Kennelly Constructions awards Aboriginal Engineering Scholarship

The team at Kennelly Constructions have a great sense of pride in supporting fellow Indigenous civil engineers to achieve their goals. So, it was very rewarding for our business to offer an Indigenous engineering student the Kennelly Construction Aboriginal Engineering Scholarship.

Adam and Shane Kennelly, proud Bundjalung Men, decided to start an Aboriginal Engineering Scholarship at Southern Cross University in Lismore NSW back in 2013.

In this post, we’ll meet the recipient of the scholarship, Christopher Wright—an aspiring civil engineer from Wauchope, a small town near Port Macquarie in NSW.

1. Tell us a little about yourself

Currently, I am 25 years old and studying a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Southern Cross University at the Lismore Campus, NSW, where I began studying in early 2013. I grew up in small country town of Wauchope and a descendant of the Dunghutti people. I love playing plenty of sports including touch football and basketball and travelling to new places.

2. How did you feel when you realised you had won the Kennelly Constructions Aboriginal Engineering Scholarship and how does it help you with your studies?

Winning the Kennelly Constructions Aboriginal Scholarship was fantastic. It validated the hard work and effort to push through this degree. Additionally, it illustrates the good faith Kennelly Constructions have towards aboriginal engineering students. It’s a great cycle to see within our people—aboriginal owners of an engineering company giving back to aboriginal students. The burden of being a student can be financially difficult during university, so this scholarship enables me to just focus my efforts towards completing my degree without major worries.  

3. What drew you to study civil engineering?

I had completed my plumbing apprentice the year before I enrolled at university. Although plumbing provided me with experience in the construction industry, it didn’t provide me with enough challenges to keep me within that field of work. I had always been interested in larger construction projects, and I saw civil engineering as one way to be a part of that activity. It also provides me with a wide variety of work to choose from and that was important to me. 

4. What are your favourite aspects of civil engineering?

I don’t have a particular area that I could say is my favourite in civil engineering, however what I do like is the potential impact that great civil engineering work can have on improving people’s lives. Whether that would be through small projects in rural communities or large infrastructure projects in major urban centres. Helping people is something I like doing, but I could have never been a doctor or teacher, so civil engineering provides me with that platform.

5. What do you hope to achieve after you complete your degree?

Firstly, I just want to get my hands dirty. I haven’t got any particular plan, but I just want to experience the industry first-hand and see where it takes me.

6. What advice would you give to other indigenous people considering engineering as a career and what should they do to give themselves the best chance of being accepted into engineering?

There is huge variety of different types of engineering so there is something for anyone. My advice would be just jump in and give it go, the sooner you do that the sooner you will find out what areas interest you if you don’t already know. There are plenty of ways to get into engineering, my career path is just one example of the many ways. Find a suitable path to engineering for yourself as everyone’s journey is different. For school leavers, concentrate your efforts towards the mathematical subjects and don’t be afraid do some work experience in the industry (draftsman, surveying etc.). But overall be willing to accept help from others it will only make your journey that little bit easier.