Matt:
My name is Matt and my uni is USQ.

Yeah, I’m Papua New Guinean mix Australian. My mum, she’s the only one in her family that’s left the village – the rest of them are still there. So, I’ve got a strong influence from both my mum and my dad’s side.

In grade 12, like most kids, I had no idea what I wanted to do. You sort of just be there to be there you don’t actually sort of want to go anywhere – you just want to finish and you don’t know what you are actually going to do. But when I went to PNG when I was fifteen, yeah my cousins they told me, you know, ‘make use of the opportunities you have ‘cause we don’t have them’ - so it was from that point when I came back I really tried studying hard at school cause I wanted to get into uni.

What I want to do, when I work, is to help them create business opportunities – there is so much they can do, they just don’t have the recourses behind them.

When I was in grade 12, I applied for a Bachelor of Business at USQ and, yeah, I got accepted. There’s a good sense of community. I’ve made, like, so many mates that I will have for life.

It’s always busy in the quad – always people around. You know, there are so many associations and groups you can join, and I think that it’s really good that it’s so open and easy to access – it lets you put what you’re... what learning at uni into real life practice. A lot of employers these days are looking for more than just a person with a degree, they’re looking for someone who has that experience that’s coming out.
You can fit it around what you want to do, like, if you have work or hang out with your mates or play rugby or if you’ve got other, different things you do – there is always the option there for you to study when you want. It fits in with your lifestyle.

I’m the president of the PNG Student Association. I really like helping and, yeah, with the PNG Student Association the opportunity was there to help them to, you know, fundraise and bring the community together – which is something that all communities want.

I’ve spent many a night at the uni labs/ 24 hour labs we have at uni. I’m always there doing assignments – it’s not that I don’t like being at home, it’s just that it’s a good study environment for me and I work better, like, in that environment. You know, we’ll go study till a certain time than go for a Macca’s run.

I was awarded the William Groom scholarship for 2011, which is given by the Toowoomba Regional Council and I was given that by Julia Gillard on Australia Day – which was a big honour.

Matt’s Brother:
Really impressed, really proud – puts the heat on me ‘cause I haven’t done a lot. Besides being my little brother, he is also one of my best mates so, yeah, good brother. He’s done well.

Matt:
It’s sort of a long way from where I thought I would be when I was back at school. Doing these little steps, like going to uni, I achieve a lot. It’s doing those small things that creates the big thing that you want.