Huang Xiaobin is the first student with professional master’sdegree who passed PhD Qualifying Exams of Southwest University in the School of Education of HNUST. She isn’t a traditional “nerdy” scholar, but a young lady wearing delicate makeup and a sweet smile.
In 2017, Huang was admitted to HNUST. Since then she embarked on her “come-from-behind” journey to doctorate and had a go at subject researches with her tutor Zhou Xianfeng’s guidance and encouragement. So far, she has published 8 academic papers, which is not easy even for many students with academic master’s degree.
In the very beginning, Huang used to stay up overnight for her researches and revise the returned paper many times to meet teachers’ requirements. However, she thought optimistically that overnight work contributed to smooth researches since she wouldn't be disrupted by trifles of the day.
It was not tough until the last semester when she had to work on her graduation thesis, prepare for PhD exams as well as work as an intern. But professor Zhou’s support has helped her regain the confidence to hang on.
After the first-round of test, it never came to her that she could pass it， so she barely prepared for the next one. When she knew she got the pass, there was only one week left and she was torn between giving up and following through. As a result, she led an extremely busy life, occupied by looking up information, checking hot issues and exploring the best topic. Fortunately, her hard work finally paid off with an unexpected success in the doctoral examination.
Huang has always believed that good luck is a major contributor to her success. Meeting professor Zhou is the luckiest thing. For her, Zhou has guided her both in study and life. When instructing her undergraduate thesis, he already found that she was endowed with the most desired trait in academic research——perseverance. Zhou tried his best to cultivate her by only making demands and suggestions, and respecting her choices. He hoped to make her a real scholar with a question consciousness and the courage to express her own views.
In the eyes of her schoolmates, she was a highly focused, practical and serious person in academic research.
This quiet, diligent and down-to-earth girl does not slack off even after achieving the admission to Southwest University. During the holidays, she insists on reading books and magazines to enrich her theoretical knowledge, so as to fully prepare for her further study as a doctoral student.
(Translated by Xiao Leyao and Shu Zizhao)
