Within this post i'd like to share my whole remembrance of how I got selected as UWC Student intake 2014 from the beginning of selection process 'till the final announcement. You know I'll just write them all briefly and as concise as possible. So, if you have any inquiries, simply hit me any comment or preferably through my other social sites!
Alright, I'll begin with the most thrilling part.. which is selection process.
Somewhen at the nearly end of 2013, I still perfectly remember that I was attending a MPK (a student organization) meeting which was held on one evening at school building (anyway, my former school was SMAN 10 Malang Leadership Academy *fireworks*). In the middle of it, all of the 11th graders were called to gather as there was one of UWC Indonesia National Committees who'd like to publicize the opening of UWC 2014 Admission Process. I was very lucky on that moment because actually not all of the non-dormitory students were still around. So I listened to the presentation and I suddenly felt the urge to enroll after I heard about the offer of scholarship programs for this year placements in Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands. Woohoo!!! This educational program must be highly superb as there will also be representative students from up to 90 countries all around the world.
Next, my school held some internal selection thingy for students who wanted to participate. I decided to join, wrote some essays, and asked for recommendation from teacher. Who knows luck would be mine? I was fully excited to know I was one of ten students who passed this internal selection. Initially, my school planned to have another stage to select the shortlisted candidates who would get the chance to send our application documents to the NC a.k.a. National Committee. Yet, then, they decided to give ten of us this marvelous chance. Praise the Lord!
We then began to fulfill all those application forms which included our profiles, placement preferences, short descriptions of our interests, participation in any organization, hobbies, achievements, 2 500-words essays (mainly about our reason of interest in attending UWC, our commitment, what we want to contribute, our career goals, as well as our family background), parents approval, teacher and school principal forms. Moreover, we also had to enclose some documents such as certificates of any participation and achievement, our transcript of each term report, and a lot more documents. These whole writing processes took me more than a month to be finished, even I wrote and rewrote the essay drafts for four times after each proofreading. Fiuh, such a glory to then decide to send my fourth piece of writing.
And thereafter restlessly waited for 3-4 weeks... Tadaaaa! There were 10 students from all corners of Indonesia passed this stage and 7 of us are students from my high school. I never thought I would be in! Within the end of that week we had to come to Jakarta for attending the next selection stage. We all suddenly got fully stormy hearing this whole announcement. We had 4-5 days to get prepared in showing the best of ourselves and these days were incredibly hectic for me.
So, 7 of us took the train to get there by our-own-selves, without parents and teachers. Hah! It was somehow a pride for us or probably only for me, we'd proven we could rely on ourselves! We stayed there for 2 nights with the other three candidates (two are from Padang and one from Bandung) and we had lots of fun in those thrilling days. Moreover on the next day, we also met with the other 14 candidates who applied for the fee-paying program. Here's our photo:
- Could you find me?
So, what's next? We had to come back to Malang and continue our hectic high school life while waiting for the next announcement. Day by day for around a month we kept on praying and asking others whether they already got any information or not. Restlessness could never be out of our way back then.
Then on March 23rd 2014, what we had been waiting for was finally announced. Yes, the final announcement of the winners. National Committees visited our school and parents of three of us were also invited to come. At first, I was thinking there might be any interview of our parents/teachers or possibly home visit, as well I thought all parents of us were invited. Yet no, it was the time for the final announcement. AAAAA. I wasn't ready at all, like, at all. NC said there would only one of us get the scholarship in Germany and OMG at sudden I was about to give up because Germany was my third preference. I wasn't ready to disappoint my parents who came with me.
However, after all, it was NC's attempt to give us surprises. I, Dayin Wijaya, and Dea Santi each were given an envelope that we had to open at the same time in front of all students of my school and some teachers. I got my name written on that envelope but I never figured out before that I got selected. Afterwards, I found a vertical green-white-red flag inside my envelope and I still didn't get what it meant although I know it's Italian flag. Dayin got Dutch flag and Dea got the German one. We then understood that three of us won these three scholarship after the NC announced that they were joking about the only placement in Germany. Huaaaaah, I was instantly getting speechless and paralyzed like I didn't know whether I was dreaming or not. United World College of Adriatic? Italy? I am going to Italy? I am going to stay in that historical country with bunch of magnificent cultural sites and romantic cities? In the land of pasta, pizza, and piazza? In Europe? Miles far away from my hometown?
I don't know, guys. I even 'till now sometimes couldn't believe this is happening. Destiny truly brought me here! From now on, I must really believe that when something is destined for you, in any way it will truly happen to you.
And here we are 10 new intakes of UWC Class of 2016 (minus me and Nadia Claressa (Armand Hammer UWC, USA) during the dinner and gathering after orientation:
From left to right:
- Bing Ibrahim - UWC Atlantic, UK
- Fio Swantono - Armand Hammer UWC, USA
- Mandy Santoso - Li Po Chun UWC, Hongkong
- Deidra Alyanadine - Armand Hammer UWC, USA
- Qomaruliati Setiawati - Pearson College UWC, Canada
- Raudya Amalia - Armand Hammer UWC, USA
- Dayin Wijaya (second from right) - UWC Maastricht, Netherlands
- Dea Santi Alqurwani (rightmost) - Robert Bosch College, Germany
Hey I want to join UWC so if possible can you train me for UWC selection.
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