I was honoured to attend this years Australia Day Awards at Lake Macquarie Council in January and delighted that Charlestowns Teza Sankoorikal was named Young Citizen of the Year.

At only 16 years, Teza has already made what seems like a lifetime of achievements. Teza has been an active member of the Leos Club and has facilitated fortnightly meetings to discuss socially relevant projects including the environment, drug awareness and youth welfare.

Teza was also chosen to represent the Charlestown electorate at the 2017 Youth Parliament. Advocating for young people is one of her many passions. She has always been a strong advocate for multi-culturalism. Teza has always demonstrated strong leadership qualities through the peer support and mentoring programs at her school, the Smith Familys Student 2 Student program and student representative roles on the schools student body council.

Congratulations to Teza on receiving this very prestigious award she is an inspiration to the young people of Lake Macquarie.