As the current President of The Fraser Coast Young Professionals, she is forging an enviable reputation amongst professional circles in our region, as a young lady that means business.
‘After a hiatus for a number of years, The Fraser Coast Young Professionals are back and focussed on bridging the gap between older and more established ideas and organisations, with the younger workforce in our region’ Sara said.
‘The Fraser Coast is a growing region and it is imperative that we provide the tools to allow our youth to stay and forge a future on the Fraser Coast. More young families are calling Hervey Bay home, and that is great news for all of us’.
Sara is no stranger to pursuing her passion for youth, having been named 2022 Young Citizen of the Year and also Youth Mayor in 2022.
‘The Young Citizen of the Year was real honour and was largely due to the work I was doing with Zonta, and I was the president of Zonta Hervey Bay for the last two-years’.
‘I was the youngest president in over one hundred years of Zonta’.
Zonta believes in making the world a better place by empowering women and finding joy in doing this in a supportive community of like-minded professionals from diverse countries and cultures.
The Young Citizen of the Year selection committee were also very complimentary of the volunteering work Sara was doing in her own time.
‘When I did work experience with the Fraser Coast Regional Council, I worked closely with Mayor George Seymour and he told me that there had previously been a Youth Council. I immediately wanted to know more’.
‘George put the motion forward through Fraser Coast Regional Council to reinstate the Youth Council with a view to creating a greater pipeline of communication between Fraser Coast Regional Council the youth of the region’
‘I applied, and when it came time to elect a Youth Mayor I was nominated by a peer and won that vote. It was a great experience’.
Sara is forthright in her views on the lack on consultation with young people and believes this is largely due to a misunderstanding, rather than a dismissal of youth needs.
‘The age demographics that will influence our region moving forward, need to have a more even spread and be collaborative in their approach’.
Sara makes no secret of her own political aspirations and her nomination for the 2024 Local Government Election in March of next year is a certainty, although she is not prepared to confirm or deny that right now.
‘I have always wanted to forge a future in politics, dating back to when I was in year six. I am drawn to the sense of service and the tangible differences that can be made in the day-to-day lives of residents.
Whatever she turns her hand to next, you get the feeling that Sara Diana Faraj will make a big impact.
Let’s hope we can keep amazing young people like her in our city.
There Hervey Bay Advertiser will welcome Sara as a regular column contributor from our issue of August 24th, discussing all things youth related as the President of The Fraser Coast Young Professionals.
