Letter of Gratitute (Alisson Sudradjat Prize)

It was Monday morning, I was rushing to my pre-departure training (PDT) class in Menara Kuningan. It has been a week since the PDT class started yet I always ended up come late. With super-high determination, I woke up early that morning to be able to arrive in the class on time. I don’t want to disappoint my teacher and disturb my PDT friends, again. I stood up in front of the classroom exactly at 7.05. Not too late, I said to myself. The class has not started yet. My teacher and my friends just had an ice-breaking conversation.

Not so long after I entered the class and sat down, my teacher distributed small white envelops to some of us. My friends were curious, so was I. I could not resist not opening it.

Surprise surprice… inside the envelopes, it was the prestigious Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) and Allison Sudradjat Prize (ASA) announcement. (There were 2 people who received ALA and 3 people who received ASA in my class alone. And I am one of them.)



Among around 425 Indonesian citizens who received AAS (Australian Award Scholarship) this year, I am one out of only few 3 people who were honored this prestigious Allison Sudradjat Prize (ten other people received Australian Leadership Awards). With this prize, I can get a grant up to 25 k dollars for work placement and/or research purpose in Australia.

I understand some people might have some thoughts in their mind. Why you? What have you done? And what will you do with the prize? Here is an honest confession about my feeling after receiving the news this morning.

I personally don’t think that I am smarter neither more active than anybody else. I frankly think I have not contributed enough. In fact, I am still on my early stage of learning how to become a good practitioner in my field (environmental issues). I think when they reward me with the prize, they truly see the big potential in me and I deeply feel honor about it. Thus, I will try my best to get the most out of it; use this opportunity for the development of my country and of course for strengthening the bilateral relationship between Indo-Australia.

Finally I realize I am not a perfect human being. I made mistakes, a lot! I totally aware that receiving this prize makes people expect more from me. So I would try my best to do the best.  Thank you very much for trusting me and giving me this opportunity. Once again, thank you.


Love,


Olivia

When Dreams Come True

-When dreams come true, I should build another dreams to keep me alive-

Today, two of my biggest dreams came true.

I really wanted to go to ANU (Australian National University) since long. When I came to Melbourne for study back in 2009, I have already had it in my mind that I want to return back to Australia one day to study at ANU, the best university in Australia. I remember  when me and my BF sitting on a bench in the middle of the park. He begged me to come back to Australia soon, I said if I return back it will be for ANU. Today, the dream came true (half way). I just received an email stating that I already received the offer from ANU under the AAS scholarship program. Since, I am taking double master program so I will be there until middle of 2016! ;)

The second one is working with UN. I've been always dreaming about working with UN since as long as I can remember. So during Ied holiday last August, I challenged myself to apply for internship to several UN bodies. UN ESCAP in Bangkok is my first priority since it is one of biggest UN bodies in Asia Pacific and Bangkok is not that far from home.

Today, I received the email that my internship application has been approved. I am so happy about it!



I wonder if my life could be better than present, I am living my own dreams.
Now you see, dreams are real.


Love,


Olivia