hey everyone welcome back to my youtube channel [Music] [Music] human rights studies [Music] hello hello good afternoon good afternoon my name is celine and today i will be interviewing you for the lpdp scholarship application process so are you ready okay first can you please introduce yourself okay okay good afternoon please let me introduce myself my name is fatiha fairuza you can call me fatiha i pursued my undergraduate studies at ritzmatan asia pacific university in japan in majoring international relations and i have also been accepted to the master of arts candidate at columbia university in the city of new york studying in human rights program first i will ask about your personal life if that's okay are you already married uh no not yet i am not married so do you have a boyfriend yes i do have a boyfriend do you have any siblings yes i in fact have four siblings and i am the oldest i have two younger brothers and two younger sisters can you tell me what your parents do for a living oh okay okay so my dad works for the government especially in the tax office in sarangbantan and my mom owns a travel company so she usually go abroad to make a tour for the clients wow a travel company that must be very hard with the covet 19 dynamic right yes it's true yeah it was hard during the pandemic okay okay so now i will ask about your previous studies i see here that you studied your bachelor's in japan right yes and you've also had many experiences with student exchange so what motivates you to study abroad okay so the very reason why i want to study abroad is because i want to learn more because i believe that in order to learn i we have to be able to learn from anywhere and at any time so i believe that i don't want to limit my opportunities by studying only in indonesia for example so that's why i always seek new experiences and new challenges that's why i have the motivations to study abroad can you tell me have you ever faced any discrimination while studying abroad yes unfortunately i have been faced with discriminations when i'm studying abroad when i went exchange to spain during my high school i was forced to remove my hijab during school time and if not they would expel me to they would expel me from the school i told them already that this was a part of my identity as a muslim but they would not compromise this situation so uh because of that i didn't want to stay silent i wanted to stand up for my rights because it is my right to get an education that i am entitled to uh despite the hijab that i'm wearing so i created a petition at change org with the title asking fatia to remove her hijab is discrimination the petition was pretty successful as i received 3 and 600 plus signatures over only one night and i believe that those movement that i created have created a bold impressions to everyone in the world that education should not be discrimination should not be discriminating anyone okay um so i also see here that you already have a letter of acceptance from columbia university right so can you tell me how did you get it okay so even though i have i do not have a prior professional experience but i would like to consider myself as an activist in human rights particularly in the rights to education so because of that i curated my personal statement based on the previous experience that i have been doing throughout my undergraduate studies from my academics as well as my english ability as well as my research ability because columbia university especially in the program that i applied for asked for a writing sample so i submitted all of those requirements and additionally i also showed my experience as i have been developing my own organization to advocate for equal rights to education called shape your life indonesia so you have your own organization can you tell me yesterday about it [Music] yes i've been developing it since 2020 so i first created that during my internship at a social media company in surabaya and during my interview the founder kind of encouraged me to create my own organization or community because he believed that i am potential in creating that community instead of being just an internship student so that's why i created that organization the very reason why i created that was because during my high school the moment i told my teacher and my friends that i wanted to pursue my education abroad they had this kind of misperceptions that studying abroad is um too expensive and then it's very hard to achieve and it's not for people who came from small cities like me because i was enrolled in a public school in siera so that's why i wanted to encourage every person especially every student in indonesia even though they came from small cities they are entitled to the rights to get the full high quality of education for example by studying abroad okay so you just graduated this year right yes i will be i will be attending my graduation ceremony this september but i already finished everything so why did you choose to directly get a master's degree instead of working first okay so since i've been developing shape your life indonesia i believe that i need to develop it more quickly because shape your life indonesia is an institution to advocate for the rights to education and because my goal is to develop that organization as an institution that could let's say collaborate with governments in order to send more potential indonesia's to get a higher quality of education i believe that pursuing master's degree as soon as i can would be optimal in order to advance my organization other than that uh the program that i'm enrolled in which is the the human rights program at columbia does not require the students to have minimum years of working professionally so that's why i decided to go directly to pursue my master's degree okay why did you choose columbia university okay based on my research i have researched um actually a lot of universities around the world but because my focus as human rights especially rights to education which belongs to the socio-economic rights field um the only country that upholds or that offers that uh field is only at the u.s because if i look at australia or the uk the human rights program that they offered is human rights to life or human rights during war or conflict which is not the field that i wanted to study so therefore i study i researched that it has been offered in many universities in the u.s especially in columbia university where it has human rights institute so i believe that it has um a lot of resources that i will be gaining from that university so you're saying there's absolutely no other universities in no other countries which has the program human rights to education yes i believe that there is no other university outside the u.s that offers the the specific courses that i'm looking for which is uh advocacy and social economy on advocacy in socioeconomic rights it is exclusively only offered at columbia university as i've been doing my research are you sure because i think that i am sure there are many institutions in europe with great programs for human rights yes indeed it is there are a lot of universities in europe that has a human rights studies program but uh the university in europe more concern about the human rights to life or about human rights law which is which belongs to the masters of law which i am not eligible to apply because i did not graduate from the bachelor of law okay you said that your interest was in education right so why did you choose human rights as your field of study instead of maybe education okay indeed my focus is education but the the thing that i've been working on is the human rights to education instead of the curriculum or the education system itself so my goal is to ensure that every student in indonesia has the rights to pursue high quality of educations how did i do that so through shape your life indonesia i have been empowering students all around indonesia to for example prepare for their skills to be prepared in the 21st world centuries or even prepared to get acceptance letter from the university that they wanted to apply for uh until today we have sent more than 16 students from small cities in indonesia namely panmeru goa and pontianak to study abroad with scholarship with our free mentorship program and in the future i envisioned to work together closely with schools in starting from east java region as we have established connection with mr emile darda the vice governor of east jaffa as well as the ministry of education in indonesia so we could expand our empowerment to everyone in indonesia okay so do you think that education abroad is better than education in indonesia i think it is not necessarily better but i believe that um it will i believe that education abroad could provide some education or some materials that we could not get in indonesia because um i believe that education abroad especially in the developed countries they would have more advanced technologies to teach students for example in engineering fields or in doctor or in public health for example so i believe that in some developed countries the educations are better than the one provided in indonesia but that is also the very reason why we need to study abroad so that we can teach the things that we learned during our study abroad to develop the students in indonesia well that is if you do return to indonesia right what if you are offered maybe a job as a teacher or by your professor over at colombia will you accept i don't think i will accept because my goal right now is to expand shape your life indonesia and as the founder and as the president i have the responsibility to come back to indonesia and develop that organizations but maybe of that offer i could say that we could um make a potential collaborations in the future but my goal after graduations and my high priority is to come back to indonesia and develop that shape your life indonesia i see that you have no research experience in your cv and yet you choose to apply for masters which will definitely need research skills how will you overcome this problem okay so i believe that even though i have not published any of my research throughout my four years of undergraduate life majoring in international relations i have been learning so much on how to conduct and produce a good research paper and in fact right now i'm also i've also been recruited by the uno ochrc research project in indonesia for two years which is funded by toyota foundations and other than that i have also submitted my research paper to columbia university as my writing sample and as i have been accepted i believe that i have acquired the the knowledge and the skills to conduct a research in order to overcome the research challenges that i would face during my master's program can you tell me about your plan for your master's thesis okay for my master's thesis as i've been um doing with cpr life indonesia through advocacy in fulfilling the rights to education and after doing consultations with the professor that i wanted to work with during my study at columbia university i decided to write upon the role of advocacy in fulfilling the rights to education in international human rights law you already have any supervisor for your thesis yes i have conducted a research and i decided to work with dr falisa tibits from columbia university as her research research field is similar to me which is advocacy and the rights to education so have you already contacted this professor tibbetts yes i've already contacted her through emails and we have also one time zoom meeting talking about my research interest how will your thesis contribute to indonesia okay as nowadays there are many education institutions are emerging in indonesia i believe that i can make use of my thesis on how i could empower or encourage those education institutions to actually work with government officials in indonesia in order to fulfill the international human rights law criteria that is set in the treaties or we can also or i can also distribute the characteristics or the criterias that needs to be that needs to be completed by each country and what and discuss what each education institutions can do in order to work together to achieve that goal okay uh what is your plan after you graduate from colombia so after i graduate from columbia i will go back to indonesia and expand my organization so first of all the things that i wanted to do is definitely reach out to schools or make new partnerships with school at this is java region and then i wanted to create a new program which is called mudamangajar where it would allow students high school students and undergraduate students to be able to teach their knowledge in rural parts of indonesia that knowledge is not limited to certain knowledge but i believe that right now digital literacy is very important in order to survive in the modern world well i believe that digital literacy in rural areas are still lacking so i believe that high school students or even undergraduate students in indonesia who have the will to contribute or to teach their knowledge about digital literacy or english to the rural parts in indonesia can have the opportunity to do that because until today the only opportunity to reach out to rural students in indonesia is only indonesia and there are also some um campus manager opportunities that are offered by each university like for example university of indonesia but however i wanted to expand those opportunities to high school students as well because i believe that um teaching should not be limited by their age if they are capable then we should give that opportunity for them who wants to teach and contribute what will be the indicators for this program to be successful your mudamalgar program right yes so we are indicators yeah so in order to make this program successful and helping the governments to reach um to reach a goal in education for example i believe that i will conduct discussions with the government in order to set the criteria but i believe one of the criteria would be the digital literacy rate in the rural parts of indonesia as well as school enrollment rates for higher education as in like to university because until today according to the data based on um national statistics of indonesia there are only nine percent of the total population in indonesia that are able to finish or even enroll at higher education which i believe that is an urgent problem that needs to be solved now i'm going to ask you about why did you choose lpdp instead of other scholarships like such as fulbright so the reason why i applied for alpena pay is because firstly it is a comprehensive scholarship because it will support me as a candidate in the master's degree abroad to reach my full potential to maximize my experience there with the support from the lpdp foundations second of all lpdp has a lot of awardees which means i could expand my network especially now that i'm building ship your life indonesia i need to expand my network and to connect with other people who actually have maybe the same interest as me to ensure the rights to education for all and lastly i believe that lpdp has has a value that i also that i also valued which is uh to contribute back to its community because i hold that value ever since i went to study abroad i realized that even though i am studying abroad and having this opportunity what does it mean if i could not create more students to be successful and to create impact to indonesia so i hold the same value that lb has okay so can you tell me what makes you different from other lpdp applicants why should we choose you i believe that even though i have not started uh working professionally i'm a fresh graduate but i already started my contributions for indonesia by creating shape your life indonesia because in shape your life indonesia i have i have gathered a community of students who study abroad who wants to contribute back to its community in creating a mentorship sessions one-on-one consultations in order to help maximize the potential of each students in indonesia and i believe that it is important because that is also in line with the indonesian vision of 2045 to create or to produce a competent human resources in the 21st world centuries so now can you tell me about your greatest achievement okay um during my undergraduate studies i never thought that i would be competing in this international law competition since i am not a law student but because my professor encouraged me so i did and so i applied and participated in international humanitarian law competition held by the international committee of the red cross japan and we competed with top law schools around japan but even though so we managed to the succeed as we win first prize and we will be representing japan to move on to the next stage which is the regional rounds where we will compete with other top law schools are all around asia and it was very achieving for me as well as for the university because this was our first time competing in the competition and also first time winning the competition as well so our achievement has also been recognized by the university as well as the japanese national daily news as we are featured at one of the newspaper in japan okay can you tell me about your greatest strengths okay i think my greatest strength has been resilient because in life i did not always i did not always get what i want i always faced with failures at first in order to achieve my goals for example uh for example when i was in high school wanting to study for higher education i failed during my asana and and both spammed at the end it was very stressful because i could not imagine how would i pursue how would i continue my education but because i'm resilient i tried to look up for opportunities to study abroad with scholarship and with my strong will and hard work i studied hard to get my ielts done and to get my to get my essays as well as interview so when i get accepted to study at return apu japan with scholarship what is the biggest challenge you've ever faced with studying abroad i think my biggest challenge to study abroad has been language barrier because i have studied abroad at spain and japan where it does not speak english as their main language i think language barrier has been the most challenging for me but because i am an adaptive person i always try to learn their language quickly in order to be able to socialize and connect with their community can you tell me about your plan to adapt to the new cultures in united states okay so my plan to be able to adapt in the united states is i think firstly i would like to surround myself with supportive friends or supportive circles so every time i feel homesick or every time i feel um every time i face some challenges i would be able to have courage from those circles surrounding me other than that i believe that i am able to hold to my vision and value as indonesian and as a muslim abroad since i've i have survived studying both in spain and in japan there's a lot of concerns nowadays for lpdp over these who graduated from many good institutions abroad that when they return to indonesia there will be a lack of facilities and funding for them to utilize their education properly do you agree with this statement and what is your plan i think i would agree with the statement because some companies or corporates in indonesia might see masters graduate from abroad as overqualified for positions that they are offering so they they could not offer a good salary that would match the expectations of the graduates but however i don't think that is that it is a problem because as a graduate from master's degree or undergraduate degree abroad we are coming back to indonesia with this abundance of knowledge that not that that not everyone in indonesia has so i believe that with that knowledge and opportunity as well as the skills that we already gained during our studies we could instead create job opportunities for those who are needing so we are the one who creates jobs in the future okay so can you describe your contribution to indonesia i envision indonesia to have a competent human resources in the future not only not only those who came from big cities but also those who came from small cities or even rural areas in indonesia to be accompanied human resources in the future so in order to do that i plan to work together to push the governments in order to comply with the international human rights law that they have ratified in the first place to ensure high quality education for all and as education is progressing towards the advancement of technologies and skill demands are now more digital i believe that i wanted to help create programs for the governments in order to produce a competent human resources in the future through shape your life indonesia can you tell me about your preparations to make sure that you can graduate and graduate on time i believe that i have no problem in academics since i finished my undergraduate degrees three and a half years that is supposed to finish four years so in my master's degree i also wanted to con i also wanted to plan out my study plan throughout my two-year studies to finish all the credits before i graduate for example and to conduct a research project during my holiday or during my spring break at university so when i write my thesis i already am advanced with my progress so i would finish it on time well are you sure there will be no other activities during your spring break that may disrupt or delay your research okay so for now i don't have any plans for my spring back for my spring break yet but even if i do i would like to prioritize my research first because it is my priority as a student to finish my studies and even if i also have another activities i believe that i would be able to manage my time very well or optimally because the spring breaks are three to four months so i would like to maximize those holidays doing my research as well as maybe some other activities that i would not expect at this time okay so what do you think about lbd priorities who have studied abroad and they do not return to indonesia afterwards okay so i believe as a student that study abroad there are a lot of opportunities that wait for us um in the future as a future graduates abroad but however i believe that as indonesian we should always remember our roots where we came from with just indonesia so i believe that for me i've always been contribute back to my community to indonesia even when i studied abroad like for example when i was in spain i worked together with the embassy of indonesia and madrid where i introduced indonesian culture through traditional dances and in japan i became the president of the pepe in my university where i created programs to maximize the potential of indonesian who study abroad so for me i would like to always contribute my knowledge my my skills or even the opportunities that i have to indonesia and especially if it's uh especially if it's lpdp awardee i think it became our responsibility to come back to indonesia and contribute back to indonesia so i believe that if yeah so i believe that um i think it is um i think it is kind of selfish for them to not come back to indonesia because um they've been raised or they are born in indonesia so they has to build back the country in order to be better or to develop its country okay can you tell me about your long-term career plan okay so as an education advocate my long-term career plan is to work in the unicef and in the long term i aim for the position to become the executive director of unicef who knows i might be the first indonesian who could be the executive director and unicef i believe that working in unicef would is in line with the goals that i'm doing right now which is to ensure every child to get quality education and other than that as an as the representative of indonesia and the international organizations i believe that i would have the opportunities to talk about the current problems that indonesia is currently facing in in the context of education where i could have the opportunity to bring that discussions on the table to bring the attentions of all the member states in the u.n and to to and to come up with a solutions or a policy that could actually be implementable for developing countries what do you think will be the biggest challenge you face in order to achieve your future goal and how do you plan to overcome it okay i think one of the biggest challenges to me right now is of course the knowledge especially now that i am developing shape your life indonesia to ensure education rights for all i am very lacking in the human rights knowledge because in my undergraduate studies i only they i am only offered two credits of human rights courses which is very broad and very uh which is very broad so i believe that i need to study more in depth about human rights especially in the social economic rights and specifically in the human rights advocacy and so that's why i am taking my master's degree in the human rights studies program at columbia university other than that the other challenge to develop shape your life in indonesia has been funding as a non-profit organization our challenge would be funding but however we have successfully get grant financial grant from read submit on apu at 2020 and right now we receive financial grant from xl axiata as well okay well that's very good uh i wish you the best of luck with your with your operative application i think before i end this interview can you give me a closing statement okay thank you very much ma'am saline for your time uh to the interview today to close our interview today i would like to convey that i believe that i am a deserving candidate for this lpdb scholarship because i am i have an outstanding academics and i also have a big cost to contribute for indonesia and as you may know i already started my contribution even before i received this lpdb scholarship so this lpdb scholarship would even support me to to expand my impact for a better indonesia in the future thank you okay thank you so much fatiha thank you okay and i'll see you in my next video