My name is Colin Barrett and I come from the Island of Jamaica located in North America’s Caribbean Sea. I am currently pursuing my Masters degree in Intelligent manufacturing Systems and Information Technology.

I came to china about 7 years ago never learning one word of Chinese or a foreign language in my life. It was an insurmountable task, one that I was not sure if I would be able to handle. However, with my willingness to keep improving and my stubbornness to never give up, within 7 months of intense preparation I passed my HSK level 4 exam with a score of 265 and then went on to pursue my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Information Technology, which was Chinese taught. By the time I got to the second year of the second semester I was the only foreign student left in a class filled with over 50 Chinese students and was proud to be the only and first foreigner at that time to graduate from this major within the four year degree program. For my hard work and persistence, I was one of 16 students given the Outstanding Graduates award in 2023. In 2022, I also completed my Level 5 TEFL and TESOL certification. Additionally, I am currently certified as a Google Cyber-security Professional and Google Cloud Engineer and was already certified as a Cisco Certified Network Associate. Now i am currently working on completing my Cisco Certified Network Professional Certification.

Apart from academics, I am a very well rounded individual; I  was voted by my peers to be the President of the International Students Union of ZUST for 2022-2023. From 2022- 2023 I served as the President and the Secretary of the International Students Union. Because of the exemplary work done by my team and myself, I was recommended to serve an additional year as the President and Secretary of the International Student Union by the School of international Education, which I did until October 2024.

My roles included collaborating with the various departments such as the News and publicity department to create poster/ articles, plan activities with the executive body and Social team to keep students engaged in activities on and off campus as well as to keep the student body informed on various matters concerning school life, life in china etc. I was also selected by the International office to be one of the few members of the ZUST Discipline Delegates from 2022-2023. I have also done a lot of volunteering and working in cooperation with the international student’s office to serve students.

I currently serve as the Minister of the Sports and arts department managing all sports activities and tournaments for international students on campus ranging from (Tug, of war, rock climbing, dragon boat, kayaking, football, volleyball, table tennis, basketball etc). I am also the captain of fitness club which engages in moderately intense activities. I believe a strong body correlates with a strong mind and Whether it be cycling over 70 km for over 7hours or hiking up to 20 km for over 5 hours my aim with the fitness is to test the heights of physical capabilities and strength of our mental capacity. I have also been a member of the international faculty's dragon boat team since 2021 and the captain of the School's Dragon Boat team since 2023 to now and represented the university in the 2024 14th Shanghai Region inter-university Dragon boat competition competing with other universities in China.

I have participated in competitions within school such as the yearly department tournaments from 2021 until now. These competitions include Dragon Boat Competition, Volleyball and Football Tournament as well as the Tug of war Competition etc. I participated in poem competition and won first place with my other three-team members. I was also chosen to represent the university in the summer of 2022 at the World youth development forum.  I was also the 3rd place winner of the “My beautiful encounter with China” essay competition in 2020. I was also chosen by the university as one of two outstanding students to travel to Guizhou for a week for the activity "Encounter China's countryside to a colourful Guizhou" where I received personal insight into rural life in china and also met and engaged in various activities with other students from different universities all around china.

I have also been a Judge in the 17th Zhejiang universities Provincial English speaking competition and have an extensive knowledge and interest in learning about China. I am a Speech and debate Coach /Judge with the National Debate Association with experience in judging over 250 plus public forum debates and with judge certifications in world schools debate, public forum, policy debate, Lincoln Douglas debate, extemporaneous speaking, congressional debate etc.

初审丨高志胜

责审丨朱李建

终审丨张华辉