Greeting all!, I need your kindly feedback for my scholarship essay. this is my first time and It will be great if I can receive inputs from experts here., Thanks!!
the letter of motivation
Graduated from the Department of Architecture in Sebelas Maret University, I wanted to become a community architect by designing communal spaces in village and it's networked with urban public spaces as my final project because public spaces both in cities and villages are the centers for people to learned and empowered their local potential and creativity to be able to contribute in the global market and to support the development of smart and sustainable cities. Following my interests, I have also become an initiator of the green map community and youth farmers community in Surakarta to help youth to learn about local potential and learn about collective urban farming. In addition, I also received an honorable prize award in the Sustainable urban design competition and awarded as top 10 best works in the international competition - Jakarta green metropolis 2050.
Because architecture is an applied science that has many layers, I believe I can play a very important role in helping community empowerment in the village. Through communal and public spaces, and it's programmed, people will be able to improve and show their local potential and also explore local creativities. To be able to help them, my knowledge in spatial planning and community programs are not enough, I need to deepen my knowledge of global issues, including circular economy, environmental-based design, equity and equality of community's roles, as well as the political views and policies that I will get by joining Smart cities and communities program. Through this program, I will study in an intercultural learning environment, and integrate multidisciplinary into a coherent solution combining the knowledge from different fields related to smart cities and communities. By returning to the academic world, I will be trained to develop theoretical and experimental routes to study and solve global challenges and community problems, and communicate with experts from the academic and industrial background through written documents, presentations, and discussions. By combining my previous study experience with this program, I will be able to make holistic planning and design to build the local creative potential to support global sustainability in the future.
In line with my vision to study in this program, I have experience as a community architect in Babalan Lor village, Pekalongan regency. Through the PNMP - Neighborhood Development program, initiated by UNDP and the Government of Indonesia, I help people in riverbank slum areas. Together with villagers, we map local problems, potentials, and creativity to then collectively design their villages to be more sustainable. In addition, in 2017 I created Sarengan - a sustainable youth platform, containing a communal space for the youth community in Sawit Village, Bantul to learn, share, and empower their creativity. In Sarengan, youth can learn to run a creative business through youth cooperatives, increase their knowledge through discussion programs and workshops, and create networks with youths from other countries through a residency program for digital nomads who visited Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Sarengan also promotes food resilience by providing education and collective farms to youth to learn about organic farming. Through Sarengan, more than 600 youths in Bantul, Yogyakarta have a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem, so they can help to develop local creativity to support a sustainable city and contribute to the global market. Taking into account my educational background, study vision and experiences, I believe I deserve to be considered as part of the program because I have goals that are in line with the Sustainable development goals, especially the SDGs goals number 4, 11, 12, 15 and 17. Moreover, As I will learn and live in multiple countries while I join this program, I believe I can also give contributions to the local community there. I can represent perspective from the southeast Asian community and also can offers perspective about Indonesian culture, and local genius to preserve sustainability called Gotong royong and Arisan culture, which a collective movement is well known in Indonesia from villagers to city dwellers
Supported by the knowledge that I will get through this program, l plan to research the role of communal space in the village, and its benefits for developing the community's creativity to support smart and sustainable cities, with parameters such as architecture design, local culture contextuality, and community's programs, as well as interconnection and network with other instruments in the city scale as Masters of my thesis. After graduating from this master's program, I will continue my role as an architect for the community, become a companion for rural communities for regional development through the neighborhood development program, as well as develop Sarengan as a citizen lab, especially youth, to contribute to developing local creativity to support and develop smart cities. As a platform, Sarengan will be able to be adapted in other regions in Indonesia, and become a vibrant space where people can learn and collaborate to build sustainable ecosystems, and continues to strive for SDGs in Indonesia. Joining the Smart cities and communities program will be a lifetime experience for me and a key opener for my eyes and wider mind.