Our Nhulunbuy Year 12 Stars returned home from their end-of-year celebration trip to the Gold Coast with vibrant memories and much excitement about the future.
A highlight was a visit to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for a tour with Indigenous student mentors from the Oodgeroo Unit, the University’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student success unit, which provides admission pathways and support for Indigenous people.
One of our Nhulunbuy Stars, Siena Stubbs, is interested in studying a Bachelor of Communications at QUT and the Indigenous support team at Oodgeroo went above and beyond to give her an insight into how that might work for her.
Our young women were then taken on a tour of both the Kelvin Grove and Botanical Gardens campuses, before attending an afternoon tea hosted in their honour with Elder-in-Residence, Uncle Max.
Many staff members dropped by to visit our Stars and pass on some advice to Siena, who left full of conviction that her next pathway will be studying with QUT. She even delightedly commented that the Oodgeroo Unit is ‘like Stars for university students’!
Another highlight was visiting the Gold Coast Suns Administration Centre and Metricon Stadium, where our young women were given a private tour and had the ins-and-outs of the team explained to them.
Our Stars were invited into the players room, where the wall was adorned with painted portraits of the Sun’s Indigenous players, and then into the player’s gym where they saw Indigenous female player, Paige Parker, working hard on her fitness.
The Stars girls were super excited to see Aboriginal athletes achieving so much and being celebrated in a location so far removed from life in their remote community.
As part of the trip, our Nhulunbuy Stars met up with Stars graduates from Katherine and Tennant Creek. It was heart-warming to see them bonding over their new experiences and having fun together.
Nhulunbuy Stars spent a morning learning how to surf with Katherine Stars and attended a concert and went on a rainforest hike with Stars from Tennant Creek.
It was a fantastic trip and a great way to celebrate the hard work and achievements of these dedicated young women. The future is in our Stars!
