Born and raised in a small rural area (Sumbawa Island, Indonesia) I have always been close to nature ever since I was a child. Due to my eagerness towards nature, I undertook forestry majoring in forest resources conservation as my undergraduate study at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. To better stimulate my interest in environment, I have conducted some journeys to mountains, national park and some socio-culturally unique places in Indonesia. It added precious understanding for me of what actually happened in ‘real world’ and tried to link that with knowledge gained from my study.
Creating positive change in my environment has always been my concern. My participation in Harvard Summer Course, Biodiversity of Borneo 2008 was a huge opportunity to enhance my capacity. It has given me a clearer understanding of a broad spectrum of issues related to biodiversity especially faced by developing countries. To some extent, I feel like this scholarship brings me to many other scholarship and opportunities.
I remember revising and sending my study objective and personal statement for Fulbright scholarship to study in the U.S. while I was in the middle of the course. Before interview, I gained some invaluable advice from Campbell Webb ( the Course organizer and Senior Research Associate) to better understand my specific concerns regarding environmental issues. Thus, I found that water issue is the highest of my concerns. I am also interested in environmental education, relations among nature, human, and animals, and community-based approach (see my concerns for photos):
And in brief, finally, I got the fulbright scholarship to study Masters Degree in Watershed Management in the U.S starting Fall 2009, got accepted in the State University of New York, College of Environmental Studies and Forestry with full tuition award, and got a fellowship from P.E.O Sisterhood.
I believe that education promises to be a window of hope to shape the future. With education, which I hope will continue to Ph.D, I would like to disseminate environmental information among inhabitants to widen their participation, to raise awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and commitment and to improve skills required in maintaining environmental sustainability and sustainable livelihood. I would also like to improve networking so as to achieve greater consistency and comparability of data and research, and better collaboration among the global networks in environmental issues. This will ensure the environmental sustainability in Indonesia, and particularly in Sumbawa Island.