Wise men said, what makes you alive is the fire inside yourself. If you have no fire inside, you’re dead already. What makes you passionate is the love you have for everything you do. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll be zombie, only doing without love and passion, and of course you’ll get no fun in it. So, this is what I do, to keep the fire inside me always alive.
Studying and experiencing life in USA and UK have been my dream since long time ago, it’s a perfect dream for an English teacher like me, to learn English in the English speaking countries. When I made it to get scholarship to USA for ILEP program in 2012, i considered it as the way God opening my first door. That was the first step to achieve more. And I used that experience to open another door, i.e. pursuing my master in UK. Some people asked me once. Why I had to go abroad for my master. Isn’t it enough to do it here, in Indonesia? Even some of my relatives tried to inhibit me to do so considering that I would leave my family, when knowing that I’d go to UK the following year. they said that leaving my family once to US at that time was enough. And even it’s so hard to convince my most beloved one, that this is the chance that perhaps will never come again. How could I wouldn’t take it. They might not understand there’s always a battle in the heart, of leaving family. It will never be easy. But that’s life. If we want to move forward, there’s always risks we should take, there’s always price we should pay. I will never sacrifice my family for my dream, but it doesn’t mean, leaving them for a while is sacrificing. I still love them, and care about them, in my way. I had never been spoiled in my life. I left my family (father and mother) at that time to stay in boarding house, just to be able to study in good schools when i was in Junior, senior high schools and college. I was left by my beloved one when i was in college. The feeling of leaving and being left had never been easy. But that’s the point. Those experiences made me tough. And I believe, for my family, later when I’m far from them, they’ll be more tough.
Okay, just forget about the personal things above. Now I’m going to tell about the experience to get the LPDP scholarship, though the process hasn’t finished yet. Before getting this scholarship, I have tried to apply many kinds of scholarships offering master degree program, such as Fulbright, Hornby, etc. But all failed. Actually, my friend once told me about LPDP,but at that time, I thought it’s only for programs like engineering, economy, politics, etc but not for language and education, so I was not interested to apply at that time. But when I joined a facebook group consisting of people who are interested, applying, and having been accepted in the program, I started to be interested in applying. Afterwards, I tried to read all information provided in the group, and then came to the conclusion that I was eligible to apply. Then I contacted some people who had been successful in their application to the last stage. So I’m really thankful to some persons who had helped me during the application process, such as mas Rizal, mas Amsi, mas Ridwan, and others.
Based on the conversation with them, and information i got from them, then i took these steps to apply this scholarship
1. I made account through LPDP website. this is used to apply through online process, and is used to upload any documents, essays, and all information needed for the online application process.
2. Before submitting the online application, there were some documents needed, such as some reference letters, from employer, and from former thesis supervisor, statement letter, and if possible, if we already have letter of acceptance from certain university, we should upload the LOA in the application.
3. In my case, because I got the conditional LOA from the university of Sheffield before I submitted all of the documents, i used it to apply for the scholarship, because some of my friends applied the scholarship first, then after getting the scholarship, then they applied in the university. But because I hadn’t submitted the ielts when i applied in the university, I just got a conditional LOA, in which to make it unconditional, i had to fulfill the language requirement /ielts with the score should be no less than 6.5.
4. The process from submitting the documents to the interview announcement was quite short. I was so happy when I was announced to be one of the applicants being successful in administration process. Then I did my interview and LDG (leaderless group discussion) in UIN SUKA yogyakarta. It was tough moment, yet i felt satisfied, because all questions asked in the interview had been prepared before.
5. And about 2 weeks later, i got notification that i was accepted as one of awardees of LPDP scholarship. Unfortunately, the process had not been finished. I still have to sit for the ielts test, to complete my university application, then i have to join the PK (program kepemimpinan) as an orientation program for the awardees, and because this is independent scholarship, I have to manage and arrange everything such as flight, accommodation, visa, medical check up, university application etc, by myself, unlike when I got ILEP fulbright program, AMINEF had arranged everything for me, and I just went almost without preparing anything.
Now everything is just in front of my eyes. I should be tough, and focused in doing and following the steps. While in the same time, it’s important to convince my family about this. Hopefully, this piece of writing will be of little help for others who are planning to try or is in the process of applying the LPDP scholarship. Yes, I thought pursuing master degree abroad for high school teacher like me is just like catching a star, so impossible, because of very little chances for teachers, but now it’s not impossible anymore 🙂 Thanks to LPDP for giving me this great chance, and Ibu Sri Mulyani who had initiated this great program 🙂 cheers and good luck guys!
THE PURSUIT OF A DREAM 