My University Life as an Undergraduate Student at BINUS University
The story of my universtity life began after I graduated from High School. At first, I was quite panicked because I did not have the proper preparation to continue my studies. I just thought about it after I finished my national exam. As you know, this is nearing the fourth month of the year and usually the university admission will be closed within the next one to two months. I was confused because I was still looking for a major that suited to my abilities.
The most important thing is we shouldn’t be in a hurry to choose a major because it will change the way we live in the future.
After I researched for several majors and discussed with my parents, I finally decided to choose Chemical Engineering at a national university such as the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) or the University of Indonesia (UI). These universities are well known for their oustanding reputation and teaching excellence. Moreover, I really like Maths, Physics, and Chemistry, and I’m excited to do experiments like those conducted by researchers in general. I believe in the future, Chemical Engineers have an important role to improve the quality of people’s lives and I want to be a part of it.
Unfortunately, it turned out that my plan was not going well. I feel depressed and discouraged because I have financial problems and many universities want to close their admissions. In fact, I still needed time to look for other plans and at that moment I thought I couldn’t continue my studies if I didn’t study at a national university because the tuition fees would be very expensive at a top private university. I am grateful not to lose hope. I knew that it was my destiny and that I had to accept and face it. Fortunately, after further discussions with my parents and relatives, I found a bright spot that brought me to BINUS University as one of the leading private universities in Indonesia.
As my parents said,
“You have to keep studying no matter what happens. You don’t need to worry how much money will be spent, there will be times when it can be overcome. Keep praying”.
I decided to choose Computer Science (CS) because I like playing computer games. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but that was my initial thought. As the time goes by, I became addicted to IT things and wanted to know more because the most important aspect of CS was problem solving and it’s an essential skill for this life. I believe this field will also play an important role in the industrial world in the future.
University Life
Coming to university has been one of the most defining moments in my life. The four-year program allows a great deal of flexibility and I have been able to fully explore my interests in various subjects and activities. It didn’t cross my mind that BINUS University would be the right place for me to study Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence. The first thing I did was set many goals that I wanted to achieve over the next four years in university life, such as getting high GPA, applying for a job, seeking a scholarship and leadership program, achieving as many achievements as I can by participating in competitions, and most importantly being active in organisational activities to learn non-academic skills that will support my career in the future. What I want to achieve is to ease the burden on my parents in paying tuition fees.
When you have a goal in your life, you will do everything to achieve it. It doesn’t matter whether you are smart or not, if you really want something, you can do it. We need to work hard and we mustn’t be conformist.
It always reminds me that four years is not a long time, that’s why I won’t forget every opportunity I take from every moment that happens in my university life. I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I am grateful because I am the type of person who always wants to learn something new and achieve more. It makes me never afraid of failure and always challenges myself to be the better version of me.
If there is a chance, I will immediately take it because you will never know if you never try, right? If you fail, relax and don’t be afraid because it’s part of our life and you must make it as a learning to be a better person.
All the activities that I have done since I was in my first year have shaped me to be diligent and hardworking person who is not easily discouraged. There are many things that I can do at BINUS University because it has provided many opportunities to develop myself into an extraordinary student.
Freshmen Enrichment Program (FEP)
In the beginning, I joined the FEP which was intended for all new students before they started the real university life. The first phase of this program is the General Orientation which lasts for one week. As a BINUSIAN (a term for students who are studying at BINUS University), I was being explained by Buddy Coordinator about material related to BINUS such as introduction to history, leaders, vision and mission, student organizations, and BinusMaya which was a learning management system that will be used by students and lecturers to organise all learning activities. This phase helped me to find out more about the campus environment.
The second is the Academic Orientation which lasts for about two weeks. I was taught by lecturers about the basic material of Computer Science, namely Algorithm & Programming. This phase really helped me to understand how the material was being taught and adapted well with the lecture because it was arranged like a real lecture.
The last phase is the Campus Life Orientation which in one semester, there was a class that conducted by Buddy Coordinator to present learning materials related to self-development and there are sharing sessions about how lectures work, obstacles during learning, and many more.
Specific Goal
Having a campus life journey at BINUS University gave me a lot of up and down experiences. Overall, the twists and turns of the journey that I went through were haunted by fear and anxiety. No matter how difficult the assignments and exams were, I kept studying hard to reach my goal of getting a high GPA. Yes, it’s not easy but I didn’t quit and give up. When I failed, I was far more likely to persevere and I learned many important lessons that became part of my success.
I don’t believe failure is a permanent condition, so don’t ever be afraid to fail, learn from your failure because it taught us many things that will shape us to become a better person and lead us into our success.
I am very grateful to be able to meet great friends who always supporting me in terms of studying, and also great lecturers who are very competent in every subject because how the way they teach is very clear. I try to be active during lecture such as taking important notes and keep asking if there is something that I didn’t understand. The most important part that I did every day precisely at night or after the class is Post-Lecture Review. I did this because it really helped me remember what I had learned that day and summarise it according to what I understood. I also like reading books related to the learning materials that have been taught in lecture to broaden my knowledge. My learning was fully supported by many useful facilities and conducive environment that made me feel comfortable to keep studying.
Part-Time Job
Applying for a job was one of my biggest goals because besides being able to find new experience, I could also help to ease the burden on my parents in paying the tuition fee. By the first semester of my freshman year, I began to become a private teacher who teach Math, Physics, and Chemistry for High School students. Didn’t stop there, I challenged myself to apply for a job at Bina Nusantara IT Division as a Software Developer. At first, I was afraid because I didn’t have a programming background, but as I said before I always took an opportunity directly and let it go through while thinking about how to deal with problems that would come. Finally, I was accepted to be a part of it and that was the right decision that I ever made in my life. For me, this place is a platform to develop my programming skills and shaping me to become a professional developer who is ready to face the real industry world. I learned a lot from various training courses that explained programming languages, frameworks and libraries before I worked on the actual projects. I also learned how to develop a system from beginning until it could be delivered to users, started from user requirement gathering, system design (architecture, code and database), UI/UX design, and many more. The mentors were really friendly and supportive. They took their time to share their knowledge and always help me when I couldn’t solve difficult problems. Not only hard skills training, but I also received soft skills training such as public speaking, communication, teamwork, and many more. I also had the opportunity to teach new incoming team members. What I have done in here is a reflection to the real industry world as a Software Developer. In lectures, you will only be taught about the general matters but in here you will learn how to implement what you’ve got from lectures into real projects that can useful for people’s lives.
Student Organization
I didn’t just want to learn subjects from the lecture and focused on getting a high GPA while there are other important things that need to be learned. What I thought will be important too in the future is I had to learn non-academic skills that will be a good combination with my academic skills that I got from lectures as the key to my success and the path to become an extraordinary person. So, my next plan after applying for a job is I decided to join student organisations and took an active role because it will be useful to improve my soft skills for my future career. This is a big challenge for me because on the other side I have to maintain my academic skills but I have to challenge myself in order to be the better version of me. During my journey, I became one of the Board of Management of BINUS English Club (BNEC) and School of Computer Science Student Association (HIMTI).
There were many available opportunities for me to learn more about myself, my goals and my strengths. I could learn how to handle certain situations and test my current knowledge. I could also find out what I’m good at, whether that’s multitasking, staying organized, generating ideas or serving others. These skills allow me to effectively interact with others like communication, attitude and work ethic. It will improve and broaden my emotional intelligence as I develop new relationships. The most important thing is that I can get the opportunity to expand my connection. Meeting new students, making connections, and building relationships will all help down the line when I was looking for a job. I will remember all the moments that I’ve been through here. There is always a new challenge when I was given an opportunity to manage several events that made me become who I am today.
Worldwide Community Program
Not only in student organisations, I also get involved in community programs throughout the world. This started when I was interested in mobile applications especially in the development of Android applications. Mobile applications are now an integral part of digital strategy and the demand for it is increasing rapidly around the globe. I knew that I couldn’t learn it from the lecture, so I found another way that I could take, whether I had to learn by myself or I had to attend workshops or seminars. When I joined a number of such activities, I met many great people who shared a lot of useful information and led me to become a community member of Google Developers Group Jakarta. This community is a gathering place for developers who have an interest in Google technologies. I was very excited to be a part of that and I was told that I could learn Google technologies from Udacity which is an official Google partner that offers massive open online resources. My experiences started from Indonesia Android Academy as a participant and then I was challenged myself to become a training facilitator in Indonesia Android Kejar. Suddenly, there is a scholarship program from Google that will be given to people in Indonesia who want to learn about Android development. Without waiting for a long time, I immediately applied it and then I was accepted as one of the scholarship awardees. At the end of the program, I got an Associate Android Developer Certification and I am one of the best graduate students who get an extra opportunity to learn the other Nanodegree programs. In addition, I was selected to be interviewed by the Google team related to my experience about the learning with Udacity along with the impression and message of joining the scholarship program. My advice is “Never stop to learn new things as long as you have opportunities because learning is the process to getting more experiences and growing up”. The power of the community helped a lot to continue learning even on worst days.
Besides my interest in Google technology, I am also interested in Microsoft technologies. I was amazed by the innovations and activities that Google and Microsoft carried out to improve the quality of people’s lives through the growth of technology. I took the opportunity to become a Microsoft Student Partner. I learned a lot through the long recruitment process which are really challenging, started from website application development, blogging, video creation that explain about Microsoft technologies, and many more. My connection became wider because I met many outstanding students from top local and international universities. As a Microsoft Student Partner (MSP), I am responsible for raising awareness of Microsoft’s products, programs and initiatives. I am also responsible for sharing my deep knowledge and passion about Microsoft Technologies among the academic communities by arranging courses, giving regular workshops, hands-on-labs, presentations and lectures, initiating projects among the students, and promote incentives for example the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
Didn’t stop there, I was even interested about startup things that brought me to become a Tech in Asia (TIA) Student Ambassador. I had the opportunity to visit TIA Indonesia office and learned about its culture and work process from the executive teams. In addition, I gained the access to Tech in Asia Jakarta as one of the best technology conferences in Asia for entrepreneurs, startup companies, investors and the technology community.
Self-Development and Scholarship Program
On campus, there are many opportunities to get a scholarship and one of it is Student Mentor (Duta Binusian). This is a part of Student Advisory Center program that give students who achieve GPA greater than 3.5 and does have at least B grade at all subjects. As a Student Mentor, I have the responsibility to give tutorials and motivate fellow students in School of Computer Science Department by applying good learning practices and habits in order to improve their grades. Off campus, I applied for Astra1st which is a self-development program for active students in Java Island. I am very interested because it gives me the opportunity to become a business consultant through projects which given by Astra Group Company. By working on this project, I can establish relationships with Astra Group Executives and get to know the work in real industry world more closely. Unfortunately, I can only qualified until the final interview phase but I’m grateful to be a part of the recruitment process because it gave me a lot of knowledge and experiences.
I didn’t give up to pursue programs like that. In the fourth semester, I challenged myself to take the opportunity to apply for the most prestigious scholarship in Indonesia which is Djarum Scholarship Plus. At first, I was afraid to fail again but I learned from the failure in the past and I made it to become the scholarship awardee. This scholarship program has taught me many things to become a great leader in the future. Through the civilisation and empowerment that the program provided, I got a chance to get involved in training series that was intended to harmonise between the academic skills that obtained in class with various soft skills obtained from this program such as Nation Building, Character Building, Leadership Development, Competition Challenges and International Exposure. Didn’t stop there, I was given a chance to get involved in community empowerment, to apply various soft skills by directly involving myself and team in providing solutions to social problems in the environment where they are. It’s all about how to shape a person to become a great future leader who was capable of intelligence and emotional intelligence.
Competitions
In order to develop my skills and give the real contribution for BINUS University, I joined several off-campus competitions related to Information Technology. It was started from just a finalist in several programming contests and hackathons (Indonesia Android Kejar Hackathon, Competitive Programming Contest at Compfest 7, BRI Digital Challenge, AWS HackDays Jakarta, Gemastik 9, Google Firebase Appfest Hackathon, and many more) until I became a winner in IBM Linux Challenge for the Most Promising Solution. This requires hard work and good teamwork that really challenges me. Joining various competitions has shaped me to become a person that never afraid of losing and always work harder to achieve great result. Losing isn’t always the end, sometimes it’s the beginning to come back and make a win.
Research Opportunities
In Computer Science, there are many research opportunities that come from lectures. In the Research Methodology class, I was asked to do a research for the final assignment. I researched for “The influence of work on student achievement at BINUS University”. In the Natural Language Processing (NLP) class, I joined the Nutrifood Research Grant with my classmates. We researched for “Early Detection Tool for Diabetes Mellitus through Retinal Image Using Artificial Neural Network Method.” For the final assignment, we were asked to create a creative work for Student Creativity Program. We researched for “Classification of Music Mood Based on Lyrics Using the Naïve Bayes Method On Android-based application”. Doing a research study is really important because it can help us to solve a problem and create a new innovation to improve the quality of people’s lives. You will deep dive to understand the subject, you will learn how to solve a problem by critical reading the research literature, formulating hypotheses, research design, collecting, analysing and interpreting data, write your own model, and many more. It’s always challenge the researcher to innovate and gave the best solution to solve the problems that happen in this world.
Volunteer Activities
At BINUS University, there are character building lessons that taught by lecturers. It lasted for three semesters and very useful for me to develop my character. Having good character means that you have such admirable traits as honesty, responsibility and courage. It is beneficial for you to have good character. The implementation of the lessons learned is I get involved in several volunteer activities. I worked together with Teach for Indonesia to manage social services for the community out there. As a human being, we must help and support each other. Helping others is not only good for them and a good thing to do. It connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helping to build a happier society for everyone.
In the first semester, I became a teacher for Primary and High School students. After that, I managed a social service to help disability people at Yayasan Tri Asih by entertaining them and bought some useful needs. Didn’t stop there, I also managed a social service that partnered with Masyarakat Peduli Autis Indonesia (MPATI) to become an Ambassador. I gave talks to High School students to raise awareness about Autism with the topic “AUTISM IS NOT A JOKE”.
As a part of Djarum Scholarship Plus awardee, I managed a community service as part of community empowerment program. Me and my team had a plan to build an organisation in Rusunawa Pesakih. The purpose of the organisation is to help manage activities that will happen. We gathered all of the young people who live there and discuss about the problems that occur and what they expect so far.
Graduation Day
Graduation is the final chapter of my Bachelor’s study. This is what I want to achieve from the freshman year. On graduation day, I never thought that I could graduate with “Summa Cum Laude” title and receive the “WIBOWO Award”, which is one of the most prestigious awards at BINUS Graduation. I was really surprised and didn’t expect it because I was just trying out the list, although at that time I felt that there were many who stood out more than me. The moment was announced at the end of Graduation. It turned out that my hard work for about 3.5 years finally paid off. This achievement would be impossible without the support from my parents, both emotionally and financially. I also thank God for giving me the strength to keep going when all I really want to do is give up. I dedicated this award to my family and to people out there that keep believing in me whatever I did. I think the graduation is not only when you have finished your university life, but it’s also reminding us of our journey is not only stop at here, but it’s just a beginning of next chapter of our life that it’s the time to get involved and contribute something that useful the growing of Indonesia to make it become better.
Thank you Message
Being a student at the top university is a kind of grateful things. I am blessed and grateful to have great parents who were always there to motivate and support me in many ways. I know how much they have sacrificed their energy and time in taking care of me. What I would like to express my gratitude to them is to get as many achievements in academic and non-academic results as I can. I’m sorry for being a stubborn person who always coming home late and always sleep late night. Thank you for always motivating me to do a lot of stuff that can make myself better and supporting me when I was down.
Thank you very much for:
Great teachers in Primary and High School, and also lecturers at BINUS University who were teaching me to become an useful person for people around me. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, guidance, and support!
Friends who keep staying together through each semester. Thanks for your time and support. Without you all, I couldn’t go this far and reach my goals. Thanks for always being there when I asked to study together, work on any assignments, and discuss any learning materials that have been taught.
Colleagues who always share your knowledge and experience. Thank you for giving suggestion and feedback to me. It’s very useful for me to keep developing myself to become a professional worker and ready to face the real industry world. Thanks for your help when I am confused to solve the difficult problems.
BINUS University and School of Computer Science which has been a part of my journey to study for a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science with a minor in Artificial Intelligence. Summa Cum Laude and WIBOWO Award were my greatest pride and achievement over this year. I thank God for every moment that I take and every encouragement that bring me to learn and join a lot of activities while I keep maintaining my academic results.
Student Advisory Center (SAC) and BINUS Student Learning Community (BSLC), that has given me the opportunity to get a scholarship by becoming a Student Mentor (Duta Binusian). I am honored to help and guide fellow Computer Science students in order to improve their grades. What I learned from here, it’s not just a way of teaching, but also how I interact with my mentees, build connections, and find ways to solve all the problems that occur.
Student Creativity & Development Center (SCDC) that helped me through the organisation workaround and conduct many activities to build my character and improve my creativity.
Student Services Center (SSC) that helped me through my learning especially related to information about lecture, exam, and registration.
BINUS English Club (BNEC) and School of Computer Science Student Association (HIMTI) which has given me the opportunity to become Board of Management. Here, I met with a lot of extraordinary people and try to interact and learn from them. I learned to improve my non-academic skills such as problem solving, communication, event management, teamwork, leadership, growth mindset, time management, and many more. It’s obvious why soft skills are paramount to getting ahead in the workplace.
My Message to All of You
Someone once said,
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain
I believe everyone has learned this lesson whether they like it or not, some of us if not all of us will never forget how much time we spent in deceased lives. Too many people are waiting for the right moment before starting to live their life. To me, that’s just too much wasted time. Don’t just wait for the right opportunity, rather create it.
Don’t think to yourself that this is the end but rather this is only the beginning. Now, it’s the time for us to show the world what we can do, to become a person that can make this world better, and to educate people around us. We can be strong as individual but together we can be stronger. There are more of unexpected challenges yet get to face mentally, emotionally, physically and especially at completely. We’ve learned the environment skill of problem solving, dealing with only what we have been given. It is now a large take these problems and apply them to the problems that affect the real world.
Congratulations to the Class of 2018 who has been graduated, hopefully in the future we can contribute to the growth of this nation. For those who didn’t make it, don’t ever give up, “If you give up now, what you were fighting for? Always remember the beginning is always the hardest”. Don’t be discouraged the first time you fail. When things didn’t work out, remember that the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. When it’s hard and there’s a struggle, see what you become in the process is far more important than the result. You learned your lesson. You knew it was hard, but you did it hard. Now, keep going, work harder, get up and try again! There will be a day when your struggle will succeed. So be patient and keep struggling without complaining at all.
Thank you, BINUS University!
Thanks for having me!
Jevon Averill
BINUSIAN 2018
Computer Science Study Program
School of Computer Science