Valerria from Russia - Alumni video transcript

Student (Valerria from Russia): Hello, my name is Valeriia and I’m from Russia.  
When I came to Australia I had just turned 16 years old and I was very young, shy and very unconfident with speaking even my own language, so to speak a foreign language was a very big step for me.  
After HSP (High School Preparation) I went to Kelvin Grove State College to complete Grades 11 and 12. I believe it was the best two years of my life because I could meet a lot of people and a lot of teachers and for me it was unbelievable experience. While studying at Kelvin Grove I was able to do two courses at one of Australia’s top universities, Queensland University of Technology. I was able to do one maths course and one engineering course. I believe it helped me a lot in the first years at UQ because I was able to see what university life is like.  
I believe what helped me the most is that the (Kelvin Grove State College) teachers went beyond their teaching roles to help me, not just during the 90 minute study period, but also during the study breaks they would ask me to have lunch with them in their classrooms and they would introduce me to other students in (my) class.  
Doing Electrical & Biomedical Engineering at The University of Queensland provides me with a lot of future career opportunities.  
My favourite engineering teacher was Mr Eunice (Kelvin Grove State College) as he was the one who inspired me to come and study at The University of Queensland.  
As I’ve 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 mainly do software programming to design an informational kiosk. 
Coming from Russia I can say that safety is one of the main priorities and Queensland does offer it. It is very diverse, it has a lot of culture and almost every single week there are different festivities that you can attend; different events where you can eat food of that 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.