According to a source, a Filipina student named Clarissa Cabral will receive the highest distinction to be given to an international student at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of China’s top universities.

Clarissa Cabral who is a graduate of business administration at the University of the Philippines is soon graduating at the Antai School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University with the course of  International Masters in Business Administration. She will graduate with a grade distinction of 3.87 GPA, which is equivalent to the GPA requirement of a summa cum laude in the Philippines.

Before achieving this milestone in her life, she has first experienced a lot of struggles in the university especially, as a foreign student in a foreign country. She mentioned in her interview with Rappler that it took her a while to adapt to the environment and culture of the country and that one of her major challenges when she moved to China is the language barrier.

But the challenges that she experienced along the way didn’t stop her from achieving her goals but instead she used it as a motivation to her success.

Now that she is almost graduating, the Filipina student took a break and went home to the Philippines last January for a vacation and was supposed to return to China last March, but her flight got cancelled due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. With this said, she won’t be able to attend the physical commencement exercises in China, but she will still be attending the graduation ceremony virtually and she will deliver her valedictory speech through a pre-recorded video on August 9.