Young public speaker heading to London

FORMER Loreto College Ballarat student Lucy Eales will fly to London in May to take part in the International Public Speaking Competition.

Ms Eales is the first Victorian to be invited to take part in the prestigious competition since 2017.

It was established in 1980 and students aged 16 to 20 from more than 50 countries take part in a week of cultural exchange and public speaking at the highest standard.

“It goes for a week and the first couple of days are mainly focused around cultural connection and meeting the other competitors,” Ms Eales said.

“The back half of the week is where the public speaking happens, and all the competitors will be split off into heats.

“The winners of those head into the grand finale.”

Ms Eales was invited to London after winning the Plain English Speaking Award final last year, which involved a prepared and impromptu speech.

Throughout the heats, state and national finals Ms Eales spoke about yarning and the Voice to Parliament referendum.

“I have always been really interested in current affairs, social justice and politics,” she said.

“I have always been a pretty assertive, opinionated person so when my class in year six ran a public speaking competition for our year level, I was hooked and after competing in that there was pretty much no stopping me.

“I felt like I had so much to say, and public speaking gave me a platform to order those ideas.”

Ms Eales said that at the international competition, she is most looking forward to meeting diverse young people.

“During all of the PESA stuff in Australia I came in with the mentality that I want to do my best and I try and win,” she said.

“Now that I’ve made it this far, which I didn’t quite expect, I’m more excited to learn about what brings all of the other competitors here and what their speeches are about.

“You get so many unique perspectives you never would have thought about.”