GERARD Felipe of Tublay, Benguet who became the first youth mayor of an Australian town in March 2018 hopes to continue competing in karate and share his experience to fellow youth as a mayor.

Felipe is set to turn over his post next month.

“I am very proud to have taken the role coming from Tublay and being an Igorot,” said the 20 years-old.

Being the youth mayor of Frankston town in Victoria, Felipe crafted salient programs which include student presidents from private and public high schools for the whole town to engage in issues within the community.

“When I first started my term, my priority was to focus on youth, and with that in mind I was able to establish school captains conference of Frankston which engages school captains of each high school to come together,” Felipe added.

After engagements with the community, Felipe build stronger connections with the youth as they themselves build stronger awareness of what is happening in the community.

“The youth are willing to play an active role both in Australia and here (Cordillera) but they just need some encouragement,” he added.

Addressing fellow youth in Tublay, Benguet on Monday, he said the Cordillera is very fortunate to have rich resources and the youth must take active role in sharing and taking care of its resources.

Felipe said he has easily adjusted to being a youth mayor while completing his studies in Monash University with a degree in Bachelor of Arts major in Criminology and Political Science.

“The course that I am doing is also in relation to what I am completing; continuing to study criminology and political science has also motivated me to fulfill my duties stronger. I was able to put my theoretical studies into application.”

Hoping to finish his course by 2020, the Ibaloy youth hope to continue pursuing a post-graduate career in law in Australia.

On the other side of being an active leader, he is also the current national champion for Karate in Australia and has been continuing his training and will be defending his title next month in Gold Coast.

Afterwards, he will be headed to Japan in April for one-week training to refine his skills at the oldest Shotokan Karate Organization in the world, Japan Karate Association (JKA) Headquarters.

In August until September, the JKA athlete will be competing for the Second Asia Pacific Championships in Thailand.