Scholarship / Two experiences that related with my profession as a lecturer in Satya Wacana Christian University [3]

LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCER SKILL OF ME

Being a leader means that you are ready to serve others and from many examples, I would like to write two leading experiences that related with my profession as a lecturer in Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU) and my passion which is teaching.

My first leadership experience came from my current job as the lecturer at Faculty of Economics and Business SWCU. In 2015, I was selected to be the coordinator for business statistic course for one semester. As a coordinator, I was responsible to lead about the syllabus and materials arrangement. Moreover, I also had to deliver information to 3 business statistic lecturers who are my seniors. Whereas it was my first time, I wanted to show my best ability of leadership and influencing skills. During the process, I faced a lot of challenges. For example, it was really hard to gather all the lecturers for discussion due to their conflicting working schedules. In that moment, I solved that problem by putting them together in one WhatsApp Group and starting the discussion through cellphone. As I could manage the business statistic's team, the syllabus and all materials can be done in time. As a successful result, the Dean gave me longer responsibility to be a coordinator in the next semester and the WhatsApp Group idea became the trendsetter for other course teams to collect and share information, such as the student's difficulties that became our way to evaluate the teaching method.

My second leadership experience comes from my role as the founder of educational social community called Little Hope Indonesia (LHI) in November 2016. This community tries to offer opportunities for the children who live in village to get adequate knowledge in both academic and character building by giving the regular free classes three times a week. Even tough it was my first time of establishing a community, I am sure that I can do it well because of my teaching experience and desire to bring positive impacts for my surrounding. I invited undergraduate students from SWCU and my friends to be a mentor since I realized that I can not handle all 30 elementary school students by myself. After 6 months, the Principal of SD N Jembrak informed us about the increasing academic score and a full point in Mathematic National Exam for some 6th grade students. Furthermore, LHI also wants to develop youth empathy so they can build another 'LHI' in their place. As a result, one volunteer named Celvin develops the similar community called 'Children See Children Do' in his hometown, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. However, the decreasing number of volunteers due to the losing commitment becomes one of the difficulties for me. To solve that problem, I often held the bonding activities for all volunteers and open the regular recruitment for new volunteers.

I believe that all people have a chance to be a leader, but not all of them is brave enough to take ownership in that position. I believe Chevening program can enhance my leadership skill and it can be my tool to be a positive influencer for my surroundings.