Advocating for young females

Ellie was nominated for the award as she advocates for young rural females in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

She said it is incredibly important to encourage females into male dominated careers such as STEM. “Everyone deserves the same opportunities regardless of gender”, Ellie said.

“I am dedicated to being a mentor for younger students and I love being a role model for them to look up to. Being in a rural area, role models are hard to come by in specific disciplines such as STEM. So being able to provide that to them helps to close the gap between rural and metro students.”

Advice for young people

“I want to show people that it doesn’t matter what school you go to. It is up to the student to decide what they want, and I decided that I wanted to make the most of my high school experience. In doing this I hope I showed students the wide range of opportunities available to them regardless of where they live.”

“My advice to young people is to constantly be looking for new opportunities in areas that you’re interested in and passionate about. If you don’t know what those areas are, then try as many things as you can while you are young.

“I would also like to encourage people to become involved in our community as much as possible, sign up for activities and programs, you’ll never know who you’ll meet or what opportunity will arise that could change your life.”

Dedication

To be able to work hard and be successful, Ellie has a strict routine. She starts the day at 05.00am to get a few extra hours of study in and she goes to the gym three times a week.

Over the past year, she has also emailed hundreds of businesses, programs and inspiring people to obtain advice, opportunities and support.

She combines all this with two different jobs to save up for university, while at the same time she pursues her passion for music by playing in the far Northern Brass in Cairns.

Ellie said she works incredibly hard because she learned early on that it is a foolproof plan for success. “I would like to emphasise to young people the amount you can get back with just putting a little bit of effort in.

“I’ve also had my fair share of trials and tribulations. I have a chronic illness that only affects one in a million called Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis. This disease makes me very tired, and it is very hard to study with bone pain, so quite often I would be on medication to mitigate the symptoms.

“The gym is important to me to give my bones support through muscles. As part of this disease, I’ve met some very sick children who are longing to go to school. So I take nothing for granted and I make sure to work hard because I am fortunate to be out of hospitals.”

Future

Ellie graduated year 12 in November 2021 and is about to commence a Bachelor of Philosophy – Science (Honours) at the Australian National University in Canberra.

“The degree I am going to study is designed for highly capable individuals to have the exclusive opportunity to complete research as an undergraduate student and pursue a Doctor of Philosophy or PhD level study in the future.

“With my current interests, after university I’d love to complete a postgraduate at either Cambridge or Oxford in England in medical research. But for now, I am going to enjoy university and see where Canberra takes me in the world of STEM.”

In case you missed it, you can still watch the 2022 Australia Day awards presentation here: