Scholarship / Hard work and perseverance are essential in any aspect of my life. Answering Chevening question. [3]

Leadership and Influence Question for Chevening Scholarship

As an achiever, I always believe that hard work and perseverance are essential in any aspect of my life. Those two qualities mould people to be more talented, more experienced, and more skilful in doing their jobs. Believing this enables me to face challenging situations and keep going on to achieve my dreams.

I have always been developing myself to be a better person. Being a leader and an influencer to myself has begun since I was very young. My parents have always taught me to nourish my self-discipline. They encouraged me to do my best as they keep telling me to do something I love which will influence others in positive ways. Because of that, I joined in some organisational activities.

I realised my passion for teaching when I was a teenager. As a result, I served as a Sunday school teacher in my church. It was so much fun to be around children and helped to shape their characters. At that time, I was assigned to handle a class for 6-8 years old and there were around fifteen children in our class. After three years of serving as a Sunday school teacher, I had to take a break as I needed to put all my concentration to face Indonesian National Examinations when I was in my last year of Senior High School.

I enrolled a course in Soegijapranata Catholic University in 2009. As I have always liked the study of English language and literature, I earned satisfying Grade Point Average. My lecturers deemed that I had quite a potential. They trusted me to participate as a member of The Faculty Student Board. In this organisation, I was assigned to be the Programme Coordinator for some faculty events because of my management skill. Moreover, I also represented my faculty as their Ambassador in doing the promotion for both the faculty and university. On top of that was my involvement as the Head of Committee of two big events: Creative English Competition, where we invited Senior High Schools throughout Semarang city to join some competitions and attend our exhibition of the programs we had in the faculty, and National Student Seminar on Culture and International Languages, where we invited undergraduate students throughout Indonesia to present their fresh ideas about the related topic. In this National Student Seminar, a well-known Indonesian traditional dancer, Mr Didi Nini Thowok, became our keynote speaker. As a recognition of my effort and dedication for the faculty, I was awarded the Award of Achievement. I was also awarded the Award of Excellence for being the Best Graduate of the course I enrolled.

Now, in my current position as a teacher in Mondial Junior High School. I have been trusted to be the Coordinator of some events. Lately, I organised two Student Gathering events in our school. In these events, students and teachers showed their talents in dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, and performing musical plays.

Scholarship / Developing Indonesia by building a network of people and their skills [4]

application for Chevening scholarship

In my opinion, building a network to improve people around us is one of some positive ways to develop my country, Indonesia. Sharing information and helping others to enhance their knowledge and skills are a great step to make our environment better.

Because I believe so, I want to be a part of the good change in my society. When I was at my university, we decided to take part in a governmental programme to serve our society. In a group of five students, we proposed a learning strategy which helped students enjoy their learning time. The idea was based on the use of onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is a language phenomenon in which sound is written down. For example, the sound produced by a cock is written as cock-a-doodle-doo. We made use of this phenomenon to create a comic book containing Indonesian folklores such as Timun Mas. These comic books are then empowered by some school materials. After the comic books were published, we went to a local primary school. We taught grade 5 students using the comic books to help them learn in an interesting way.

In addition to that, in my current career as a teacher, I join in Subject Teacher Organisation (MGMP or Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran) where I connect to other teachers in my school's sub-district. This organisation consists of teachers from state, private, and bilingual schools. In this case, I represent bilingual schools so that bilingual schools can be more involved in developing Indonesian education system. This year I am assigned to be one of the executive members as a treasurer. In this organisation, with other teachers from other schools, we produce standardised test questions. Moreover, along with the other executive members, we will empower other teachers in order to enhance education quality in Indonesia.

In line with Indonesian latest curriculum, National Curriculum, that emphasises High Order Critical Thinking Skills for all Indonesian students, in this teacher organisation we formulate and implement teaching methods to nourish students' High Order Critical Thinking Skills. Because the previous curriculum has not yet highlighted the importance of High Order Critical Thinking Skills, teachers are not yet accustomed to teaching High Order Critical Thinking Skills and to produce questions which demand this skill. This group also enables the teachers to share and help other teachers to develop themselves professionally.

As an applicant in Chevening scholarship, I am ready to participate in Chevening community and to be actively involved in it. Meeting new people who have good qualities and would like to improve themselves is a good process in my life. Building a networking with them is essential for my personal growth and professional development. I believe this will help me reach higher and learn from more experienced community members. I am absolutely committed to build and expand my networking with others to help develop myself and others, and I believe Chevening community would be a suitable place for me.

Scholarship / I choose to study in these three courses of different universities [3]

Studying in UK Question for Chevening

Hi. Please help me revise my essay for Studying in UK Question for Chevening. Your responses are highly appreciated. Thanks :)

I have always been dreaming of improving Indonesian education system. To achieve this dream, I have to empower teachers in Indonesia. Having other perspectives by observing closely to United Kingdom's education system would have been an excellent experience to provide me with novel and constructive ideas. With the help from Chevening scholarship, I believe it is possible to accomplish my dream of Indonesian education.

After completing my master program funded by Chevening scholarship, I plan to start a non-profit organisation, A, to promote teachers' leadership skills and professional development. In this organisation, teachers will help each other to develop professional skills. They will also share information related to education fields, such as governmental regulation about education, ground-breaking teaching methods, or research results they conduct in their own schools. As I understand that every teacher has their own tight schedule, my organisation will provide a website to facilitate this teacher forum. In addition to that, I plan to host free seminars or workshops for teachers.

With my previous educational backgrounds as a Bachelor of English Literature and a Master of English Education and my current employment as an English teacher of a junior high school, I would like to continue my study in a course related to English language and teaching. Therefore, I choose to study in these three courses of different universities: Applied Linguistics for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (B University), English Language and Linguistics (C University), and Linguistics and English Language Teaching (D University).

My main reason to choose to study in Applied Linguistics for TESOL in B University is to complete my Master degree in English Education. In my previous master programme, majorly I learn about theories of English teaching and classroom research. By widening my knowledge in Applied Linguistics, I expect to learn practical or applicable skills in English teaching.

Leaving that aside, my second choice is English Language and Linguistics in C University, which is in line with my bachelor course of English Language and Literature. As in my bachelor degree, I learn English Language and Literature in a general way, I expect to learn English Language and Linguistics in a more specific way in this course. This is because the study of Language and Linguistics has always been appealing to me.

Lastly, my third choice is Linguistics and English Language Teaching in D University. As what I have mentioned before that, personally I am interested in the study of English language and linguistics, and professionally I am an English teacher, I see this course fulfilling both my interest and professional need. In this course, I expect not only to chase a professional development but also to enjoy my university life by learning something I am keen on.

By learning in one of these courses funded by Chevening scholarship, I hope I can fulfil my dream by taking part in developing Indonesian education system.

Scholarship / I would like to contribute more to improving Indonesia's academic literacy rate. [2]

Please help with my Career Plan Question for Chevening :)

the plan for my career

Indonesia's literacy level is still considered low compared to other countries. As reported by The Jakarta Post (2016), Indonesia ranks 60 most literate nations. The issue becomes worse when we discuss Indonesia's academic literacy. Academic literacy can be defined as one's ability, not only to read and write, but more than that to be able to communicate one's ideas. I believe this is the reason of Indonesia's being left behind other more developed countries.

Regarding my long-term career plan, I would like to contribute more to improving Indonesia's academic literacy rate. This issue cannot be seen as a simple problem. This needs a person that is committed to working in this area. A lot of programmes should be held starting from empowering the teachers, preparing facilities to support students' reading habits, and providing educational reading materials. However, Indonesia's children do not only need materials to read, they should also be accustomed to sharing their ideas in order to foster their academic literacy.

As what I mentioned in my Studying in UK part, I plan on founding an organisation A to facilitate teachers to develop themselves. Helping them understand the concept of academic literacy and making them aware of its importance is one of the most crucial agendas my organisation has. The teachers in my organisation will then implement this concept in their own working places. Hopefully, this can foster both teachers and students' academic literacy.

Because my longer-term plan needs a considerable period of time to achieve, in the meantime I would work on my short-term plan. Specifically, my short-term plan upon returning home would be to teach in a university majoring in English education. Teaching those teachers-to-be will be one of many ways to promote teachers' awareness towards the importance of academic literacy. In addition to that, enabling those teachers-to-be to master the academic literacy themselves is even more vital before they are able to teach their students in the future.

Based on what I acknowledge from the United Kingdom's initiative to strengthen South East Asia countries, especially Indonesia, in Science and Innovation field to collaborate scientifically, I presume my plan on improving Indonesia's academic literacy will be supportive to this programme. Being able to do research and make science innovations would not give any contribution if what has been researched cannot be communicated to the public well. That is why my contribution to nourish Indonesia's academic literacy is important to realise with the help from Chevening scholarship.