This summer, the Class of 2024 will graduate from Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT). Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic and the running difficulty of Sino-foreign university co-operation in the year they entered GTIIT, the determined students keep moving forward with the motto of "Dream it, do it". They write one and another encouraging stories upon the path of scientific dreams. Let's follow the interview series of 2024 graduates to uncover more in their pursuit of future.

Name: Li Huihong

High School: Huanggang Middle School Huizhou Campus

Program: Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Awards:

GTIIT Dean's List, Academic Excellence Scholarship, Outstanding Peer Tutor (2020/2021)

GTIIT Vice Chancellor's List, Outstanding Student Representative (2021/2022)

China National Scholarship (2023/2024)

Offer: Yale University, M.S. in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

"It's unexpected that the first offer I got was from Yale University." Huihong looked at the eye-catching "Congratulations" on the acceptance email, overwhelmed by emotions. He rewrote his life track with hard work, getting closer to the goal of becoming a scientist.

Anchor the goal and overcome all difficulties

Huihong said that when he was in high school, he was always the underachiever in the class. "I have no idea why we have to learn and work. I was addicted to online games, a good way to escape from reality. Fortunately, my father never gave up on enlightening me and he inspired me to set a goal worth fighting for."

"I want to be a scientist; a career where I can work for all mankind is bound to be meaningful."

After learning that there were four Nobel Prize winners in the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and that one of them was at GTIIT, Huihong was convinced this place would be fantastic to conduct scientific research and was determined to realize his life goal at GTIIT.

However, his model-exam score was far away from the undergraduate cut-off points at that time, and it seemed impossible for him to be accepted by GTIIT. Even so, he made up his mind to fight for this goal.

His English score was only about 60 points (out of 150 points), while the English requirement of GTIIT was 120 points. Instead of being discouraged, he concentrated on improving English, aiming to improve his grades and join GTIIT when attending Gaokao again.

Targeting this goal, he woke up at 5 am every day to study, and even the lunch break was used to arrange his notes. He was also the last student to leave the classroom every evening. With hard work, his performance in each model test improved step by step. In the last model test before Gaokao, he ranked 50th in his grade and reached the admission score of the first batch of universities. It seemed GTIIT was no longer an impossible dream. Although he didn't get the desired score in the second Gaokao, his English and math scores met the requirements of GTIIT. Finally, he was accepted by the university as he wished.

From being ranked 100,000th in Gaokao of Guangdong province, to being one of the top 3 in BFE Program, gaining GPA 90+ for 4 consecutive years, achieving China National Scholarship, and making his way to Yale University... Huihong's road to success was never smooth. In the preparatory semester, he maintained his learning enthusiasm as high school. He learned from 6 am to 11 pm every day and listened to the recorded lessons at 0.5 times speed until they were understood. Despite physics and math failures during the preparatory semester, he kept his chin up. "I know I'm learning what I want to learn. That will help me realize my dream, so I won't give up."

He insisted on studying step-by-step. "I spend a lot of time arranging my notes for different types of questions in the major systems of physics and chemistry, which I also share with my classmates. I like communicating with them because it's a good way to deepen my understanding and it's a part of learning." At the end of the first semester of his first year, he was surprised to find that he had made a noticeable improvement in his grades.

Huihong's notes

Huihong said GTIIT's curriculum irreplaceably contributed to his offer from Yale University. "The Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Program needs students with a highly broad and solid scientific foundation, including knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology and other basic subjects. This is exactly what GTIIT attaches great importance to in freshman and sophomore years. I've built up a solid foundation, which makes it easier for me to handle the following courses."

He mentioned teachers at GTIIT were willing to exchange ideas with students. "It was through interaction with the teachers that I found what I should pursue here. Achieving good grades is the basis, yet the research training I gained at GTIIT is what I value the most."

Sustained efforts make fruitful results

During his undergraduate, Huihong was involved in multiple research projects in Prof. Ka Yin Leung's team and was given the opportunity to produce outputs, "It's fair to say that all my stories at GTIIT are related to the research team."

Huihong with lab members

"I still remember when I first entered the university, I was curious about what it would be like inside the research building." In the summer holiday of his freshman year, inspired by the GTIIT Career and Learning Center, Huihong applied to join the research team. He became a member of Prof. Ka Yin Leung's team in Molecular Microbiology Laboratory. 

Huihong wrote in his freshman year

"GTIIT's research platform is excellent, and I gained very comprehensive research training in Prof. Leung's lab." More importantly, Huihong found a specific research interest there.

Huihong engaged in research

During his sophomore and junior years, he was introduced to the concepts of computational biology and bioinformatics, as well as their intersection, computational neuroscience. Their abilities to solve complex biological problems appealed to him. "I hope to do what would work best for humanity and contribute to our society. I was obsessed with the concepts of neuroscience and computational biology at that moment. It seemed like a field that would deepen our self-understanding and ultimately contribute to human progress, which is exactly what I want."

Driven by the objective, Huihong took his first step towards independent research in his junior year, hoping to strengthen training in the field of bioinformatics. Relying on Prof. Leung's research project and the high-performance processing server platform at GTIIT, he chose a research theme of his own, mining public databases for global cave sequencing data and analyzing it with the aim of revealing the assembly of antibiotic resistance genes in ancient natural environment. It is useful for understanding and reversing the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. Besides, the related poster was presented at an international conference. "The experience cultivated my computational biology skills, and the result was significant to my application to Yale University."

He said the Yale program he was accepted into has a wide range of freedom. Two of the three required courses involved computational neurology, and he was free to choose the rest courses. "This project will greatly expand my neuroscience and computer background, and I'm glad to get into the program."

Chase the dream with the original aspiration

"I'll be happy if I can just keep doing research in the future."

Huihong said he valued "the sense of meaning", which was key to his life rebounding after hitting rock bottom. As long as it was something he found meaningful, he enjoyed it - joining the GTIIT Student Association to learn teamwork in service; serving as a peer tutor to share his learning experience; and being a student representative for the development of the university.

Huihong with the members of Student Association

In his eyes, everyone has potential for growth, yet some people have not found what they truly love and are willing to devote to for a life time. "I want to take myself as an example to tell everyone that never give up pursuing your passion. Success is possible for everyone."

Text/Photos: Li Huihong, GTIIT News & Public Affairs