Stellar success for Emily Stiller

Sharing the success stories of Narrabri graduates is one of the joys of working at The Courier.

And there’s no shortage of local talent to celebrate.

The region has nurtured and produced an abundance of capable country kids who have gone on to flourish in various fields, making their mark in towns and cities around the world.

Former Narrabri West Public and Narrabri High School student Emily Stiller is a shining example.

She recently graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, Class 1 Honours.

Destined to accomplish great things, Emily’s future has been bright from the beginning with a 2019 article in The Courier describing her as a ‘standout’ after she received five Band 6 results in the Higher School Certificate.

However, it would be dismissive to not give credit to Emily’s diligence, determination and endurance when recognising her academic excellence.

After all, scoring top marks in Year 12 doesn’t always translate to brilliance at university or in the workplace, but Emily achieved a good ‘study and uni life’ balance helping her to stay focused despite COVID disruptions.

“To be able to graduate felt like the culmination of a lot of hard work, something that seemed so far away when I started uni in 2020,” Emily told The Courier.

“My four years at university weren’t entirely typical, with online learning and lockdowns making it harder to settle into life at uni.

“Graduating with my degree felt pretty exciting.”

As to what’s next, sitting still doesn’t seem to be in Emily’s nature: this month, she’ll make an impressive step along her promising career path and start a role with Ausenco Limited, a multinational engineering company that has offices in 14 countries.

“I’m feeling excited to start a new stage of my life and looking forward to being able to practically apply what I have learnt at university to real-world problems,” said Emily.

“I’ll be based in Newcastle, working with a team of process engineers, and I’m keen to learn from people who have been in the industry for a while.

“My job with Ausenco will be mainly focused on the minerals and metals industry.

“This is something I became more interested in during my final year of university when completing my honours project on copper flotation and realising the need we have for critical minerals.”

Today, Emily’s passion is clear, however, she said her interest in chemical engineering developed over time and she thanked her teachers for providing plenty of inspiration.

“While in high school, I was pretty unsure of the path I wanted to take, but I really enjoy learning new things so was keen to go to university,” she said.

“I had some amazing teachers at Narrabri High, especially in the maths and science fields, and I knew that was something I wanted to continue exploring.

“So, I decided to study chemical engineering, because it’s a combination of maths, chemistry and physics.”

When asked to share some words of wisdom with current students, Emily said:” I’d like to encourage local high school students to make the most of the opportunities they have, whether they are academic or not.

“I completed all of my schooling in Narrabri, graduating in 2019, and was given so many opportunities to challenge myself and learn new things.

“Also consider early entry programs, I got my offer to study at Newcastle before I received my HSC marks, which reduced a lot of the anticipation I could have experienced.

“I’m happy to have studied at Newcastle, and I found that there was a good balance between academics and uni life.

“One of the things that helped me through my degree was getting involved in clubs and societies.

“I got involved with the Chemical Engineering Society and the Christian Student group.

“Through this, I was able to meet like-minded people who were able to support me both academically and socially while studying.

“I also had the opportunity to complete a two- week course in the United Kingdom at the University of Leeds as an elective mid-last year and would highly recommend overseas short courses as a way to explore another country and meet students from all around the world.”