This school year, 10 high-achieving seniors from Rumah Belajar (RB) Duri Kepa were given the opportunity to receive a scholarship to Global Sevilla School. Global Sevilla School offered to enrol a handful of final year students given that they passed the mathematics exam, essay, and interview process. After receiving their results last Tuesday (18/7), seven of the 10 candidates were granted admission to Global Sevilla School.
Global Sevilla School is the international school in Jakarta with K12 Education System with PRIDE Character Program. The founders dreamed of a school with a fun and meaningful educational environment for future generations. Global Sevilla is committed to create a learning environment that embraces both family and community.
What an achievement! Curious to know their experiences following this test? Let’s see their stories here!
Photo: 7 Students of RB Duri Kepa who got scholarships in Global Sevilla School with a Volunteer. (Left-right: Adinda, Uun, Lismahwati, Rama Dini, Alana(Volunteer), Hadi, Darto, and Joko)
Lismahwati
After a long day building houses, a father was met with great news as he came home to his only daughter and only companion. His daughter, Lismah, has received a scholarship to attend Global Sevilla school. All the years Lismah has watched her father, a construction labourer, work to the bone to support her. She decided that once she can stand up on her own, her father will never have to work that way again. Although she feels pained to leave her brothers and sisters in RB, she knows that blood is thicker than water. Lismah will always do her best for her father’s best. Her compassion and love for her father spills into all the hard work she does and plans to do in school. It spills over in her math exam, her interview, and essay. Attending school in Sevilla will grant her access to a better education, and eventually a better job that can hopefully finally allow her father to rest. Lismah plans to dedicate all her work to her father, as he did to her.
Hadi Suhadi
As his classes’ top student, Hadi was a no-brainer choice for this scholarship. At the start, Hadi was reluctant to take this opportunity. As President of RB’s student council, he knew he was doing well in the school he grew to love greatly. Why be in a hurry to leave a place of comfort when you’d have to leave soon anyway? That question rung in his head and nearly convinced him to back out from this opportunity. After continued reflection, Hadi decided to let things be. He attended the two-hour intensive math tuition for seven days prior to the entrance math exam without complaints. Before he knew it, Hadi was accepted and being fitted for Sevilla’s school uniform. Now, he became determined to study more. The boy who lives with his grandparents in Duri Kepa decided to take this opportunity as getting closer to his ambitions of attending university and study Information Technology.
Rama Dini Yudestira Putri
“Chances like this don’t happen twice!” answered Putri when asked why she decided to take this opportunity. Although she had become attached to RB Duri Kepa, Putri realized that she was too young to be comfortable. She wanted to know more, experience more, and she will attend Sevilla school to accomplish exactly that. After seeing both her parents working all hours to tend to the needs of herself and her siblings, Putri is motivated to become more than just a student in Sevilla, but an accomplished student. “I don’t want to end up like my parents, I know I need to become someone better,” she said with tearful eyes. Therefore, she hopes to use her scholarship to Sevilla to land herself another scholarship that can take her to university.
Darto
Like many of his fellow peers, Darto was not too keen to leave RB Duri Kepa. After receiving the news of his acceptance, he felt proud and sad. As much as he wanted to better his situation, Darto recognized all the friends, knowledge, and happiness that the RB gave him. He feared that he would be left behind in classes, especially since English is used as the working language. Although, he realized that graduating from Sevilla School will give him a diploma that can help him better his chances to become a manager at an office. Aside from that, his parents earn their income by finding and selling used possessions, which motivated Darto to take this opportunity to return their hard work with his own hard work. His desire to make his parents happy drove him to try his hardest during the entrance assessment. Although he struggled in the Mathematics exam, Darto pulled through. Now all is paid off. He leaves RB with a parting message to his friends: “We must have dreams to have the motivation to achieve.”
Uun
Uun has always felt a special bond to all her friends and teachers in RB Duri Kepa. She had a second family in the school shaped like a house. When she received the scholarship to go to Sevilla school, she was torn between a familiar, comfortable place and an unknown, prestigious one. Uun understood that she would never receive another opportunity to a better education and decided to take this chance. Although she leaves with a heavy heart, she has a brighter hope in attending university the following year.
Joko
The youngest of seven brothers, Joko has a lot to prove. He felt driven to disprove the stereotype of the “spoiled youngest child.” That’s why he planned not only to be accepted at Sevilla School, but to achieve grades that are “higher than No.1,” there. Following him receiving the scholarship, Joko became excited for his new school’s complete facilities. After graduation, Joko aspires to get accepted into the Indonesia Military Academy (Akmil) or become a soldier, therefore he has begun preparing now by swimming frequently to have a taller figure. Fortunately, his scholarship has lent him a helping hand to satisfy his ambitions by guaranteeing him access to Sevilla’s pool in their campus. Although, he understood that his acceptance will come with challenges as well. Joko became worried that he was already left behind too far in his academics to do well in Sevilla School. Although, he took his parent’s words to heart, they told him, “Don’t let your grades drop, make sure to study diligently.”
Adinda
“‘Dad…I was kicked out from school,’
‘What? What did you do?’
‘…I got a scholarship to go to Sevilla!”
When Adinda told her father about her scholarship, she decides to poke some fun at him. After receiving the great news, Adinda felt ecstatic for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She felt that she could finally lead her family to a better path. Her dad, who is retired, and mother, who owns a small laundry business, both struggle to keep up the livelihood of their household. It has always been Adinda’s dream to become the successful child amongst her family. After hours of test preparation, prayer, and worrying, her efforts paid off when she was announced to be among those who will go to Sevilla school.
Congratulations to all! Lismah, Hadi, Putri, Darto, Uun, Joko, and Adinda! We hope that you all have a smooth transition and a bright future! Keep all the lessons and memories from RB Duri Kepa in your heart. #ExtensionofGoodness