In the summer of 2017, a girl from Pakistan was admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and set off on a new journey to Shanghai with the support of her family and friends. What awaited her was a future unknown but full of expectations. Three years later, she graduated with a master’s degree, and fulfilled the words of “live up to the time and strive for the future” with solid actions. In the next 4 years, she will pursue her doctoral degree at SJTU, keeping climbing the mountain of science. This is the story of Saba Ghazanfar Ali, a Pakistani girl studying at SJTU.

Saba comes from a remote town in Pakistan. Despite not-so-well financial conditions, she studied hard since a young age. Being admitted to SJTU is a turning point in her life, where she was on board a solemn yet fascinating journey of academic research and attained fruitful results that she would cherish for a life time. Under the guidance of Prof. Sheng Bin, Saba participated in a number of research projects and composed several research papers. In addition, she has been actively participating in various extracurricular activities and undertaking student work in class during her spare time.

Saba believes that taking part in meaningful cultural activities while balancing research work can not only deepen one’s understanding of Chinese culture so as to better mingle with people around, but also offers the opportunity to broaden one’s horizons, gain insights and improve one’s overall competence.

performance, and she was also conferred the honorary title of “Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University”. Her next goal is to pursue the doctoral degree at SJTU. She says, “Success is not easy, and the road of science is full of thorns. Since I have chosen to go far, I will never give up easily. Doing my best is the greatest reward to myself.” For the longer future, Saba wishes to be a computer science researcher, that disseminates the knowledge and thoughts she has gained to a wider range of students. This is the desirable way for Saba to live up to her parents, supervisors, friends and, most of all, herself.