In the very succinct words of the former South African president Nelson Mandela, as he put it, “after climbing a great hill, one only finds out that there are many more hills to climb”. I am DANIEL NLIMAH GAAL-NJOLNBI from Ghana. After my bachelor’s degree Land Economy, I decided to have a career diversion and thus pursued a master’s degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey. Having resolved to bring to pass my goal of becoming a top-class consulting engineer, I joined the School of Petroleum Engineering at Yangtze University (YU), where I am currently a PhD student majoring in Oil-Gas Field Development Engineering.

China is a place where the earliest known oil and gas wells were drilled and also pioneered the world’s modern petroleum industry. One compelling factor for choosing YU is its congenial environment for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. Petroleum studies is an integrated subject which thrives on bits from many interdependent disciplines and YU is a cluster of them with an incredible number of state-of-the-art laboratories and research centers. They facilitated the first meeting with my supervisor professor Zhang Feifei. I’m thrilled to be working with him and his affable team of students and lab technicians as I prepare for a life of advanced scientific research and quality publications. This is what I have longed-for, a place to hone my knowledge and skills. YU’s Oil-Gas Field Development program is field tailored and hence the right choice for specialized and in-depth knowledge acquisition, training and skill development for the challenging life in petroleum and energy industry.

Furthermore, my life in YU is a momentous opportunity, as I am being exposed daily to a vast wealth of academic and professional life experiences in the oil and gas discipline. The professional seminars, conferences and research presentations from seasoned faculty members, top-class industry gurus, colleague doctoral and master’s students is a source of inspiration for greater heights. The synergy between academia and industry is seen in the specialized tasks of research centers.  No doubt China is the second largest economy in the world, driven by a fast-paced high-tech manufacturing industry, mining industry, telecommunication and many more. I sincerely admire the hard work of the Chinese people and the great achievements of China. I do not take for granted the opportunities to build a strong professional network at the global stage with the professors, colleagues and industry specialists. I’m basically living in my vision of yesterday and there is still a lot to learn from this culture. I particularly admire the Chinese tenacity and resilience towards life. Aside focusing on my major studies, I am also receiving lessons on Chinese history and Mandarin (Chinese language). We are therefore getting to know more about China, can recognize a good number of Chinese characters (Hànzì) and beginning to construct few Chinese sentences.

I deeply appreciate the opportunity given me by CSC – Chinese Government Scholarship program and I relish each day being part of the YU community. Together with other great minds, we will develop new and clean ways of petroleum resource exploitation for sustainable economic growth.  By mid-year of 2024, I hope to receive the accolade of a YU Alumni and would return to Ghana as a trustworthy “Chinese Ambassador” to tell all my people about my own Chinese Story. It’s important to note that the Ghana-China relationship has made tremendous strides. For instance, the lead contractor for Ghana gas processing facility is SINOPEC Inc. of China. China has been very active in the upstream and mid-stream petroleum sectors of Ghana as a financier of game-changing economic projects. My plan (beyond 2 years after returning to Ghana) is to properly establish my company to among others engage in consultancy and  petroleum sector support activities so as to take advantage of the opportunity created by the local content legal regime. I also plan to take on part-time teaching at one of the academic faculties in Ghana and teach Ghana students  about what I have learned in YU. I hope more and more international students will study in YU and realize your dream.

南非前总统纳尔逊·曼德拉 (Nelson Mandela) 曾说：“爬了一座大山之后，才发现还有很多山要爬”。我是来自加纳的 DANIEL NLIMAH GAAL-NJOLNBI。在获得土地经济学士学位后，我决定转行，在土耳其伊斯坦布尔技术大学攻读石油和天然气工程硕士学位。为了成为世界一流的工程师，我来到了长江大学，目前是学校石油工程学院油气田开发工程专业的博士研究生。

中国是世界上最早开采和使用石油与天然气的国家，也是世界现代石油工业的先驱。选择长江大学的一个重要原因是学校拥有良好的跨学科综合教育平台（STEM，包含科学、技术、工程和数学）。石油研究是一门综合学科，它与许多其它学科的知识相互依存。长江大学集合了很多优势学科，拥有许多先进的实验室和研究中心。我很荣幸能在导师张菲菲教授的指导下学习，与他的第一次交流的场景历历在目。在长江大学，我可以很好的为高级别科学研究和高质量论文发表做准备。这里是我向往的地方，一个提升知识和技能的地方。 油气田开发是一门深入实践的学科，虽然来到长江大学学习充满了挑战，但是这也是一个获取知识、参与培训和提升技能的绝佳机会。

此外，我在长江大学的学习和生活充满了机遇，我每天都接触到大量的石油和天然气学科学术知识和实践经验。著名的行业大师、经验丰富的教职员工、各类研究生专业研讨会、学术会议和报告，这所有的一切都是我学术上更上一层楼的动力。学术界和工业界之间的协同合作体现在研究的专业课题中。毫无疑问，在快速发展的高科技制造业、采矿业和电信业等行业的推动下，中国已经成为了世界当之无愧的第二大经济体。我由衷佩服中国人的辛勤付出以及中国取得巨大成就。曾经我从来不敢想象会有机会接触到由优秀的教授、同事和行业专家所建立强大的科研团队。除了专注于专业学习之外，我同时还在努力学习中国历史和中文。因此，我对中国的了解不断加深，现在已经可以认识一些汉字并开始使用一些中文进行简单的交流。

我非常感谢中国政府奖学金项目提供的这个宝贵学习机会。很开心成为长江大学石油工程学院的一员。我将与众多伟大的石油人一起研发新的清洁石油资源开采方式，以实现经济的可持续增长。希望在2024年能成为长江大学的杰出校友，作为值得信赖的“中国大使”回到加纳,向加纳人民讲述我自己的“中国故事”。值得注意的是，近年来加纳与中国的双边关系取得了长足发展。例如，加纳天然气相关设施的主要承包商是中国的中石化公司。中国作为加纳众多重要经济项目融资方一直致力于在石油产业上游和中游发展。我计划毕业回国后成立自己的公司，结合本国的产业发展规划从事石油行业的相关业务。我还计划在加纳的一所高校从事兼职教学，将在长江大学学到的知识传递给更多的加纳学子。希望广大国际学生能来到长江大学学习，实现自己的梦想。