1. Tell us about your background and interests that make you competitive for this program. Limit to 250 words.
School-based mental health and inclusive education are passions that incarnated as my research topic and also social project. The serial workshops, leadership trainings, and network both in national and international level also help me engraved my passion into real action. Some people say that those issues that I concern about are a bit to advance, and some think that it was an utopia since we have a lot of problems in education. However; I believe that there are a lot of people and organization that are fighting for the basic issues of education, such as the reconstruction …show more content…
The first organization is Youth Empowerment Studio (YES!) which is a community of psychology student that provides free mental health training for senior high school students. In its second year, my research division already developed three years modules for mental health capacity building that can be replicated in other school. My second organization is Pijar Psikologi (Pijarpsikologi.org) which is an online platform of psycho-education and psychological consultation. I got 14 psychologists that back me up to provide free consultation and 60 psychology students from 10 universities in Indonesia who create articles and posters to gain awareness of the importance of education for special needs children.
2. In your opinion, identify a weakness in your country’s education system and how you would address it. Limit to 250 words.
The weakness of our educational system is the lack of strategy of character building program implementation. The impact of this failure is can be seen through Indonesian students’ attitude and behavior. In example, gang fight and bullying are still happening because racial, religion, ethnicity, disability, or gender issues. Adultery, criminality, and suicide are also common issue that arises due to the failure.
This issue needs to be addressed in several …show more content…
The inclusive school will be a perfect environment to learn about tolerance in a multicultural country like Indonesia.
3. What is the best educational experience you have had? And why? Limit to 250 words.
The first was during my research-exchange program in Sweden. There, I had friends from other European countries, Asian and South America. I learn more about global issues as well as getting to know them personally. I felt enriched with cultural values that make me more tolerance to the others. When I came back to Indonesia, I became much more open minded to other culture, gender, religion, and other differences.
The second experience was when I had a chance to implement a community development project in a rural area in Southeast Sulawesi. The program was mandatory in Indonesia as part of character development. There, I learned that education is the powerful tool to change people mindset. The village simply lacks of teacher, priest, and trustable figure. The villagers trust me to give extra lessons after school. They also trust me to deliver speeches after prayer a couple of times. Even more, they trust me to deliver a speech, as a priest, in the biggest Islamic Holiday. I learned a lot to be a community leader