Jean Chitsanzo Sauti-Phiri has overcome tremendous hardship to reach the place she is at now as an agricultural researcher. She and her siblings grew up near the research stations where their father, an agricultural scientist, worked, and she says it was expected that she would follow this career path. Her early school years were not easy—she repeated grade one and grade six—but before long she was number one in her class, particularly relishing the competition with boys. In secondary school, Sauti-Phiri achieved 100 percent in math and science. “I wanted to take engineering, but my dad faxed the university and changed my discipline,” she explains.