【推荐2】Growing up, I thought math class was something to be endured, not enjoyed. I disliked memorizing formulas and taking tests, all for the dull goal of getting a good grade. But my problem wasn’t with math itself. In fact, I spent countless hours as a child doing logic and math puzzles on my own, and as a teenager, when a topic seemed particularly interesting, I would go to the library and read more about it.

By high school, none of my teachers questioned my mathematical talent, but none of them really encouraged it, either. No one told me that I could become a professional mathematician. What I wanted to do then was to play college football. My ambition was toget an athletic scholarship to attend a Big Ten school.

The chances of that happening were very low. In high school, I was just an aboveaverage athlete and my high school was not a “feeder” school for college sports programs.

That didn’t stop me from dreaming, though. And it didn’t stop my coaches from encouraging me to believe I could reach my goal, and preparing and pushing me to work for it. They made video tapes of my performances and sent them to college coaches around the country. It didn’t matter that I didn’t initially attract much interest from the big schools. My coaches kept picking up the phone, and kept convincing me to try to prove myself. In the end, a Big Ten school, Pennstate, did offer me a scholarship.

A growing body of research shows that students are affected by more than just the quality of a lesson plan. They also respond to the passion of their teachers and the engagement of their peers, and they seek a sense of purpose. They benefit from specific instructions, constant feedback and a culture of earning that encourages resilience in the face of failure.

Until I got to college, I didn’t really know what mathematics was. I still thought of it as problem sets and laborious computations. Then one day, one of my professors handed me a book and suggested that I think about a particular problem. It wasn’t easy, but it was fascinating.

My professor kept giving me problems, and I kept pursuing them. Before long, he was introducing me to problems that had never been solved before and urging me to find new techniques to help crack them.

I am now a Ph. D. candidate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and I have published several papers in mathematical journals. I still feel that childlike excitement every time I complete a proof. I wish I’d known this was possible when I was a kid.

【推荐3】In 2021, fresh out of high school, I had difficulty in choosing a major before college. With only two options left, I was in deep dilemma. My uncle, an influential person in the family, suggested that I should do a work placement to gain experience for a month in a bank followed by a month in a hospital so that I could make a decision. It seemed like a brilliant idea.

Near the end of my month at the hospital, I began thinking about my two experiences. The bank had offered a more relaxing atmosphere, better working hours and less stress. While hospital was full of excitement, the training was challenging. It seemed that the bank was going to win out.

Then one day when I was driving home from the hospital, I witnessed a terrible accident. Two cars crashed, causing a boy lying motionless in the middle of the road. People gathered around him but no one could really help. As a matter of fact, I wanted to keep going and ignored it, but the urge to stop and help was stronger. I got out of my car and tried to stop his bleeding but didn’t succeed. With the help of some bystanders, I lifted his unconscious body into the back seat of my car, and rushed him to the hospital. The next day, the doctor introduced me as “the person who saved your son’s life” to the boy’s parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Everyone got up, with grateful smiles on their faces. The boy, now managed a smile though unable to speak.

What a feeling it was to help save the life of another person! I spent the rest of the day in a state of excitement. Driving home that evening, I knew what I would prefer for the rest of my life.