SCOTS PGC student Stuart Kemsley has had to overcome immense grief and heartbreak in his life but he has pushed through the darkness and is now on his way towards a bright future.

Next year the teenager will begin the journey towards his dream career in audio engineering, having been accepted to the SAE Institute in Milton.

Stuart - who has been a boarder at the school for the past five years - has overcome immense tragedy in his life.

When he was just eight years old, Stuart's family was involved in a head-on collision while on their way home from a shopping trip.

His mother Lucy was killed instantly.

Stuart and his sister Samantha, who was 11 at the time, escaped uninjured but their father Glenn was left with a brain injury and countless broken bones.

The kids' lives were thrown into chaos, not only having had lost their mother but their father spent the next three months recovering in an intensive care unit.

Coping with the tragedy, Stuart and his sister attached themselves to horses and as young boy, Stuart's horse Royalty became something of a best friend to the lost boy.

Despite the hardship he was forced to endure at such a young age, Stuart soon re-kindled his passion for music and has set his sights on a record producing career.

Stuart - who was also a snare drummer in the Scots PGC pipe band and now the UQ pipe band -said he believed his mum would be proud of his musical goals.

Mother and son shared a special bond, with Stuart declaring he was the only one in his family who had ever heard his mother play the piano.

He said he believed he was bestowed the privilege of watching his talented mother play as she hoped he would follow in her footsteps and develop a love of music.

"I think she would be very proud of where I've got to - I'm heading into the industry that she would have wanted me to," he said.

"She wanted me to learn piano and I remember sitting on her knee and she was teaching me scales."

The resourceful teen took his interest in sound and lightning into his own hands, teaching himself the tricks of the trade.

He has worked behind the scenes of school musicals, pipe band concerts and school fetes and has even passed on his extensive skills to younger students at the school.

Stuart also completed a stint of work at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba and said he loved seeing the finished product after all of the behind-the-scenes work at events.

He said he ultimately sees himself as the owner of a recording studio in the United States and is willing to put in the hard yards to realise his dreams.

"I really can't wait to just get in and learn more," he said.

"My long-term goal is to branch out into the music side of things and record music and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there."