The Macintyre High School student was competing against four 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.

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Yash had made it to the final after winning the Inverell Lions Club's Youth of the Year final late last year.

Joining Yash in the regional final were two contestants from Glen Innes High School, one from Guyra Central School, and another 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.

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 International Women's Day.

Yash spoke about uranium mining, and how making use of the resource could be a benefit, in his prepared speech.

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.

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