Imagine sitting in a room full of teenagers who have done amazing things and while you wonder what you are doing there, they announce that you are the Outstanding Teen of the year.

That is exactly what was going through 18-year-old Cierra Machado’s mind as she sat with 20 other students including Dejon Simmons, Bryce Wiliams, Davika Hill, Rodney Trott, Ronald Burchall and Jonathan McBeath.

“I just kept thinking ‘What am I doing here?’” Cierra says with a smile as she recollects that surreal night in March when she was praised by her peers and picked as the 2006 Outstanding Teen.

“I heard them reading out the winners for the other categories and I realised how much talent there is in Bermuda,” she recalls. “To be there and surrounded by the best of the best, was a remarkable feeling. I was so impressed.” Cierra confesses to feeling slightly confused when they started the list of accomplishments made by the overall winner: “I kept wondering, is that me? And when they read about my grades, I realised they were talking about me, but I was surprised because there were so many talented kids and I thought each of them was very deserving.”

One of the achievements that caught the judges’ eye was Cierra’s academic record. She recently sat the maximum number of GCSE courses allowed and passed with flying colours, with two A’s and six A stars.

This Paget teenager serves as a Youth Net mentor and is also a member of the school’s volleyball team, a sport she has enjoyed since Middle School.

A winner of the prestigious bronze Duke of Edinburgh award and deputy head girl at Bermuda High School, Cierra is also considered a gifted singer and actress and has played the lead and other roles in various school dramatic productions.

Judges from Teen Service described Cierra as “caring and compassionate with great integrity and high moral standards”. Considered a role model for younger students at the school and an outstanding mentor, the judges felt she possessed the qualities of a natural born leader and commended her on her dedication.

But Cierra feels living by her faith is the secret to her positive outlook on life, even if the going gets tough.

When she graduates in May this year, she intends to spend a year volunteering, or “pioneering” with her church, while working part-time in fund management.

To help her achieve her dream of doing missionary work in the Azores or another Portuguese-speaking country within the next three to five years, Cierra is learning to speak Portuguese.

What helps, she feels, is that she comes from a very large and supportive Portuguese family and enjoys nothing more than spending time with them at family gatherings.

“The food is also great,” she chuckles.

While Cierra is vivacious and anything but shy, she doesn’t really see herself as a role model and simply offers the following advice to other teens: “I think it’s important to work hard, but more for yourself than anything. You don’t have to be nominated for the Outstanding Teen of the Year award to know that you excel at what you do. You also have to be prepared and committed and able to balance different things while always doing your best.”