As a kid in Shanghai, NAB Business Analyst Enqi Xu loved dinosaurs.

“I hoped to work in Jurassic Park or become a Palaeontologist when I grew up,” she said. “I was very curious and liked asking questions.”

While dinosaurs were her obsession, it was a toy kangaroo that provided an omen for her future.

“I had no idea that when I was holding that little kangaroo back then that one day I would come to Australia to live and my whole life would change,” she said.

For such an outgoing child, moving to a new country and culture in Australia was tough. Especially mid-way through high school.

“It was really hard in my first year because I was struggling to understand what other people were saying,” she said.

“I couldn’t speak English very well so there wasn’t much interaction between me and my Aussie classmates.

“But as years have gone by I’ve become more outgoing, which I think is a good thing.”

Enqi credits NAB for helping to bring her out of her shell.

“I was very shy before I joined NAB,” she said. “I’d studied at uni and had some part-time jobs, but at NAB you get to interact with people from all different culture backgrounds.”

“I’ve had great people leaders who have always supported me in my career and encouraged me to contribute ideas and process improvements.”

And in her work at NAB, it’s clear that she hasn’t lost the curiosity she had as a child in Shanghai.

“I’m always curious to ask ‘Why?’, which drove me to become a business analyst,” she said.

“When I was working in a previous team, my nickname was ‘Miss Question’!”

Enqi recently joined NAB’s ‘Culture Inc’ team to help promote inclusion and diversity at NAB. In doing so, she hopes to follow in the community-minded footsteps of her grandparents.

“I am very close to my grandma, who is an anaesthetist,” she said. “She taught me to be kind and to help others.

“And my grandpa established a Chinese community group 20 years ago for elder migrants, so that they could go to the activity centre to socialise and have activities, such as playing chess and dancing together.”

This week, Enqi has channelled her grandparents by leading a range of activities to celebrate Lunar New Year at NAB, including a drawing competition for NAB kids, and a dress-up comp for bigger-kid colleagues.

She’s proud to play a part in raising awareness of her culture.

“I have really great memories of Lunar New Year with my relatives in Shanghai,” she said. “I remember we had to get up early because we had to take out plates of nuts, snacks and different kinds of sweets.

“We all watched the Luna New Year celebration on television, said our greetings to each other and then the elders would give red packets to the kids.”

But Lunar New Year was about more than red packets.

“The important thing was spending time with family and friends,” said Enqi, “and if they had kids I could spend some time with their kids too, which was a really good time for me.”

“The big celebration was on Lunar New Year’s Eve, because that’s when our immediate families had a big dinner together and made dumplings and traditional Shanghai dishes.”

Happy Lunar New Year to Enqi and to all NAB customers and colleagues celebrating the Year of the Rabbit.

And… a special shout out to our Vietnamese customers and colleagues celebrating Tết (The Year of the Cat).

Visit NAB’s Inclusion and Diversity page for more on inclusion and diversity at NAB.