It feels different when we step into things beyond our abilities, it feels different when literature students take part in hackathon competitions, and it is still different when women enter business and even lead. This was what actually wanted to be achieved in the 2023 UNESCO-UNITWIN Advanced Workshop & Hackathon program at Sookmyung Women’s University (SMU), Seoul, South Korea in November-December 2023. Bulan Churniati, an English Literature student at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University, had never expected that this program would enable her to compete on the international stage and at the same time experience traveling abroad for the first time.
This was not a trivial journey, this program required us to first be selected from hundreds of internal university students, then took part in training and whoever was the best would represent Gadjah Mada University at the international level later. It was truly an honor that Bulan must be proud of to have had this extraordinary experience, even though it might be a bit of a burden to show her best as a representative of the best university in Indonesia. The reason was, there were many creative ideas from competing countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—from ideas for making audiobooks, applications to reduce fast fashion, health, and many more. However, the student topic given required the participants to hold their heads high by discussing MSME issues which certainly produced results.
Before taking part in this training, Bulan admitted that she was still too afraid to start her own business and only focused on the theoretical enthusiasm she initiated – PKM-K about entrepreneurship, business case and business plan competitions, and creating content for other people’s MSMEs. Until APWINC came along and gave her lots of ideas, relationships and the courage to start and develop her own online shop, yes, a small step but the most meaningful in 2023. “Thank you for the support of PIKA UGM as a companion and provider of all information, FIB UGM as a beloved faculty, and UNESCO for its extraordinary program, as well as all parties involved. The word ‘finished’ will not stop my passion, but will make me thirstier to learn—wait for me here to share more stories.” said Bulan Churniati.
