LAST year was a big one for Bega teenager Imogen Pittolo.

She began it by being named Bega Chamber of Commerce Community Young Citizen of the Year last Australia Day, and went on to win the Bega Valley Community Award and the Andrew Constance Community Spirit award.

She was secretary of the Bega High School Student Representative Council and instrumental in organising a breakfast club and promoting diversity in Australian schools.

She is also a registered Police and Citizen Youth Club volunteer, helping organise boxing for fitness-healthy lifestyle program and promoting the importance and benefits of daily exercise. 

She is a member of the Bega Valley Youth Council, which brings attention to youth issues and implements community events in response to the needs of young people in the shire.

Another highlight of Imogen’s year was winning the Bega Valley Community Star Award to feature on the cover of the 2015-16 phone books. 

This is in recognition of her work as an anti-bullying campaigner in setting up and promoting the Get Up, Stand Up and Fight Facebook page with her friend Katelyn Jensen of Tumut.

The girls post anti-bullying videos, inspirational messages and links to other websites such as beyondblue, Reach Out and the Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation’s Head Space site.

Imogen also backs up that information with anti-bullying talks and workshops at school, including working with Year 6 and 7 students making the transition from primary to high school.

This year she is taking a gap year, working full-time in Mal’s Pizza Bite, and hopes to get into the Police Academy in Goulburn in 2016.

KALIDEVI Samuels-Connell of Pericoe has an outstanding academic history. 

Every semester since she started Year Seven in the Eden Marine High School until she finished Year 12 last year she has won an Outstanding Academic Achievement award, which means she placed first in multiple subjects every year of her secondary schooling.

In addition, Kalidevi won the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Science Award in Year 11 and was also a Tuckwell Scholarship nominee. 

She was the Anzac Day key speaker at the Eden community service and attended a student leadership conference in 2011 as well as serving on the school’s Student Representative Council from 2009 and its secretary in 2013-2014.

Outside school, Kalidevi is an active volunteer member of the NSW Rural Fire Service and has worked on Parent and Citizen events for Towamba Primary School and Preschool.