Thousands of Students of IPB to be the Members of Propelan were Ready to Rocket the Achievements
Propelan was a community for students who wanted to share the success together. This community was initiated by a group of students of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) having the same hobby in the scientific field. They were Apip Nurdin, Yoga Rivaldi, Ana Fitrotunnisa, Annisa Zikriyatin Nafilah, Wismo Reja Subroto, Rahma S, Fathudin Mahmud, and Dina Yauma from Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH), Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM), and Faculty of Agricultural Technology (Fateta). The name of Propelan was proposed by one member, namely Yoga Rivaldi, who was inspired by the rocket fuel. This name had a philosophy, so that the members incorporated in it could have the achievements that skyrocketed as high as possible.
Propelan was established on 22 September 2016. This community was formed because of the number of students who were only busy lecturing and organizing, but few who excelled outside the campus. Apip Nurdin as the founder deeply regretted it, so he took the initiative to form a community that could be a container for channeling the scientific talents and incising the achievements off-campus.
“In the early formation of this community, there has been no form of coaching or guidance whatsoever. We only invite the students who want to succeed together to participate in various scientific competitions such as debate, scientific work, and essay,” said Apip.
Apip said that many students who wanted to excel and win various competitions, but they were confused to start and did not know how, until finally the desire was only the desire alone without any real action. Therefore, Apip and the team took the innitiative to form a community of Propelan whose expectations could be a place where the students were channeling their talents in the scientific field and could become the champions in various national and international competitions.
After one year of age, this community had members of more than a thousand people. During that time, Propelan had managed to spawn approximately 150 national and international achievements of the members of the community.
“The existence of this Propelan is turned out to inspire other campuses to establish similar communities. Some of the campuses co-founded Propelan are initiated by the students outside IPB who previously joined in Propelan of IPB. The campuses are among others Politeknik Negeri Jember, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Universitas Pembangunan Panca Budi Medan, Universitas Muhammadiyah Medan, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Institut Teknologi Kalimantan, Universitas Hasanuddin, and Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Kasim Riau,” said Apip.
One year standing, now Propelan had a more neat system. With so many merged members, had pushed Propelan to monitor all its members. Through the mentor system that was one person who assessed to be the expert would guide ten new members, Propelan could control all its members. These mentors were called Kage. They came from the former members of Propelan who had made many achievements. The members would be fostered for five weeks with a mentor rotation according to their respective fields. The area focus in this community was divided into Scientific Writing Competition, debates, essays, conferences, and exchanges. Within those five weeks, the members who had been fostered at least could be the finalist in the national science competition event either individually or team.
Currently, Apip and friends were desigining an application of Propelan that could later be accessed through the Play Store. “This application will contain the online consultations related to the scientific competitions and the tutorial of various competitions, as well as share the updated competition info,” said Apip. (Kho/NM)
