Florida State University freshman Aashutosh Pokharel’s journey from the Himalayas to Tallahassee is a story of academic pursuit, resilience and cultural exploration.

As the only undergraduate student from Nepal on FSU’s campus, his discovery of the university was serendipitous. While studying fundamental particles in physics, Pokharel learned about Paul Dirac, the renowned physicist who earned a Nobel Prize in 1933 for his contributions to atomic theory.