March 10, 2022

Van Deventer-Maas Indonesia Scholarship

Jln. Purwanggan No. 09

Yogyakarta 55112

+62274-510406

Dear Scholarship Committee

My name is Abdul Latif, my friends usually call me Latif. I live with my parents in Sijunjung
Regency, West Sumatera, which is located at Jl. Imam Bonjol no 95 Jorong Pasar Jumat,
Siunjung district. After graduated from Senior high school in 2021, I decided to continue my
education into college. The reason I wanted to continue my education into college was hoping
that in the future, I could get a better job and become an educated person.

After graduating from high school with a good score, I wanted to continue my education on
the island of Java. The great desire to be more advanced makes me think that the island of
Java is my place to fight and realize my dreams. But that desire suddenly disappeared, after
my parents said that they did not have the funds to send me to the island of Java, plus the
knowledge of my parents who could not access the outside world was a big obstacle to going
to college on the island of Java. A few months after the failure at SNMPTN, unexpectedly I
got scholarship to continue my education at the Bandung Institute of Technology, this is very
encouraging news in the hope that my parents can allow me to study at ITB, eventually, my
dream have to be buried for the same reason plus the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic which
worsened the parents' economic situation, my parents said that there were no more funds for
college, even though it was only a transportation ticket to go. The spirit to continue my
education to college keeps me studying to face the upcoming SBMPTN, I hope to be accepted
in this path because parents clearly cannot afford to continue their education at the total cost
of them independently. Thanks to God, that I was accepted and my dream to go to college has
come true and became a student at the Padang State University, the desire to become a more
advanced person never went out, I attempted to register in the international class and finally
accepted, in the first semester of lectures, I endeavored to take part in the paper economics on
holy Quran research competition held at the State University of Surabaya, unexpectedly, I
advanced to the final round and got the 6th rank in the international event. When I am in high
school I took extracurricular scientific paper and won 1 writing competition, that experience
made me want to make it happen in college, by joining the PKM training forum held by the
university and concentrating on scientific articles, I really wanted to contribute my thoughts
in reputable journals internationally through the training I attended and my scientific articles.
Living with both parents is a priceless happiness that I feel, I’m blessed to have a mother and
fathers. My mother is a housewife who handles children and her husband and educates their
children to have the good morals and become successful. My father is a conventional
motorcycle taxi driver with uncertain income every day, in the atmosphere of the Covid-19
pandemic the economic situation is getting worse, people are wary and worried about getting
infected with the virus, that's why my father's income is increasingly uncertain, even though
my parents never said how difficult their life was, they kept encouraging us to get a better job
in the future. I have one older brother and one younger sister, my older brother is already
working and has his dependents and my younger brother is in 5th grade. I hope I can provide
more opportunities for my younger sister's education in the future.

With about our economy, I set out to find a scholarship to ease my parent’s burden and also
to support and motivate me. Finally, I found Van Deventer Maas Indonesia (VDMI)
scholarship that provides material for underprivileged students. The Van Deventer Maas
scholarship is a foundation that aims to improve the moral, spiritual and intellectual
development of the Indonesian people, especially in the education of Indonesian women,
including matters related to it. The assistance provided by this institution is in the form of
scholarships, training provision, and assistance in the form of educational projects. This
foundation is a combination of 4 foundations built by Coen van Deventer, Elizabet Maas and
their friends to promote the urgency of Indonesian education. VDMI scholarship also
provides a continuous online writing coaching via the Excellent Writing Club (EWC)
platform. The program aims to improve VDMI alumni and grantees' writing skills so that they
can share their knowledge and experiences to more people through writing. VDMI also
provide capacity building programs which are the Active Citizenship Workshop, Regional
Meeting, and Excellent Writing Workshop. International and national outstanding experts are
the main facilitators of the programs. The program aimed to provide the VDMI grantees with
an understanding of sustainability and social development. Within five consecutive days in a
remote area, the participants will be guided by facilitators to discover their role in society
based on their competencies and field of study. Also, VDMI provide alumni that expected to
keep connect with the VDMI family and maintain networking with each other. Thus, VDMI
provides media for Alumni to keep connect with the VDMI family which are Regional
Representative (RR), Alumni to Alumni (A2A) E-Newsletter, some VDMI Capacity Building
programs, as well as the Membership Administration System (MAS).

After almost a year of studying economics at Padang State University, then I set out to join a
number of intra- and extra-campus organizations. The purpose of this step is to help me to
develop myself, because with this organization, I can hone various skills that I don't
necessarily get in college. I am also Be a Trainer for the National Economic Olympiad at
several schools in West Sumatra, the experience I got when I became a representative of the
2020 National Science Olympiad (OSN) became my provision to help other students get the
same opportunities that I felt. I also work as a Freelancer on the Ruangguru learning platform,
working on three learning products such as Ruangles Online, Brain Academy Online and
Roboguru helping me to learn to be a great teacher in the future. My activities in several
organizations and working as a Freelancer have helped me to develop myself and how to
organize well, but this activity also requires costs that I cannot fulfill with the funds provided
by my parents. I hope that with the VDMS scholarship, I can fulfill these needs, help me to
develop and as an agent of change and contribute to helping reduce the education costs borne
by my parents.

Becoming a VDMS scholarship recipient is a gift that will help me realize all my dreams, when
I succeed in becoming a scholarship recipient, I will study hard, following all the programs
provided by the VDMS scholarship. The writing club program provided by the VDMS
scholarship will really help me in developing my interest in scientific paper. The capacity
building program will also help me in self-development, the public speaking that I want will
also be achieved if I join this program, as well as increasing correlation with other scholarship
recipients, alumni who will increase my confidence in relationships. Becoming an agent of
change and being a teacher who provides renewal is my great desire when I graduate from
college, with my acceptance into this scholarship it will make it easier for me to later realize
that desire, serve the community, teach new things based on what I got when participating in
the VDMS scholarship program, God willing will help. The motto that I always hold wherever
I am, whatever I do is "Belajar adalah ibadah dan Prestasi untuk dakwah". With the intention,
effort, and capacity that I have, I believe that I am the appropriate candidate as a recipient of
the 2022 VDMS.

Sincerely,

Abdul Latif