USQ awards bestowed on council engineer

One German family’s loss has been Toowoomba Regional Council’s gain.

Council graduate engineer and German national Nadine Pufelski was backpacking in the Cambooya area in 2005 when she fell in love with her now fiancé and local farmer Brent Story.

In 2009, she was a recipient of council’s engineering scholarship and two years
later has graduated from the University of Southern Queensland with no less than five academic awards.

Awarded first class honours and the University Medal for her Bachelor of Environmental Engineering degree, Nadine achieved a grade point average of 6.86.

She was also awarded the Alan Rixon Memorial Prize, the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology Medal, the Engineers Australia Wilmoth Medal and Prize (first female to do so), and the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying Project Prize.

But Nadine’s success has come at the cost of hard work, dedication and homesickness for her native Germany.

Her love of learning, high expectations and motivation have contributed to her success.

“The TRC scholarship helped tremendously with paying my uni fees and provided me with vacation work and lots of flexibility for the last two years of my studies.