Scholarship / All of experiences has changed me to be an open-minded and appreciated person. Networking essay [3]

Chevening Scholarship, Networking question

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

Graduated from college, 2015, I was directly be accepted as a teacher in one of international schools in Jakarta. During my service, I realize that an educator, I am demanded to develop a well-foundeed networking not only with my students or their parents but also with the foundation related with my company. In many times, I had to to contact student's parents to discuss about their child, then from this meeting, I got an idea to make a social community that involved students, parents and the foundation. Since then, I have met with leaders from different companies, collaborated with some event organizers to lead school's, and also involved with some social events such as social education in orphanage with my sstudents.

Nevertheless, involving in social events in my school company was not the only way to improve my networking skills. As a stranger in the main city of Indonesia, I couldn't live alone, then I joined one community called PAKSU, an Christian community from North Sumatera. Joining this community was helping me to know people and communicate with differents character. On several occasions, PAKSU became an presenter in school's foundation in which I worked. This community also collaborated with writers of theology book, priests, and travellers. Furthermore, in this moment, I took a chance to expand my network with not only with the members of this organization but also the senior educators from different schools.

Learning how to involve with strangers, I challenged myself to do travelling around Indonesia during schools' holiday. In the first term's holiday, I went to Yogyakarta to learn the cultures such as batik, wayang, and some events held by keraton Yogyakarta. At this time, I met some tourists from Australia and did some tourings activity around Yogyakarta and also introducing tourism places in this area.

Moreover, in 2017, I decided to improve my english skills outside Jakarta, exactly in Pare, Kediri, East Java. I joined Test English School, one of courses in English Village. In this moment, I have met people coming from different cities in Indonesia, such as Makasar, Bandung, Surabaya, Madura, Lombok and others. We shared about our hometown, religion, cultures, life experiences and goals. This time, I have known people and connected with them through learning activities in and outside the classroom. This course provides a programme called around Pare that demanded the members to do some interviews with people stayed or learned in Pare about certain topics. This activity required us to contact people that we do not even know before.

All of this experiences has changed me to be an open-minded person and appreciated person.

Scholarship / Trained communication skills at Campus Concern Medan (CC-Medan) and Gerakan Mahasiswa Kristen (GMKI) [3]

NETWORKING QUESTION- CHEV SCHOLARSHIP

During my study in State University of Medan, I am an active learner in the classroom and I had so many friends. For two years, I was not thingking about join any organization in or outside my campus until I realize, I need to develop myself more. I joined two organizations outside campus such as Campus Concern Medan and GMKI or Indonesian Student Christian Movement. Both organization has the different mission but same vision. Those give me many chances to broaden my connection not only around the city but also Indonesia.

I became a member of Campus Concern Medan (CC-Medan) in 2012. This organization provided some discussions about relation of politic, economy, social and education. All the members originated from different major and most of them are Chrsitian. Three times in a week, this organitazion brought us to visit other student communities from different campus or discuss with them in different places and some of them are Muslim, Hindu, Budha or Chatolic. This activity succesfully built my networking skills because I was the leader of communication department in 2013 to 2014. My job desk was calling other leaders of different communities to join our discussion, approaching lecture or senior from other communities as a presenter in our discussion and also planning all the activities related to relationship with other communities.

In the middle of my service, me and other members of CC Medan have been chosen as the committee of conference that intended to invite our seniors from all over Indonesia, some NGOs and some communities. As a leader of the committee, I had to approach them directly to their home or office and give direct invitation. Those methods trained me how to connect with people and build realtion face to face although sometimes I need to answer some questions about my organization and material of the conference. This connection were giving me bigger opportunity to expand my communication skills and networking which is very usefull specifically for my job as a teacher. This job require me to relate not only my collegues but also the parents of my students. I need to be associates with all students' parents to explain about student development in their academic. Also, to improve my teaching skills, I have to attend seminars, conferences, and trainings that obligate me to bond with many people and accept their perspective about education.

As same as CC-Medan, GMKI is also giving me this chance by training my communication skills. The commuinity expanded my network through some conference outside Medan area and required me to meet seniors who became a member of legislative assembly, government fuctionary, teachers, lectures and other jobs. Both of organizations are influence me bigly and created my personality.

A future leader not only need outstanding networking skills but also become a good influencer. As chevening mission , I truly believe that my skills is helpful to communicate with people easily.