"Being a High Achieving Student at UPI and What It Takes"

Student Achievement is a title that you can get if you take part in the PILMAPRES event at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Outstanding students must be balanced between academic, organizational, and achievement. 

There are many benefits that you will get, for example, personal branding. You will also get unexpected scholarships, be it scholarships from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education or UPI. 

For every achievement you achieve, you will get an appreciation from the campus as well. You will also always be involved in campus or faculty scientific activities. In essence, your life will change after becoming an outstanding student. Here is how if you want to be an outstanding student at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.

I asked a friend of mine, Khalif A.B, he is one of my classmates how he became one of the outstanding students at UPI and he is currently in Italy. He said that someone should already have a plan when he/she enters college whether he/she has ambitions to become an outstanding student or not. "For me, I'm not imagining myself to be an "outstanding" student. I'm just doing what I want to do. What I want is to be able to study abroad, and simultaneously by studying abroad is what people actually think of being a successful student." 

He mentioned that studying abroad is a success for a student. "I just think, by that mindset of learning abroad means successful, I just want to find what kind of education they have, what kind of teaching style is professor there prefer, and how'd they communicate as academics." He added.

Khalif says that it's not easy to become a high achieving student in UPI, there will also be pressure from campus to expect more from within yourself. "Of course, I can feel people expect more from me. People expect you able to tackle every problems, and having outstanding scores. I actually don't mind by that because it's the consequence of it. What can I assure you is that I can't answer every question and problem. If I don't know I will tell you that I don't know."

I asked Khalif, in Italy how do they learn and interact, is it the same as in Indonesia? What makes it different? He told me that what makes the people in Italy knowledgeable is that they study, they will definitely go to the library every week. It makes perfect sense how they get the knowledge properly. 

"But little did you know, once twice or thrice a week, they would go to library to study. No matter who they are, no matter what priority they have, they study! That what makes people knowledgeable, they study." 

He mentioned that after he returned from italy, he would start working on his thesis. "My piece of advice for freshman is that "luck is when preparation meets opportunity". Just do what you want to do wholeheartedly and keep believing in your time will soon arrive." There is no such thing as a shortcut to achieve something, you have to work harder to get it, once you get it you just enjoy it.

(Alexandria Sheva Dwi Putra, Mahasiswa Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, FPBS UPI)