"Youth should not complain if they don't try to get involved in something constructive,'' she said. "A person has to find something to centre their activities around, for me it's sports and my church youth group.'' A fourth-year student at Bermuda High School, Nicola keeps herself busy by running, playing tennis, volleyball and the piano, doing art and participating in a youth group at the Evangelical Church on Mission Road in Paget.

"My father started me running when I was little, and I just run all the time,'' she explained. "And two years ago I started taking tennis lessons with a friend.'' Nicola, who has been involved in tennis tournaments recently, said her interest in tennis was catching up with her love for running. "As you improve with something you start to enjoy it more,'' she said.

Nicola, who is involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, also plays volleyball and is at grade seven in piano lessons which she has been taking since she was seven.

Nicola said she always loved to draw and was interested in a career in interior design.

She said she became interested in the field when interior decorators worked on a room her mother had built on to their house.

"I saw what they were doing and liked it,'' she recalled. "And when my school had a careers day I visited Creative Interiors.'' Nicola is also very involved with the "Word if Life Youth Club'' at the Evangelical Church. Her interest and involvement in the club had helped her win a scholarship to a Bible camp in New York, for the past two years, she said.

And although she does not really have any role models, Nicola said she looked up to her church youth group leader Dria Toaves because she encouraged her.

Nicola said in addition to becoming successful in her career, her goal in life was to "tell the world about the Lord and to bring as many souls to Christ as I can''.

Nicola said if she had the chance to visit anywhere in the world, she would want to go to the rain forest of South America because of her love for the environment.

INTERVIEW BY KRISTY WARREN NICOLE MELLO