Among the 33 students in the class of Materials Science and Engineering, only 9 are female, and Yan Zixin is one of the 9. From feeling confused about her major in her freshman year to winning national scholarships in academics, research and competitions, this engineering girl shined forth her glory through persistence and hard work in her four years of college life.
In her first three academic years, Yan has been in the top two in her class in terms of intellectual achievement and overall assessment. She has been awarded the scholarships by Zhejiang provincial government and TU, and won such honorary titles as "Merit Student" and "Excellent Student Leader". Behind the fruitful results is her hard work over the past three years. When talking about her study experiences, Yan said, "Self-discipline is the most important thing. You should be dedicated to study, and never do anything useless." In regard to her study, she sets clear goals and makes a detailed plan, and then urges herself to follow it. Meanwhile, she also pays attention to making reflections at the end of each stage, considering it the best timing to check the gaps and fill them, which in her opinion can improve her study efficiency. It is through regular summarizing and reflecting that Yan has consolidated her knowledge.
Concerning the major of materials science and engineering, Yan admits that he was somewhat ignorant in his freshman year, and had little ideas about the major in such aspects as learning contents, employment prospects, and development directions. And only after he came into contact with the professional courses did he gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the major. "What frustrated me most in the learning is the professional courses because all of the professional knowledge has never been heard about before and thus was so hard to me." Faced with the challenge, Yan made a good response: he extensively searched extracurricular materials to assist himself in figuring out the knowledge in the textbooks, and consulted his teachers and classmates when encountering problems, to ensure that he could thoroughly understand and grasp the knowledge.
In order to maintain enthusiasm for study, Yan manages to balance work and entertainment. When she is out of form, she chooses to slow down and gives herself a buffer period, listening to her favorite music or going out for a "relaxation" to refresh herself. She said that good form helps to achieve twice the result with half the effort, and relaxation is to prepare yourself for the following study and work.
In addition to learning from classes, Yan also deepens the understanding and application of knowledge through practice and scientific researches. She said that grasping theoretical knowledge is not enough for an engineering major, she also needs practice and conducts scientific researches to help better understand and apply theoretical knowledge. She went into the laboratory and followed her teachers to do scientific research and experiments. That, in her opinion, is boring but yet fascinating. "Inevitably, I will meet with bottlenecks in scientific research, and the repeated experiments and failures make me feel bored; but more importantly it is fun. I witnessed various phenomena in scientific research, such as the wonderful changes in metallographic organization." Moreover, her persistence had to allow her to harvest an SCI paper in her junior year.
In order to broaden her horizons and improve her overall quality, she participated in various subject competitions under the guidance of her mentor at Xinhu Academy. She has won several prizes at national and provincial-level academic competitions, including the third prize in the National 3D Digital Innovation Design Competition and the third prize in the Zhejiang University Student Engineering Training Comprehensive Ability Competition. Yan repeated the tedious experimental procedures in the laboratory, and checked the data again and again for accurate experimental data. It is by keeping trying and exploring that she gradually grew from an unskilled operator and slow calculator to a competitor capable of completing the experiment independently. She met with many setbacks in the competition. Take for instance the provincial College students' Engineering Training Comprehensive Ability Competition. she made mistakes due to negligence, and failed to reach the final. She said: "This is a regret as well as an experience, making a good lesson for my future learning and research. "
Success does not come overnight, and behind all the glory is extraordinary efforts. Whether on weekends or summer holidays, Yan takes most of her time off to devote to research and competition. She said, "It's good to be strict with yourself when you're young. With my teachers’ guidance and the mutual support of the team members, I progressed even faster."
Quite as she is, Yan has always been dedicated to her duty as the class safety committee member. "Safety is no small thing", said she. She is always scrupulous about her work: she sends safety messages to the class WeChat group reminding her classmates to stay alert to the current campus safety issues such as the Internet and telecommunication frauds; she collects the data on departure, arrival and return time of her classmates before and after the summer and winter vacations; and advises them to take care of themselves on the way to and from school: she also assists the class president, league secretary and other key class members in holding class meetings, organizing theme days and other activities.
Besides, she has over one year of work experience as a counselor's assistant, " Attitude, flexibility and efficiency", this is the unanimous evaluation of the counselor teachers who have ever contacted with her at work. When there is a conflict between work and study, Yan will calm down to sort out her thoughts and plan her next step according to priority of the subjects. She said it is important to keep balance between group’s benefits and individual interests. "It is my duty to assist my teachers and serve my classmates, and I have been trained well in the work". Yan said.
She is in her fourth year and is preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. She is optimistic about prospects of her major that she hopes to further her study and engage in related research in future.
