1.

  Throughout nearly two years in university, I have developed various insight and skills from
both my everyday classes and also competitions. One memorable academic achievement was
getting the highest score for a paper about analyzing the persona in one of Shakespeare’s
poems, where I was assigned as the leader of my group. Months in advance, I led the discussion
to figure out the best angle to take for the analysis, and upon figuring it out, I divided the work
so everyone could contribute. Throughout the process of creation, I browsed through numerous
resources, personally typed out my part (12 pages), and intensively edited the whole paper. This
project was by far the hardest I’ve received, but I am grateful that previous classes gave me
enough knowledge and skills to be able to push through, such as classes teaching me to cite
resources, classes that taught me to write an academic paper, and others. I also managed to
gain leadership experience here. In terms of competitions, I have participated and won a
number of competitions ranging from Debate, Speech, Podcasts, and Short Story Writing. While
all the competitions were mentally stimulating, three helped me grow significantly. First is an
International Speech Competition by Wandervoice under the theme of mental health. Although
I lost as a finalist, I gained valuable knowledge through my abundant research of mental health,
which helped me learn so much that I didn’t previously know. Second is NUDC 2021, the biggest
national-scale English debate championship. Here I was a semifinalist but also the 2nd Best
Novice Speaker. Since the debate community in my campus was inactive, I was worried about
having to face universities with famous debate histories. However, I tried to push back those
insecurities and trained myself regularly. Hence, even when having to face those universities, I
managed to persevere. Finally, I participated in an Islamic debate competition which was also a
challenge. Prior to the competition, I conducted heavy research on the Al-Quran and watched
dozens of sermons, all paying off in the end, as I won 2nd place and 2nd best speaker.

2. I plan on intensively engaging with local and international communities during IISMA. With
local communities, I plan on joining student associations offered by the university to widen my
connections and learn about the people and culture. I noticed that both Leiden University and
KU Leuven have debating communities, which I plan on joining as I have knowledge and
experience in that particular field, thus having a common starting ground with other members.
From thereon I will be able to discuss various topics and learn from their perspectives. Out of
campus, I plan on visiting cultural sites, like museums and traditional markets, to directly learn
about their cultures and chat with locals. With international communities, there are some
international student associations available that focus on the exchange of cultures. For instance,
Leiden United (Leiden) or LOKO International (Leuven) where I can share my experience as an
Indonesian and promote our cultures such as the music (as I have experience in traditional
music), sharing some Indonesian food, and others, while also learning about international
cultures. I also plan on reaching out to the Indonesian Student’s Association and the Embassy of
Indonesia. There, I plan on joining them in their events to promote Indonesian culture to the
locals. The Indonesian Student’s Association in either country often holds an Indonesia Day
event that I can contribute to with my experience interning in the Office of International Affairs
hosting a similar event. The Indonesian Embassy also holds Bazaars that I can help with, either
in promotion, making food, playing music, or others. Throughout IISMA, I plan on actively using
social media such as Instagram and Youtube to create content on my studies abroad;
highlighting differences in culture, content on my IISMA process with tips for others aspiring to
be an IISMA awardee, etc. I will also use my platform to enable a cultural exchange like
Instagram Live to host a talk show between Indonesian and International students on the topic
of cultural differences. It is also my intention to later publish an essay regarding the different
cultures and the impacts on development.

3. An academic challenge that I had experienced was regarding time management (and I am
actually still working on it now). With all the activities that I had decided to take, trying to fit
them into my daily life was a struggle. During my two years in university, I joined a variety of
interests that took up much of my time. Academically, I was the class captain, interacting with
lecturers and maintaining my scores. Besides that, I joined lecturers’ projects, became a division
coordinator for a student organization, taught at a high school club, and interned as a Student
Buddy in the Office of International Affairs. Alongside those, I actively participated in
competitions. Prior to university, I was not involved in that many activities, so all of this was a
bit of a shock. Now with all the responsibilities, I had no choice but to learn some time
management skills and change my habits. With the motivation to strive further in life and take
responsibility for my choices, I sat down and created a strategy that works for me. This involved
being completely into my lectures with no distractions to maximize understanding and minimize
confusion for assignments, which I worked on based on deadline priority during the evenings. I
spared three days of my week to teach, while utilizing the other days for projects. I would
update international students weekly and assign two days to come to the office. And of course
my weekends were spent with my friends and family, and completing any unfinished work or
joining competitions. Something new that I developed through this experience was planning.
Previously, I never thought to sit down and plan my day, however I soon realised that this was
bringing me down. That was when I picked up a planner and started to plan not just my day, but
my week. After that, I found myself having ample time to do all my activities, with still some
time to spare on myself. Currently, I am trying to stay disciplined and follow this strategy, which I
hope to implement as well in IISMA.
 

4. In terms of health, I am in great condition. Before going through puberty, I was quite a weak
child and used to get sick often. That being said, ever since I hit puberty, I rarely get sick and
even when I do it is a mild fever that disappears overnight. In terms of dental treatment, I had
four of my teeth removed due to cavities as a child. I grew up a bit frightened by the incident, so
I had been reluctant to go to the dentist for a long time. However, after about 10 years of not
visiting the dentist, I decided to get over my fear and have a checkup. Thankfully my dentist saw
no problem with my teeth at all, and I have been fine ever since. I am grateful to have been
educated on mental health early on, which helped me to take care of myself from a young age.
My family and I try our best to maintain harmony and I personally make an effort to balance my
studies, work, and happiness through spending time with my family and playing with friends in
order to regulate my emotions and stress. When a problem arises, I try (as much as possible) to
use a breathing-countdown method, as an attempt to calm myself down. So I would take a deep
breath and countdown from 10 to 1. Most of the time this works, and even when it doesn’t, I
focus on navigating my way through the issue and leave it in the past so I don’t dwell on it
further. This is why even with so many responsibilities to cover, I am able to remain mentally
happy. Finally on Covid-19, I have managed to stay negative from the virus since the start of the
pandemic until this day. This is due to constant efforts to maintain health protocols even though
I frequently go out to campus and other places. I have also had full shots of vaccine, with my
first and second dose being the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine as a booster.