Ach. Zarnuji (21 years old) or commonly called Uji is one of the recipients of the educational scholarship program given by the Yayasan Inspirasi Indonesia Membangun or known as The Foundation for Inspiration of Indonesia Development (YIIM) in cooperation with Insight Investments Management Company (INSIGHT).

Currently, Uji is on his 6th semester at the University of Bahaudin Mudhary (UNIBA) Madura majoring in Management, Faculty of Economics. He got a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.67 on his last semester.

Uji was born in Sumenep, Madura. He is the eldest of four children in a average family. His father occupation is a farmer and a village ambulance driver, and his mother is also a farmer.

His Persistence to Take College Education

Uji wanted to take management as his major since he was in Islamic Boarding School.  However, his thoughts changed during he served at the Islamic boarding school. He prefers to find work in order to help his parents by reason of he does not want burden them. Since his parents’ income is not fixed because being a farmers their income is only when the harvest season is coming. For a village ambulance driver, his father gets a salary of IDR. 500,000 for a month. However, the salary is not paid on a monthly basis, but only for 5 months. This makes Uji hesitated going to college and eventually he makes plan to work in order to help his parents.

When Uji was serving at the boarding school, he was given information by his friends that there was a new campus in Sumenep which opened enrolment for full scholarships until graduation. Uji immediately discussed with his parents. His parents also supported him to try to enroll. Even though the current condition of his parents is mediocre, they are still supportive.

“Just try, what will happen at some point in the future, that will depend later. The important thing is to try first, study first. Sometime after finish college, you’re not the same as me.”

After discussing it, he finally got up the courage to enroll by completing various files and taking the scholarship recipient exam.

Various Obstacles in Pursuing Education

During lectures, Uji went through many obstacles. One of them at the time of Online Learning. He had to find free WiFi to study because the cost of the mobile data for online learning is quite large. He had to go to the Village Hall near his house meanwhile if the WiFi usage limit at the Village Hall has expired, he moves to another Village Hall, down to the sub-district. To do assignments, Uji must also borrowed a laptop or visit the campus lab. The limitations experienced by Uji did not make him give up on continuing to study.

To go to university in the City, Uji costs money to go. His parents also sometimes try to be able to provide transportation fee, even they owe money from neighbors to selling the existing harvest for his transportation fee. The utterance that is often thrown from his parents is “It’s okay, your college still continues. Let us fix this problem.”

 To make ends meet, Uji also started looking for work. In the 4th semester, Uji worked freelance and worked on projects in the organization. Then in the 5th semester, Uji had become a sociology teacher at Madrasah Diniyah, Madrasah Ibtidaiyah and NURUS SA’ADAH Highschool Tegal Bluto Sumenep. Uji works to make ends meet and doesn’t want to burden his parents. The income that Uji receives in a month is IDR. 150,000.

Active in Organization and Social Activities

Since the beginning of the lecture until now, Uji is active in various organizations both at the internal and external campus levels. Among them are BEM UNIBA MADURA, Senyum Desa Korwil Sumenep, BPC HIPMI Sumenep Regency, LDIT Tera’ Adhemar UNIBA MADURA, Pancasila Youth, PAC Ipnu Batu-Putih, IKSPI Kera Sakti Batuan Branch, Youth Change Sumenep, Islamic Student Association (HMI), Karang Taruna Sinar Tanjung Gedang-Gedang, and ISMA Islamic Boarding School Al-Azhar Bahaudin.

In addition to organizing, in February 2022 Uji is participating in an internship program and independent study certified Zenius batch 2 in the field of Accelerated Social Media Management Program.

Uji also often holds social activities in various organizations that he participates in. Starting from BEM, there are social activities, which cleaning the mosque. He and several students go to the village every week to clean the mosque for free. Then during the month of ramadhan, Uji and his organizational friends shared basic necessities and takjil. In its external organization, social activities are more numerous and varied. Some of them, youth organizations in the village themselves held socialization, cleaning, and also reforestation. Then activities related to disability. Uji and his friends went directly to the village looking for children with disabilities and taught them to teach and play.

Uji hopes that in the future he will be given fluency in his lectures until he graduates, and given the convenience to be even more active in studying, proceeding on campus internally and externally. When Uji graduated, Uji had a great desire to pursue a master’s degree and Uji hopes that he would get another scholarship to continue his master’s education.

Uji also expressed his hopes for YIIM and INSIGHT.

“For YIIM and INSIGHT as scholarship providers to me, first of all I thank you profusely. Second, I hope that this scholarship will not stop, YIIM and INSIGHT will continue the program of providing scholarships to students in need. Because there are so many young people who graduate from high school/MA with big aspirations, big aspirations but are constrained by economic factors. So they cannot continue to the next level of education. With this scholarship, it is very, very helpful. It can help people to go to college, to achieve their goals.”

Inspiration Greetings!