Engineering student heads to Utah
The future is bright for third year student Jessica Scheiwe.
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- Third year student Jessica Scheiwe is looking forward to work placement in Utah.
The future is bright for Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Education Endowment Fund, (AusIMM EEF) Rio Tinto Scholarship winner Jessica Scheiwe.
Ms Scheiwe is currently completing her third year of a Bachelor of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Queensland.
She has also received the AusIMM award for academic excellence, an ES Edmiston Prize for the highest grade point average in chemical engineering and the Joan Wickham Memorial Prize for highest GPA for a female engineering student.
Currently her GPA is an impressive 6.625.
This summer she will travel to Utah to undertake work placement at Kennecott Utah Copper.
Ms Scheiwe says she is looking forward to her placement.
“I’m really keen to get over there and work with flash smelting technology,” she said. “I have also done work experience as a student process engineer with Yarrabee Coal.”
Engineering is traditionally a male-dominated industry however Ms Scheiwe says the culture is changing in a lot of places.
“It can still be a bit of a boys club; so being a girl you have to be twice as good as the guy next to you in a lot of cases.
“But I have found a lot of people don’t worry about gender, it’s about how you do your job.”
Xstrata Professor of Metallurgical Engineering Peter Hayes says Jessica is a bright and diligent student.
“Jessica is keen to learn and get wide experience in the industry,” he said. “The degree she is studying is recognised by the Institution of Chemical Engineers, London and the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. “This provides her with the opportunity take up employment worldwide.”
Her success would not have been possible without receiving a scholarship.
“I could not afford to come to uni,” she said. “My family and I prayed about it and later found out a scholarship had become available.
“I have been very blessed with these opportunities.”
When choosing her degree she decided to look for an industry where jobs would be available after graduation.
“I did not want to end up stuck in a lab,” Ms Scheiwe said. “Now I can’t see myself being anything else but an engineer. I hope to be an engineer who is known for the excellence of my work and for working well with the people around me.”