Yang Xiaotong, a senior student from Tianjin University’s School of Civil Engineering is going to graduate this June.

He becomes a campus celebrity after his story was published on People’s Daily, the most influential and authoritative newspaper in China as one of the 110 outstanding representative students selected out of 60,000 undergraduates who won the 2019 National Scholarship.

Actually, it was the third time he has won the National Scholarship due to his well-rounded development, not only in academic study, but also in social activities and volunteer work.

Coming from a small country in Shanxi Province in the north of China, Yang calls himself “a farm boy” who dares to have great expectations and by down to earth efforts achieve his goals step by step. 

He is a top-A student in terms of academic study, ranking the first among 122 peer students. He is not content to be only an engineer and minors in Financial Management in Nankai University. He believes proper competition is constructive and has attended several competitions in physics, math and geotechnical engineering and achieved many high-level awards like the first prize in MCM (mathematical modeling contest) and the first prize of National Geotechnical Engineering Competition for College Students. He takes part in various social and campus activities and is quite active in voluntary work.

It’s hard to imagine how one man can make so many achievements in so many fields roughly at the same time. When asked about his secret of success, Yang laughed and said that there was no such thing as secret recipe, but hard work and efficient time management did help. He usually works and studies for 18 hours a day with a clear to-do-list.

Yang has earned many honors and with his scholarships accumulated to 170,000 RMB, he is completely self-sufficient through his college years.

Asked about what legacy he obtains from Tianjin University, Yang put it as the craving for excellence and the courage to realize it. “Our university’s motto ‘to seek truth from facts’ has a profound influence on all of us students. On the one hand, it stimulates us to innovate, to explore the infinite mystery of human, of nature, and of science; it tells us to dream big. On the other, it warns us to be practical and rigorous and keep our feet on the ground in life and work. Only in this way, can we turn our dream into reality,” Yang said.

Yang Xiaotong will go to Tsinghua University for his doctoral study after graduation.

By Eva Yin