My First Student Conference

January 2021 was probably the new beginning for everyone to create or plan a better journey in 2021. I took that first month to do self-reflection and re-set my goals. And suddenly one of my friends, Simon, persuaded me to join his team with Alisa. They wanted to enroll in some national essay competition in an annual event called CENS (Civil Environmental National Summit) but still needed one person to fulfill the team’s composition. At first, I felt doubt of myself and asked myself, “Is this the right time for me to give some try in the competition field? Don’t you remember that you failed in every single competition you’ve tried last year?”. But when I looked at my goals, maybe that would be no problem if I added essay competition as one of my goals this year, although ‘to be the winner’ was not the main goal.

We called our team “SPARK” or Sustainable Problem Solving Breakthrough. The name was not randomly taken, we adapted it with the core theme of CENS: The Need To Rethink the Built Environment to Ensure Climate Resilience. There were 3 chambers, and we took the 2nd Chamber: Resource Use and Waste Management. The focus of this chamber is about transitioning towards a circular economy in the built environment by maximizing resource efficiency. We thought that this chamber would be easier because it was our core competence in our major. But I would say, the study case was somehow more complicated than we thought.

(Louisa Danielson, 2023)

We discussed, argued, and did research. We listed any points that related to the solution. Then, we formed the essay. I really enjoyed the process that I even forget about the winner title, till the day of finalist announcement came. I’ll never forget how happy I am when SPARK was on the list of the finalists.

But then, Liaison Officer of our team told us to get ready for the next phase: Conference and Pitching session. Honestly, I didn’t know about it at all. I thought that we will directly jump into the winner announcement in Awarding Night. So, I started to feel nervous because that was my first student conference. But I always remember how supportive my team was to each other.

“We, here, are to learn new things and to improve our soft skills, especially problem-solving and teamwork. The winner title is just an extra bonus. The most important thing is how we still follow the process till the end and not giving up”.

So, in the middle of a multitude of tasks of our major, we prepared ourselves for the conference. We used design thinking which was taught by coaches in coaching session. We also accepted counsel from the coach. Then, the day of the conference came.

In the conference, all of the delegates in 2nd Chamber were divided into 3 breakrooms to discuss the trigger issue presented by challenger; PT Adhi Karya. Technically, the conference was not going well almost to the end. We faced an internet connection issue. Moreover, it was just a few minutes more for us to give a presentation in main room zoom, as the chosen team in the breakroom. But luckily, we can through force majeure.

The day of the conference ended, but it was still not the end. We still have to prepare for the next day: Pitching session. In that session, we have to present our essay in only 3 minutes. What a challenge! There were so many things written in our essay and we have to make it possible to be delivered only in 3 minutes! So, we practiced ourselves an hour before the session began.

The pitching session was ended well. We got great comments from the experts. They said our presentation is really complete and well-delivered. What a good end. We were very satisfied and prayed for the best result.

The Awarding Night came. The final event was opened by Inspirational Talks with Emir Mahira, an influencer. I personally got so many new insights from him. Then, the event continued to the winner announcement. I felt stomachache and just didn’t want to hear it. But I can’t feel my fingers anymore when SPARK was announced to be the “Best ‘Team and Student Delegates’ from Chamber 2”. At that moment, I screamed loudly and felt so grateful that our hard work has paid off. I was increasingly convinced that effort will not betray the result.

(Forgive my blue face :”))To me, being one of the delegates is a time for self-actualization. I learned a lot from the competition, the event, and of course my team. I learned from them, especially about consistency and self-confidence. I couldn’t ask for a better team.