Ms Maalouf, a year 11 student at MacKillop College, was elected as the new youth mayor earlier this month, one of 14 members on the council for 2021-22.

She said she's grateful for the newly elected role and she's keen to get in and start serving the young people in the Bathurst community.

"I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be a voice for the youth in the community and seeing what they would love to see happen in Bathurst," she said.

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"It's an honour and I'm really happy to work with the people on the council, alongside Harvey Lew, the deputy mayor. We've been communicating every day and getting in contact about what we want to do.

"I want to promote the Bathurst Youth social media Facebook page more, to regularly post and get our name out there in the community, so the youth know what events are coming up."

As Bathurst is currently in lockdown, Ms Maalouf said she's hoping to promote more positivity for the young people in town, who may be struggling mentally and emotionally.

"We want to encourage more positivity in town," she said.

"I know our youth councilors are very passionate about supporting mental and emotional well-being. It'll be great to integrate that with the lockdown restrictions because there's a lot of young people bored at home.

"We want to try and get some online events planned in the next few weeks, instead of waiting for something to happen face-to-face. We're already thinking of doing a competition or maybe creating a positive well-being video."

Ms Maalouf said her parents played a big role in her signing up for youth council, with her parent's running the Lebanese restaurant Maalouf's on George Street.

"I love talking to everyone in the community. I've been use to that with my parent's restaurant since I was really little," she said.

"My parents drove me to go into the youth council and I saw it on Facebook and heard about it from the previous council, so I was a bit inspired to follow in their footsteps.

"Becoming a leader is something I'm passionate about. I've got so many leadership positions at school and it's helped me to develop a lot of life-long skills, such as communication and time management."

Being born and raised in Bathurst, Ms Maalouf is hoping to share some of the great history and culture the town has to offer.

The youth council provides opportunities to participate in the community by organising events, having a say on local issues and working on projects that support and encourage young people.

The remainder of the council includes Jeffrey Knox (Bathurst High), Justin Laver (Bathurst High), Caitlin McLean (Bathurst High), Caitlin Morris (Kelso High), Loukia Robson (Kelso High), Stella Hall (MacKillop), Chelsea Muller (MacKillop), Esther Wong (MacKillop), Ella Kay (Scots All Saints), George Eliades (St Stanislaus') and Tom Rodenhuis (St Stanislaus').

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