"Never Stop Pursuing Your Dreams, StuNed Scholarship"

This is a story of an ordinary man who dreams to study abroad.

In early 2015, I failed a scholarship interview for the second time. I was very disappointed. It seemed the opportunity to study in the UK was far from reality. It seemed it was impossible to get the opportunity to study in the UK.

 However, I had not given up yet. I kept pursuing my dream to study abroad by applying to the universities outside of the UK and other scholarships.

In March 2015, I enrolled in a Master International Economics and Business program at the University of Groningen (Rijkuniversiteit Groningen). The University of Groningen is one of the top 100 universities in the world. It was the second oldest university in the Netherlands. 

The university has been established since 1614. With their 400-years experience in education and research, I believed that the university has been evolving to meet the challenges of the times. 

I would also get an opportunity to learn from the best lecturers who were expert in the economics field. Moreover, there are many prominent people who graduated from this university. 

The first President of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg, was an alumnus of this university. To honor his legacy, the university names the faculty of economic and business building with his name.   

Within a few days after submitting my application, I obtained the letter of acceptance (LoA). By this LoA, I could apply for the StuNed scholarship because LoA is one of the required documents. StuNed stands for Studeren in Nederland (Study in the Netherlands). The aim of this scholarship is to foster the development of Indonesia through the improvement of human resources. 

Therefore, this scholarship is only intended for the Indonesian people who want to study in the Netherlands. However, I could not commence my study in 2015. The Global Banking Officer training program ended at the end of September 2015 while the class would be started in early September 2015. I discussed this matter with the administrative staff of the University of Groningen. As the solution, they postponed my LoA into the next year. Therefore, I could focus on training to become a Global Banking officer.

Having graduated from the training of Global Banking Officer program, I was assigned as the analyst of the business development for the overseas branches. 

To run this task, I had to move to the head office in Jakarta. The task was very interesting and challenging. I had to learn particular policies of each local authority where the overseas branches resided. I also studied the nature of the international business in different country and region. By holding this position, I also learned the operational and treasury business of international banking.