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Personal History Statement Education is regarded as the only chance to change one’s fate and a family’s social class in China. About twenty-five years ago, my parents, both children of ordinary peasants, found their careers in a small city thanks to their illustrious academic performance. As the first generation stepping out of farmlands, they hoped their child would have a bigger future than theirs. In order to help me keep good academic records from the very beginning, my mother gave up the opportunity to attend a full-time school in another city that would lead to a promotion. When I was at age to attend middle school, my parents sold their house, started new careers from scratch in a nearby city where a better middle school was located. I attended this best local middle school, and after six years’ efforts, I was one of ten students in my school who was admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a very prestigious engineering school in China. In my university, I competed with and learnt from top students from all around the country. During this period, I found that every course in my department of information security engineering originated from western countries, and I confirmed the idea to explore the occidental countries after graduation from undergraduate school. My admiration for applied-mathematics, cryptography and close contact with the industry brought me to Ecole Polytechnique in France. Despite of all the difficulties, I’ve improved my analytical abilities from rigorous scientific trainings. And I’ve participated to several research programs. I have very close contacts with engineers, researchers and managers in big international countries, which provides me with a broader vision of future careers. Besides, Since my arrival in France, I’ve learnt French and explored western culture by taking courses, visiting museums and discussions with local habitants. As a girl from a small Chinese city eager to change her life and as a student eager to learn more in network security, I want to attend Graduate School in the U.S. for several reasons, In Chinese families, girls are normally expected to take a leisure job, so that they would have enough time to support their husbands and to raise children. Girls are thought to have less chance in being promoted. When I got chance to go to France, several of my parents’ friends began to encourage their daughters to pursue success in studies and careers. Now I was the one of two girls in the department of network security and I want to devote more to research and development in this domain after this year’s courses in Ecole Polytechnique. Many of my childhood friends have stepped out of universities and found their first jobs and settled down in a more developed city than our hometown like my parents did twenty years ago. But soon they found that knowledge offered in undergraduate university is not enough to change their lives. I’m eager to learn the most advanced technologies and research methods, and the cooperation between labs and industry, to use them to change our lives. I confirmed the idea of attending to an American graduate school after the fascinating internship for London 2012 Games. I have witnessed information systems assuring a giant world-class event and I really want to devote to the development of the security of information systems in larger world after the Games. It’s exciting to apply theories and research to changes in reality. My education in France and in Shanghai is a very good preparation for future studies and research in the U.S. Graduate school studies in the U.S. will help me overcome barriers to become a security specialist.