March 7, 2013 -- Santa Monica teen Gretchen Galanis will be one of six finalists competing to represent Los Angeles County in the Boys & Girls of America California Youth of the Year competition.

On March 20 at the California Science Center, Galanis and the other five hopefuls, selected from the 27 Boys & Girls Club chapters within the L.A. Alliance, will find out which two will advance on the next round for a chance to win the title of California's Youth of the Year.

According to Boys & Girls Club officials, the six finalist were chosen from more than 130,000 youth served by the 27 chapters in Los Angeles County.

The six finalists have already won $1,000 college scholarships and if the two who are chosen on March 20 will get a chance to compete for the title of National Youth of the Year, which comes with more than $60,000 of college scholarships and a chance to meet President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

The 17-year-old Galanis was selected from four candidates as Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club's Youth of the Year in January for her “outstanding contribution of service” and her “exceptional leadership among her peers,” officials said.

In mid-February, she became a finalist in the county competition. If she is chosen as one of the two “co-youth of the year,” she will go on to the California competition.

The winner of the California competition will then go on to compete in Pacific Region competition.

Galanis, who says she comes from “a strict military family,” has been actively involved in the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club since she was in eighth grade. She intends to continue her family's tradition of military service and eventually, she hopes, to start a Naval branch of the Boys & Girls Club.

But first, she wants to go to Fordham University, where she intends to major in International Relations and Communications.