What does it mean to take a leap into science, into leadership, into the unknown? For Emma Comninos, a 22-year-old student of Actuarial Studies and Commerce and a proud Gumbaynggirr woman, it meant saying yes to an unexpected email and joining a solar car race she knew almost nothing about.
“I only found out about the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge about two weeks ago,” she says, laughing. “I received an expression of interest email saying, ‘Hey, if you can sign up by tomorrow, you can come here for two weeks and go to Darwin.’ I’ve never been to Darwin. And suddenly I was travelling around with TeamArrow.”
That sudden decision led her into a whirlwind of innovation, heat, and hope—into the heart of Australia’s most iconic solar race. And it began, in part, thanks to a visionary program by CSIRO: the Young Indigenous Women’s STEM Academy.
The power of a program: CSIRO’s Young Indigenous Women’s STEM Academy
CSIRO’s Academy isn’t just about academics. It’s about access. Launched in 2018, the initiative supports Indigenous girls starting in Year 8 and through to university and beyond. The program provides tangible support—laptops, textbooks, accommodation, and travel—as well as less tangible but equally critical benefits: mentorship, visibility, and community. At a stakeholders conference here in Darwin, we met Melissa Tipo, Academic Coordinator and Team Leader of our Young Indigenous Women’s STEM Academy, helping young Indigenous women. She helps in supporting them to learn about STEM and become scientists, engineers and more. She also connects students with STEM mentors and industries. Melissa even won the Promoting Women and Girls in STEM representation NT Science Award in 2023. And she created this great opportunity to meet Emma at the pits of the Hidden Valley Raceway.
Emma joined the Academy two to three years ago. “They paid for my travel, accommodation, my food—basically made this experience possible. And they create these amazing connections. I feel so grateful.” The results are striking: while the national graduation rate for Indigenous women in Year 12 is 65% (and just 33% in the Northern Territory), participants in the Academy see rates of 94% and 92%, respectively.
“It’s so important to get young women in from Year 8, from age 14, just so they know it’s an option,” Emma emphasizes. “Because I personally didn’t even consider STEM until late high school and by then, it’s perhaps a little late.”
For Emma, participation isn’t just personal. It’s part of a larger mission. “I’m really passionate about creating opportunities for other Indigenous students,” she says. “I want them to see themselves in spaces like this.”
Emma’s Story: between dolls and data
Emma didn’t grow up thinking STEM was for her. “Not explicitly, no one said ‘don’t do science.’ But as a child, boys were encouraged to play with cars and build things. Girls played with dolls. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it limits what you see as possible.” Her family was supportive, yet structurally divided. “My dad and brother are in STEM. My mum is in law—more of the talking side. So growing up, it was like: engineering boys talk about their things, and me and Mum would talk about ours.”
But a turning point came in Year 10. “I had a really fantastic teacher in mathematics. Before that, my grades were poor. I didn’t like maths. But Mr Stokes’ passion for the subject—and for teaching—was contagious. I ended up doing the highest level of maths possible in Year 12. That really shaped my path.”
Bridgestone world solar challenge: a solar-powered epiphany
If Emma’s spark was lit in a high school classroom, it caught fire in the Outback.
“I came here not knowing what to expect. And then so many bright minds, so much innovation, joy, and excitement. It’s intoxicating.”
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is a 3,000-kilometre race from Darwin to Adelaide powered entirely by the sun. It attracts university teams from around the world, each building and racing cutting-edge solar cars. TeamArrow, with whom Emma is embedded, is one of Australia’s most respected entrants. Though this year the team isn’t racing, they’re fully engaged in testing, mentoring, and learning. “Our team is small—six of us here. I’m the only woman, but it’s incredibly diverse in cultures and backgrounds. That diversity really adds something. We’re all united by this passion for learning.”
The collaboration has been both empowering and eye-opening. “I think I might not have mentioned that we were in collaboration with Team Arrow, which I really want to include because they were fantastic and made me feel so welcome.” She recalls a visit to the CSIRO headquarters. “We were stuck there for hours—we just had so many questions. The poor researchers!” she laughs. “But it shows how excited we all were to learn.”
TeamArrow: engineering with heart
TeamArrow is one of Australia’s longest-running solar car teams. Initially affiliated with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), they’ve now become an independent organisation working in partnership with industry and educational institutions. They’re known not just for their competitive solar cars, but for their commitment to engaging young people in engineering through school visits, university projects, and programs like this.
The team has a clear eye on the future. As Emma explains, “CSIRO is planning to have an all-Indigenous solar car team in 2027. That’s the big goal. So everything I’m learning here will help make that a reality.”
Would she want to be on that team? “Absolutely. Four days here and I’m ready to manage a team,” she jokes. But she means it. Emma’s experience isn’t just a personal one, it’s structural. She sees her presence here as a gateway, both for herself and others.
Leadership, Learning, and the Freedom of Not Knowing
One of the most profound takeaways for Emma has been the shift from academic perfectionism to practical resilience. “I’ve done a lot of internships, mainly in the corporate space, financial maths, that kind of thing. But what I’ve learned here, and in real-world experiences, is how to work with ambiguity.”
She elaborates: “At uni, everything’s neat. You have perfect budgets and ideal conditions. But in real life? You have constraints. You don’t always even know what the problem is, let alone the solution. That’s scary—but it’s also freeing.”
She’s learning to “let go of perfectionism,” to work with what’s available, to ask better questions rather than chase ideal answers. “That’s something you can’t really learn from textbooks.”
And what about the future?
“Of course I hope to be part of the 2027 team. But I also want to develop personally. Giving interviews like this – public speaking – it’s outside my comfort zone. But that’s where I think the most growth will happen. That, and helping create opportunities for others.”
From STEM Student to STEM Advocate
Programs like the Young Indigenous Women’s STEM Academy are about much more than increasing graduation rates or filling quotas. They’re about empowerment. Visibility. Agency. They’re about taking a student like Emma—bright, curious, unsure—and putting her in an environment that says: You belong here. You can lead here. Currently the STEM Academy has over 100 graduates from university with STEM Tertiary qualifications and over 650 young women nationwide.
“I’d never thought I could own a business,” she reflects. “But at the Clear Skies Symposium, I saw so many women talking about innovation, entrepreneurship, making their own future. And I thought, oh—maybe I could do that too.” That moment of “maybe” is everything. It’s the hinge between participation and leadership.
Why this matters
Emma’s journey—part solar road trip, part personal transformation—isn’t just inspiring. It’s strategic. It reveals what happens when you connect high-potential students to real-world, high-impact experiences early and meaningfully.
The collaboration between CSIRO’s Academy and TeamArrow is a template: mix institutional support, industry mentorship, and individual ambition, and you get a pipeline of Indigenous leadership in science and engineering—not someday, but now. “It’s not about checking boxes,” Emma concludes. “It’s about opening doors and keeping them open for those coming after you.”
And if there’s one message she’d leave with the next generation of Indigenous girls dreaming of their own adventure in STEM?
“Follow your interests. You can do literally anything you set your mind to, as long as you work hard enough for it. There are way fewer barriers than there used to be—and now is the time to trailblaze.”
This interview was realized thanks to the REDWAVE Project, funded by the National Center for Sustainable Mobility (MOST), through PNRR (M4C2).