Hi all dearest friends! I am Paramitha Leonardi from Indonesia. Currently I’m in my last year of bachelor degree in Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, majoring in International Marketing. With this short article I will share my journey as a ZUST’s student.

Since I was a kid, studying in China has never been an option for me. As we know, the Chinese language is one of the most difficult languages. But after a lot of consideration and insight from other people, I chose China to be the place for me to build my future without knowing it is gonna be the best or worst decision.

From my perspective, studying abroad demands a lot of money. For this reason, I am inspired to ease the burden of my family, especially in education. Which is why I applied to ZUST and gladly I could achieve the Zhejiang Provincial Government Scholarship. I came to China, specifically to Hangzhou in late August 2019. I never expected my journey in Hangzhou would be the most beautiful highlight of my life.

With ZUST I could experience many new things, such as having many foreign friends, learning about their culture, joining many fun activities, competition and many more. In my first year, I joined a social service activity such as teaching in the kindergarten.

One of my hobbies is singing, so when I heard about the Zhejiang Dream activity, I applied for the selection. And I was able to be part of the team and met many new friends.

I am very grateful that I spent a wonderful 5 months in China, before the pandemic started and took away all my wonderful moments in my youth. I have spent almost 3 years stuck in my home country. Those situations could never been worse, I felt desperate about my education and future, but I have to face it. So I tried my best to keep maintaining my score and my activeness as an online student. Turns out, I can achieve scholarships every year and fulfill one of my dreams to ease the burden of my family in education.

I am really thankful that ZUST have many online activities. I joined and won several competitions such as ZUST Chinese recitation competition, ZUST Got Talent, business competition at national level, and also national essay competition called “My Beautiful Encounter with China”.

Few days ago, I just got back from Beijing,China. I flew to Beijing to attend the award ceremony of “My Beautiful Encounter with China”. At that ceremony I met a lot of new International friends from various universities in China, from Malaysia, Philippine, Thailand, Madagascar, Korea, Indonesia, and many more. At that ceremony I also met the minister of social and culture of Indonesia in China, the representatives of the Malaysian Embassy and there are many more important people there, and we make good relations there.

I can say choosing China for my Education is one of the biggest and best decisions I have ever made in my life, and choosing ZUST to be part of my journey is also one of the greatest decisions I have ever made. I am really thankful for ZUST, all my teachers, friends, and of course my family, because they already support me from the beginning till the end. Because of that, all of my achievements are theirs. Without them, I will not be able to achieve all of this great things.

Once again from the bottom of my heart, I am really thankful! Peace out!!