As the new semester begins, many scholarships from various institutions have opened for applications. One such scholarship is the Regular Scholarship from Karya Salemba Empat (KSE). Luthfiana Erlistya, a 2018 Mathematics student at Universitas Airlangga (Unair), is one of the students selected for this scholarship. The KSE Scholarship is a program designed to assist students with their financial needs. It aims to support and prepare scholarship recipients to become graduates with integrity, national awareness, and love for their country. Additionally, it encourages immediate action to combat climate change and its impacts. The program offers various mentoring activities organized by KSE, such as face-to-face meetings, leadership programs, seminars, workshops, and coaching.
The scholarship provides educational funding of 750,000 IDR per month. Additionally, recipients can join the fun and supportive KSE UNAIR family and network with other KSE scholarship recipients from universities across Indonesia. Scholarship recipients are also involved in various offline/online projects (especially social projects) and regular webinars on soft skills and professional skills. This allows participants to gain knowledge from many speakers from sponsoring state-owned enterprises (BUMN). As part of their identity, scholarship recipients receive a KSE Unair jacket and have the opportunity to participate in various competitions organized by the foundation.
Obtaining this scholarship was not easy for Luthfiana. There were many processes she had to go through. Here is Luthfiana’s journey to receiving the KSE scholarship:
“Sorry if this is a bit long, hehe. So, from the beginning of my time in Surabaya, I was very focused on education. I felt I had failed the SNMPTN (national university entrance exam), so I had to be determined to study hard at the university. Being away from home and living in a rented room meant higher expenses and needs. From there, I started thinking about how not to burden my parents too much.
In short, as an extroverted person, I couldn’t just sit quietly in class and study. So, I joined various student organizations, BEM, university activities, and outside activities as well. Because of my constant involvement in organizational activities, it was difficult for me to find time to tutor students, so I started looking into scholarships. Then one day, while I was a staff member in the Mathematics Student Association, we were heading to a village for a community service project (ABDES). Unfortunately, I had an accident and was hit by a truck, which forced me to take a break from my studies for 3-4 months and return to Jogja for treatment.
At that point, I had no hope of applying for a scholarship because I initially planned to apply in the third semester (the optimal semester for events, organizations, and applying for various things, in my opinion). Why no hope? Because I took a leave of absence for so long, and I couldn’t write until the end of the third semester (I could only write minimally during exams because my hand was still bandaged and I used a pen). This drastically lowered my GPA to around 2. Something. I couldn’t even think about applying for scholarships; I was just grateful to continue to the fourth semester, haha.
So, I focused on improving my grades and my physical and mental health at that time. I participated in a few competitions, failed, only reached the finals, and so on, to cope with my sadness about not being able to apply for scholarships at that time (I was very ambitious to achieve something during college to make my parents proud). Every scholarship has a high GPA criterion, and I was convinced I couldn’t apply for any scholarships because raising a GPA from 2… to 3… is very difficult, haha.
But God never sleeps. Long story short, my nightly Zoom sessions, tasks-eat-sleep-tasks routine paid off, and I felt my GPA was eligible for the KSE scholarship this time. Even before the registration opened, I had already started preparing the requirements (since there were quite a few). On the second day of registration, I applied immediately. After applying, I felt excited and nervous because the process is long, including administrative, citizenship tests, interviews, and finalizing documents.
By God’s grace, I was the only Mathematics student selected from thousands of UNAIR applicants at that time. Although this scholarship isn’t as substantial as others, it was exactly what I hoped for. I joined a scholarship from a BUMN institution rather than a banking scholarship or similar. Even though I only experienced KSE for one year, God has been very kind, and to this day, my gratitude never ceases because I found the perfect scholarship and environment, especially in the social project aspect.
That was Luthfiana’s journey to obtaining her dream KSE scholarship. When asked for tips and tricks, Luthfiana responded, “Honestly, I don’t have many tips and tricks. The main thing is to target what you feel you must or want to achieve. Keep up with the information, ask questions, and prepare thoroughly (documents, etc.). Also, practice public speaking or start solving small problems in organizations. Staying aware of current news is also important to sharpen our knowledge. The last tip is to stay calm and not compare yourself to anyone else; just keep progressing! God never sleeps when it comes to helping those who sincerely try! Good luck <3.”
