Briefing for Grantees of Affirmation Scholarships Admitted into IPB
Direktorat Program Pendidikan Kompetensi Umum (PPKU – Directorate of General Competencies and Educational Program) of IPB (Bogor Agricultural University) organize a special meeting to brief the 18 grantees of Affirmation Scholarships, on Wednesday, 30 December 2015. The event was held at the Common Class Room (CCR), at the IPB campus, Dramaga, and was terminated by outbound program at Situ Gede, Bogor.
Director of PPKU of IPB, Dr. Bonny PW Soekarno, stated that the objectives of this program among other things is how to build true team spirit, and to improve sense of national responsibility of students. According to him, in general the scholarship recipients of such scholarships typically have a lack of self-confidence as mostly they come from remote areas, outermost and disadvantaged (daerah terpencil, terluar, dan tertinggal – 3T).
"However, based on a three-year experiences admitting in-coming new students under the Affirmations Scholarships, they have made great achievements. The difference, they have never enjoyed such adequate facilities which usually provided for students of urban areas. Only recently, when they were admitted to be students of IPB they enjoyed such new opportunities, "he said.
Last year record showed that grantee of Affirmation Scholarships from Aceh had successfully achieved GPA of 3.74. In addition to reach the above average position in the classes they have been in good spirit. Currently, the grantees of Affirmation Scholarships are various disadvantaged areas of Indonesia, namely Nias, South Aceh, North Borneo and Papua.
However, Dr. Bonny explained that grantees of Affirmation Scholarships do not get special treatment. They should begin their semesters earlier than other regular students as they have to undertake tailor made Affirmation Scholarships tutorial classes, which is intended to catch up the standardized education process applied at other leading universities.
Sam Derebih, one of Affirmation Scholarships grantees from Arfak Mountains, Manokwari, Papua, expressed his excitement to admitted as student of IPB. "I am proud to be student of IPB. Out of the 300 applicants for the scholarships, only two applicants from Arfak district where I live were successfully accepted, "he said.
Program Afirmasi Pendidikan Tinggi (Adik – Affirmations Program of Higher Education) is a free education program administered by the Kementerian Riset, Teknologi, dan Pendidikan Tinggi (Kemenristekdikti – Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education) RI for students of 3T areas. The program was launched in 2012. (Wied)
