- Hello, my name is Valeriia and I am from Russia.
When I came to Australia, I'd just turned 16 years old,
and I was very young and shy and very unconfident
with speaking even my own language.
So for me to speak a foreign language was a very big step.
After HSP, I went to Kelvin Grove State College
to complete my grade 11 and grade 12.
To me it was, I believe, the best two years of my life
because I could meet a lot of people, I could meet a lot of teachers,
and for me, it was an unbelievable experience
because whilst studying in Kelvin Grove
I was able to do two courses at one of the universities in Australia,
one of the top universities in Australia,
it's Queensland University of Technology.
I was able to do one maths course and one engineering course.
Erm, I believe it helped me a lot
in the first years at University of Queensland
because I was able to see how university life is.
I believe what helped me the most is the teachers,
who are going beyond their teaching roles and helping me,
not just during the study period,
that is classes, they were, like, 90 minutes,
but also during the study breaks.
They would ask me to go and have lunch with them in their classrooms
and they would introduce me to other students that were in class.
Doing Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at University of Queensland
provides me with a lot of opportunities for my future career.
My favourite engineering teacher was Mr Younis,
as he was the one who inspired me
to come and study at the University of Queensland.
As I just finished my second year of Electrical Engineering
at the University of Queensland, during the summer break
I'll be working for a company that is located in Brisbane
and I'll be designing, I'll be mainly doing programming,
which is software programming, to design informational kiosk.
Coming from Russia, I can say that safety is one of the main priorities,
and Queensland does offer it.
As it is very diverse, it has a lot of cultures,
and almost every single week, there are different festivities
that you can attend, different events,
where you can eat food of the particular culture,
where you can speak to people,
where you can dance and just enjoy your time.
Also, in Queensland, you can enjoy beautiful beaches
such as the Gold Coast.