The Blessing of a Good Student

Hi,

What a day! The kind of day that makes your head spin and your eyelids feel like they have tiny, invisible weights attached to them. I finally walked through my front door after a super hectic day. It's so hectic, in fact, that it deserves its own story for another time. I haven't been staying up late recently. Usually, my bedtime is respectable minutes after midnight. But tonight, sleep can wait. The comfy sofa and my trusty journal were calling my name, and I just had to answer.

There's something magical about finally settling in with a blank page, letting the day's chaos melt away. As I was getting ready to write, I found myself thinking about my PhD student, Tariq Azzam. I'd been doing a final check of his graduation requirements, making sure all his demands were in a row for his upcoming thesis defense. And boy, were they!

He's already submitted his manuscript to IPS, has four publications in the pipeline for Q1/Q2 journals, and has completed all his required courses. Basically, he's an academic rockstar. Or at least, mine. 😁

They're all on the road to graduation! One student is graduating, one is making final corrections, and two others are getting ready to defend their theses. Tariq is the one on my left.

We celebrated with a final feast, a special goodbye meal with the supervisors before they all left Malaysia.

Having a student like Tariq is such a blessing. He works remotely from his home country for most of the year, but every year, he flies to Malaysia for three months to really knuckle down and hash out the important stuff with me. It takes a lot of dedication, and he has it in spades. I'm really hoping he gets everything done smoothly and earns that coveted "Graduate on Time" title.

After you've mentored a few research students, you develop a sort of sixth sense about who's really ready to defend their thesis. The secret is simple: if they've done all the hard work themselves, they'll be able to answer any question thrown at them with confidence. It's a different story when they don't truly understand their own work, that's when things get tricky.

We were working around the clock during his final week to make sure he submitted the very best version of his work.

But with Tariq, there's no doubt in my mind. I've seen how hard he's worked, how many late nights he's put in. He's ready. And I know he'll ace that viva voce without a hitch. He's back in Jordan now, and we'll be preparing for his defense from afar. I'm really hoping everything goes smoothly and easily for him. 😇