, highly regarded around the world since the 2000 Olympics, and the Diploma of Hotel Management from the American Hotel and Lodging Association which is recognised in over 160 countries. Elizabeth has expressed interest in working as a banqueting function coordinator, organising events in hotels.

According to Elizabeth, the scholarship gave her confidence and a great start to the year.

*If you'd like to nominate an inspiring young person who is achieving things in your community (at school, in sport, in the arts etc...) then email michelle@girl.com.au