CAREER ON COUNTRY
Josh MacLeod is using his engineering skills to break down barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth.
It wasn’t until a supportive teacher encouraged Josh, a proud Dharug Burubirangal student, to apply for an Indigenous engineering summer school that Josh considered a career in STEM.
“I’d always been discouraged from going to uni,”he says. “But [through the program] I met so many professionals that shared their journeys and really inspired me.”
Josh asked the University of Wollongong’s Indigenous unit, Woolyungah, about starting uni via an alternative pathway, and was accepted.
Now, he’s managing STEM programs that support school-aged kids at Engineers Without Borders Australia.
“The highlight for me is getting to travel acrossAustralia, listening and learning from Elders. And watching students’ faces as they fall in love withSTEM.”
Joshua’s STEM Pathway
- Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) (Honours), University of Wollongong
- Certificate II Indigenous Languages(Dharug Dhalang)
- Project manager, Transgrid
- Co-founder, Kind Hearts Illawarra
- Electrical engineer, WSP Australia
- STEM pathways program manager, Engineers Without Borders Australia
This profile was first published Careers with STEM: Engineering 2025
