Last week, A Bangladeshi boy got Full Funded scholarship in world most prestigious University. He is Sazzad Islam. Sazzad is going to attend Stanford University for Undergraduate Degree. Sazzad is from a remote village of Bangladesh. He passed SSC from an unknown school with GPA-4.89. Even, He was not from any top college of Bangladesh. He completed HSC from Dr. Mahbubur Rahman Molla College. From a remote village of Bangladesh now he is going to world best University. So Let's know about Sazzad's Journey to Stanford. Here it is (Written by Sazzad Islam on FB Profile):
Here is the cliche start, but somehow true in my case. I never post on Facebook, especially not about my personal life at all. The reason is intertwined with multitudes of privacy factors and fears. But recently, there have been so many posts on the internet about my acceptance to Stanford. None of them tells the actual story, and to some extent, they are also misleading. I wasn't sure If I wanted to talk about it, but we all have a certain person who gets us through the friction. So, if people know about it, let it be from here.
In every room that I ever stood in, I was never the brightest kid in the room nor the exceptional one. That is precisely why I believe I'm here today. I come from a tiny little school in Naraynganj that nobody outside of the area has ever heard of. My school was just what you would expect from a stereotypical Sub-Urban school– Highly Academica Centric. Due to multitudes of reasons, I could never make good friends from school until after I graduated from my school, but that connects with different variables. I would never hold anything against that place for not having enough opportunities. Because, even in the middle of all the constraints and difficulties, that place shaped a lot of my early teens in the most healthy way possible. My parents never had the privilege of any formal education. They were super supportive, but their idea of excellence was in the same bubble as my school's. They worked really hard behind all my siblings to get us the best possible education. But, it wasn't Abbu, Ammu who gave me the primary education. It was my boro bhaia since 3 months of age and till this date. I was the only kid in the STEM track in my family. Even after being from Business Studies, bhaia would google everything around him to explain it to me, teach me, and pique my interest. The science fiction and non-fiction books that he got me during my childhood are what got me into the journey that I'm on today. Boro Bhaia spent all his time teaching me everything ranging from basic maths to life philosophy, all while sacrificing every fun hangout, tour, and activity, in his late teens and early adulthood. That's how my voyage started. He would get me every material that might help me grow intellectually, and personally. It all started with Cosmos By Carl Sagan in 4th Grade. He helped me build a habit where I would reach out to every Scientific magazine, and General Knowledge book within my reach. I learned a lot but never had any place to test my skills or put the knowledge to use, but fortunately, the unquenchable thirst for getting the depth and breadth of expertise had me going for years. I was the average kid in class who just loved to ask questions a lot and just had good scores in maths and sciences courses, maybe sometimes not even that for the incredibly lousy handwriting that I have.
Years Passed like that. In my 10th Grade, I had a major epiphany, I got the lowest score in Chemistry in my class. That was a severe hit on the internal picture that I had of myself, but fair enough, because I kind of slacked off on my academics during that period. That was the time when I asked my chemistry teacher to tutor me for the rest of the 10th Grade. Little did I know my chemistry teacher Amena Khatun Shumi Madam, and her Husband, Md. Borhan Uddin Siddiquee Uncle, would entirely change my life going forward. Once Amena madam started tutoring me personally, and that's when Borhan Uncle also tagged in. They would take shifts and teach me hours after hours. I used to go to their house after school, have lunch, and study till there wasn't a single confusion in my head. They taught me to believe in myself, and they showed me what I can achieve if I work hard; they were the stepping stone. They are also the reason behind my first ever Olympiad Medal. This hard work branched into all the other subjects as well, and just in the span of a few months, I was academically excelling as well.
Luck did not get merciful on me then(I later understood that was the most critical point behind me being me). I missed my GPA - 5.00 in SSC. If you know anything about NCTB Curriculum, that's everything that matters at that point in a student's academic career. Growing up in a Sub-Urban school, from a very early age, you are told, and taught to dream about getting into Notre Dame College, Adamjee Cantonment College, and Rajuk. With a 4.89, I wasn't even eligible to apply to these schools. My peers from my school did not make it any easy for me to go through it.
I was told to leave Science because I missed GPA - 5.00 in my board exams. I was incredibly pressured to get into business studies just so that I could get into one of the aforementioned prestigious colleges. Ammu went against the whole world for me; she believed in me. She stood by me and defended me, telling everyone that I was onto something great.
Fortunately, I remained in the Science Group. But, I was enrolled in Dr. Mahabubur Rahman Mollah College, a college that I was one hundred percent reluctant to go to. I absolutely hated myself for being there initially. I was immature, not this analytical of a person. Relatively an emotionally imbalanced kid who was severely humiliated by school friends for not making it to one of the top colleges. Little did I know that this college would turn out to be the most pivotal part of my Academic and general life journey. My college had all the constraints of my school to an even worse extent. I learned even more about the limitations societies place on the very platforms trying to uplift scions of knowledge when I spent my time there. It was then that I met my counselor and college's academic analyst Sumon Sir. There was not a single day, not a single freaking day when he would not check on how I was doing. There was not a single time that I heard a no from him when I needed help. There was not a single time he didn't take care of my mental health when my surrounding got overwhelming. To this date, he takes care of every detail of my life, like a friend, teacher, father, and every good thing one can imagine. That is also when I found the best teachers of my life, the absolute best Shamim Sir, Nayeem Sir, Shabbir Sir, Nur Alam Sir, Ferdaus Sir. They believed in me in a way that even I could not even imagine, they saw me reaching heights that I did not see myself reaching. They saw me being molded into a person which I did not see. They helped me develop my intellectual nuances and personal views. There wasn't a single time when my teachers said no to me when I wanted to learn something. They spent countless hours in college, even after their shift, just to give me extra classes. They taught me everything that our textbooks had and beyond.
I don't know how many nights and hours Shamim Sir spent explaining to me maths to its root, how many hours he spent teaching me the spiritual and religious values which made me the person I am today. I don't know how many times Nur Alam sir saved me from all the teachers' vents because of my mistakes. I don't know how many hours Nayeem sir spent after college answering all my weird physics questions and breaking my absurd hypotheses. I don't even know how Shabbir Sir tolerated my mediocrity in Biology and absolutely changed how I perceived the subject. I won a total of 76 awards during my college life(International, National, Inter/Intra High School). Not a single one of them would have been possible without these teachers. But that's not all about college; there was this one introverted kid Safwan, who was there for me every moment of my college life; not a single day passed by when we didn't sit in the class and complaint about the college, and vent about literally everything in the surrounding. Without his constant support, I couldn't have gone through a couple of years there. Without Labib's random nonsense joke and support on every fest that I went to, probably I would have gotten bitter over my commutes. Without Shaan's depressing life-bending conversations, maybe some part of me would have never learned how to see people in others' shoes. Without the constant bullying and random science scribbles with Apon, I would have never been able to keep up the consistency.
During my college, I met Hamidur in the British council. And man, if he is not one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. A person I could always reach out to with all my geeky problems and ask for help with every code that I did not understand. He was the one who acquainted me with Parash Bhai.
Parash Bhai, and Muhtasina Apu, I will always be grateful to this team. Parash bhaia was where my US Admission Journey started. Literally the epitome of hard work, he is the inspiration that helped me to work every waking hour. Whenever he was not there to do that for me, Muhtasina Apu filled in the shoes.*genuine team XD*. I don't know how but they trusted so much in me, which got me this far. I came from NCTB Bangla Version; the transition to studying every material in English had really high friction for me. Farhan bhaia spent so much of his time teaching me and helping me through the transition. Yes, bhaia, I still remember how you taught me Abundance does not mean less. He helped me with the severe Impostor Syndrome. Over everything, he taught me how to think critically of the world.
In my US Admission Journey, when the pandemic started, I met Shahreer Bhaia, and this man changed my entire view of the world to so many extents. He helped me from day one. Without what he taught me and how he helped me, I would have never been anywhere near what I am today. It was all set in the right direction for me to join college last year, but I was forced to take a gap year due to highly unavoidable and unfortunate circumstances. Throughout the gap year, this person helped me every single day and believed in me every day.
My Gap year was one of the most unexpected and most challenging years of my life. Yet it turned out to be undoubtedly the best year of my entire life so far. When the year started, I did not know what I had gotten myself into and where it would lead me. I just knew I would work as hard as I had to, I would cry as much as I had to, but I would not let myself down. I worked, studied, learned every waking hour, EVERY WAKING HOUR.
Before leaving the country, Shihab gave me his robotic equipment during this time. That's when I started working with robots. And figured out my new passion. He taught me the basics of it and got me started. That's not only it. At that time, no one else was more optimistic about me than Shihab. I don't know how many nights he tolerated my 3am calls of random ideas. I don't know how often he has seen me breaking down mentally and told me, "Dost Bhalo kichu hobe dekhbi, eta ekta kharap phase, koshto kore par kor Allah shobcheye bhalo ta korbe." Really the best happened, and it's not Stanford. He made me register for World Robot Olympiad(WRO).
That's when Hamidur teamed me up with Samin. And superlatives are unfair for this kid. I learned so much from Samin in the three months of WRO. Spent countless hours learning from him and building the Badur Gaddi. These learnings and teamwork lead us to the 10th position worldwide in one of the biggest and most prestigious under 20 robotics contests. Which was definitely a big part of this gap year and my Stanford Journey.
But that wasn't only it; I worked on a couple of research, 3 big projects and self-taught myself all the skills that the fields required. But, after all these sleepless hours and all this hard work. I was still taunted for taking a gap year. People mocked me about why did I not sit for a test in BUET and everything, as if I had to get into BUET to prove myself. Especially from my school. Throughout that, Adnan, only one friend from my school had my back. However, It got me really bitter about the entire Bangladesh Admission and My Surroundings. That was a tough time for me. And when literally everyone out there was giving me a tough time, Mohitul always cheered me up and showed me where I belong. He created a bridge for me that I can never stop appreciating him for. But now, by that bridge, for a certain person(that I will come to later), it has changed. Please don't comment on anything or put my story in any way like "BUET hoynai, but Bishheshera jaygay jacche." Everyone works hard from their place to be where they are; I have this someone very special in BUET who is at least 1.4 times more Anltytically Critical than me, someone I constantly learn from. And I know she worked just as hard from her place as I did from mine. So, no story or place is supposed to be compared with another. It is subjectively difficult in its own way for everyone. It's about being the best version of yourself, not competing with others.
Talking about a certain person. I found Mahdiah Chowdhury, a person I can look up to. When I was down and stressed about my entire surrounding giving me a hard time over my gap year and being nowhere, this person made me realize that it's not the achievement or the destination; it is rather the work that we do and the effort that we put while paving the path. I almost broke down around the end; she held me up in the tough times. That's the reason why I could put the effort till the decision was out, and it will be the reason behind me keeping on giving it. Nobody ever saw me the way she does, and that's why she was the happiest when the decisions came out.
At the end of the day, at the core of it, the goal is to be happy in life. That can never come from a specific institution or achievement. Doesn't matter, even if it is Stanford. Wherever we are, if we work hard, be genuine to ourselves, try to be the better version of ourselves, and most importantly, take care of the people who love us. We achieve something that thousand sleepless nights can not. That is Happiness. Isn't that the ultimate goal of our life? Today where I am, it's not because of the 76 total awards and 4 Massive projects. It's not the 9/9 in IELTS or 2400/2400 in the SAT Subject Test (Math II, Physics, Chemistry). It's the people that I was incredibly lucky to have in my life. People who never let me go down. Also, this is just the beginning of the journey; it's just getting all started, a lot more to work for, a lot more to dream for. I'm just lucky that I'm getting to start it from an excellent position and, most importantly, with an incredible set of people, and luckily a certain person. Please don't put my story in such a way that hurts someone's or some institution's values, beliefs, or emotions. Instead, let it be a story that pushes us to be the best version of ourselves. Making it to Stanford is hard, statistically the hardest, but If I could make it, then the incredible minds that are out there can do it as well. It does not have to be Stanford or any top school at all. It just has to be the best we can do for ourselves.
With that said, I'm signing off as a proud Cardinal.
All credits to the mom who believes in me more than anything, the brother who gives every possible effort, the girl who always holds me up and is always there to teach me and make me better, the teachers who provide every possible effort, the seniors who constantly support, the juniors who always validate.
