“The Chinese have their ‘Chinese Dream’，while I have my ‘Egyptian Dream’. My dream is to cultivate better seeds for commercial crops to advance economic growth; fostering better seeds for cereal crops to harvest more ‘bread’; optimizing the plant seeds growing in the extreme desert environment to expand the livable oasis zones along the both banks of the Nile and alleviate the conflict between population increase and ecological deterioration,” said ANN with passionate expectation, an international student from Egypt who has just won the “2017 Scholarship for Excellent International Students in China funded by the Chinese Government”.

This is by no means a wild dream for ANN, who is engaged in the research on the taxonomy of plant germplasm resources and quality evaluation at the key laboratory of forest plant ecology of Ministry of Education in NEFU. During the past two years of study in China, she has published 7 SCI papers on the germplasm resources research and won a little reputation in this field. It is the ultimate pursuit for the superb germplasm resources that spurs her “Egyptian Dream”.

Looking back to the beginning, ANN referred to the “Belt and Road” with great excitement.

ANN used to be a botany teacher and her husband was a computer expert in Egypt. In 2001, their happy and comfortable life and career experienced a change since the couple decided to go abroad to pursue their Ph.D. When they searched the world map with a magnifying glass, they fixed China as their final destination.

Knowing that there would be language gap and culture shock in China, why did they choose China? ANN’s husband, who is concerned about politics and current world affairs offered the answer: the Chinese government launched the “Belt and Road” Initiative and provided a multiple of favorable policies for international students so he was delighted to submit his application for studying overseas and came to a university in Harbin as a Ph.D. candidate by himself.

A year later, ANN’s husband took ANN and their child to China. Through thoughtful selection, ANN determined to pursue her Ph.D. of Botany in NEFU to enhance her specialization and expertise.

Witnessing the happy Chinese families and vigorous Chinese students aspiring for their dream, ANN has gradually formulated her own “Egyptian Dream” to attain remarkable academic achievements to go back to her motherland with the purpose of sowing superior seeds.

In September 2015, ANN became the first full-English Ph.D. candidate of the open laboratory of botany, tutored by Prof. Tang Zhonghua.

Stepping into the laboratory, ANN was exhilarated and moved to find that a separate and independent work space, a desktop as well as a laptop had already been prepared by the lab and Prof. Tang.

Under the one-on-one instruction and guidance of four Ph.D. tutors, ANN achieved substantial improvement in academics. In the academic discussions and exchanges of her research group conducted once a week, ANN was active in making statements and careful in taking notes. Benefited from the guidance of her tutor, the support of experimental innovation technology as well as the assistance of the considerable data analysis by the research group, ANN published her first SCI paper immediately. Subsequently, she published the total of 6 SCI papers consecutively within 2 years.

With the subsidy provided by Prof. Tang, ANN also attended a couple of domestic academic conferences. On these occasions, ANN spent the free time strolling around, going sightseeing or shopping with her husband who accompanied her to attend the conferences. “In the past, we were only proud of pyramids. However, after coming to China, I have found that the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Terra-cotta Warriors are as glamorous as pyramids.

Depending on outstanding academic accomplishments and excellent performance in multiple aspects, ANN stood out in the competition with more than 80000 international postgraduates from 279 universities in China, selected as one of the 185 students winning the “Scholarship for Excellent International Students in China”.

Residence emerged as a knotty problem after ANN’s family reunited in Harbin. ANN and her husband were provided accessible and favorable international student apartments by their respective universities, but where would their child live? Could the whole family live separately?

ANN went to Qiao Fenghe, dean of the School of International Education and Exchanges, to talk about her problem. “I have found a residence for her family in the residential area on campus and the whole family has moved in with enormous delight, said Qiao Fenghe.

Like ANN, there are a lot more international students who have received considerate care and attention of our university and feel at home in NEFU. “Currently, the annual number of international students in NEFU has reached 500, 60% of whom come from the countries along the “Belt and Road”. In terms of the scale and level, NEFU is a top runner among forestry universities in China,” said Qiao Fenghe.

Just as what Qiao Fenghe stated, the square team of international students holding up the more than 70 distinct national flags, loudly shouting the slogan “I Love NEFU, I Love China” has become a beautiful scenery on the playground during the NEFU sports meetings in recent years.