 |
| Amelia Salsabilla Anatasya, mahasiswi UMM as the Indonesia Education Ambassador (Photo: Special) |
Unfulfilled dreams do not mean failure. It could be that God has prepared a better future than what humans have planned. As experienced by Amelia Salsabilla Anatasya, a student of the Pendidikan Pancasila dan Kewarganegaraan (PPKn) Study Program at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), Her childhood dream that had failed is now coming true by winning the Indonesian Education Ambassador event in early June 2024.
Bella, her nickname, said that her childhood dream was to become a model. However, due to one or two reasons, she was unable to become a model and felt insecure. "But this is where my parents play a big role. Both of them fully support whatever I do. Their only message at that time was that Bella must be a person who is responsible for what she does," she said.
Read more: CJ-Fest UMM, Creating 10 News Portals and 2,000 Works
She realized her parents' message when she was in college. She won first place in the Indonesian Education Ambassador event held by the Putera Puteri Duta Pendidikan Indonesia (PPDI) Foundation in 2024. During the event, she had a work program themed "Believe Your Dream". The program aims to improve education for orphans in orphanages.
She chose the orphanage because she was a volunteer for Jejak Mengabdi Indonesia in 2023 for two months. From there, she finally decided to devote herself to educating the children in orphanages such as the Mambaul Hikmah orphanage, the Harapan Asrori orphanage, and the Sunan Kalijaga orphanage. "There's a lot to learn from this experience. Moreover, there are orphanages that take care of children with special needs. I was able to learn sign language and learn how to educate each individual," she adds.
Bella emphasizes character education for elementary school children. Starting with learning about Indonesian history, learning about character building, and learning to socialize with the community. Occasionally, she also helps the orphanage children with their paperwork as part of her program. After studying, she usually invites the orphanage children to play games together, such as gobak sodor, hide and seek, and so on.
In the future, she will also establish a community platform to invite the public to participate in the welfare of children's education, especially for children in orphanages. "I want my program to encourage the community to help improve education," she adds.
Bella is not only an Indonesian education ambassador but has also participated in several similar events, such as being the East Java campus ambassador in 2023 and the runner-up of Puteri Nusantara East Java in 2023. Bella is also active in the UMM Civics Study Program Student Association.
Read more: Various Interesting Tools at Aquafest Innovation Technology UMM
Therefore, she hopes that it is not only her who can achieve her dreams but also the other UMM students. According to her, self-confidence and not being afraid to try will always give good results. "Just start stepping forward, because there will definitely be those who support you," she ended. (tri/wil/put)
