FOR a year, Singapore Polytechnic student Lim Junry was the friendly face behind Changi Airport's Customer Service Counter, fielding visitors' questions.

With that under her belt as community service, the 20-year-old went on to train to be an emcee, learn figure skating, teach English to Cambodian youth and organise a cultural festival in Sembawang, where she lives.

For doing all that, she received the gold National Youth Achievement Award from President S. R. Nathan on Friday, along with 167 other young people.

The gold award is the highest one under the 16-year-old youth development programme, set up to mould those aged between 14 and 25 into responsible and self-reliant adults.

The programme drew just 150 participants at its start in 1992. Today, 178,000 young people are on it, chasing the gold, silver or bronze award.

To qualify for these, participants have to undertake activities like doing community service, go on an adventurous journey, learn new skills and do a sport for certain period of time. To bag the gold award, participants have to undertake a project benefiting the community.

Gold award winner Muhamed Ashraf Abdul Bakar, 19, never realised the number of needy people here until he got on the programme and became involved in installing safety features like grab bars and doing other simple maintenance jobs in the homes of the elderly poor who live alone.

Despite having the top prize already in the bag, neither he nor Ms Lim are about to end their involvement in community work.

It is exactly what Mr Zainudin Nordin, the Mayor of Central Singapore District and a member of the NYAA Council advisory board, wants of youth.

He told the youth at Friday's award ceremony that they ought not just think about building their own careers but should 'strive together to build a better community'.