Jotham attended the awards in Canberra, where he and 69 others from across Australia received the highly contested scholarships.

The New Colombo Plan scholarship is a government initiative, where students are supported to lift understanding of our neighbouring cultures by studying in the Indo-Pacific region.

To apply, it was necessary to be nominated by your university to the department of foreign affairs.

The application process involved four stages, which Jotham managed with success.

Jotham is currently studying a double degree in civil engineering and commerce at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Formerly an SRC member at Taree High, he also held the leadership position of house president at his UNSW residential college Basser in 2014.

In mid 2015 Jotham will travel to Malaysia, where he will be based in Kuala Lumpur for a year.

Here, he will study at the University of Malay and hopefully acquire some work placement.

Jotham is interested in doing placement with one of the large engineering companies in Malaysia.

At the award ceremony, Jotham had the pleasure of meeting a Malaysian engineer from the original Colombo Plan.

The man had studied at UNSW 50 years ago and is now a managing director of an engineering company. Coincidently he also lived in the same residential college that Jotham lives in today.

Jotham hopes to connect with him while in Malaysia.

Jotham is looking forward to what he believes will be a "completely different experience."

"We are close geographically, but not culturally, so it will be good to understand a culture we will be dealing more with in the future," said Jotham.

Federal member for Lyne Dr David Gillespie also congratulated Jotham on being awarded the scholarship.

"Taree High School and the broader local community can be proud of Jotham and look forward to him making an important contribution to our community and our nation in the years ahead," Dr Gillepsie said.