On Monday, June 3, 2024, Public Relations of Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM had the opportunity to interview one of the students of Faculty of Cultural Sciecnes UGM, Haybah Shabira, who successfully passed the Semifinal selection of Student Debate League organized by PT IDN Media on May 31, 2024. The Student Debate League competition was held to celebrate the tenth anniversary of PT IDN Times as well as an initiative to encourage students’ ability to think critically and express their opinions and aspirations as a young generation. The competition invited a number of universities such as Diponegoro University, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, Telkom University, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Mataram University, Bogor Agricultural University, Padjajaran University, and others, to participate in the debate competition.

As a student of Archaeology UGM Class of 2023 from Aceh, Haybah has been involved in the world of competitive debate since the beginning of the first semester through participating in the Gadjah Mada Debating Society (GMDS) UGM and has participated in various English debate and Indonesian debate competitions. At the Student Debate League competition, he was initially interested in registering for the competition, but because the quota of representatives from the debate organization he joined was filled early, he was unable to register directly. Fortunately, one of the representatives withdrew and Haybah immediately took her place to have the opportunity to run as a representative.

As one of the representatives of the GMDS UGM organization, Haybah joined a team consisting of two different faculty students Nawfal Aulia Luthfurrahman from the Faculty of Economics and Business Class of 2023 and Meira Davina Jasmine from the Faculty of Law Class of 2023. Despite being from different faculties, they were still excited to compete together.

During the competition, they conducted research on debate motions that had been used in previous debate competitions as a learning reference. After conducting research, they will compile arguments and divide their respective work roles such as the role of the first speaker who presents the basic direction of the debate, followed by the next speaker who presents problem identification, and the last speaker who provides a solution presentation.

“So, we have a solid and clear structure for our debate and until the preparation for the final, nothing has changed, except maybe coaching from our seniors at GMDS UGM,” said Haybah explaining the preparation for the final stage.

With the final stage held on Thursday, June 6, 2024, at IDN Media Headquarters, DKI Jakarta, Haybah and members of the Student Debate League team are now representing Gadjah Mada University to compete with Bogor Agricultural University.

“I want to prove that, you know, the result of UGM’s upbringing and make UGM proud and inspire my friends, especially from my neighborhood in Aceh to encourage the courage of my friends that if you lose it’s okay, because you will reach the level that you are capable enough to reach that level.” Haybah answered about her hopes and enthusiasm to share inspiration for her friends and students to dare to try to jump into the competition.

SDGs 4: Quality Education

Culture is an inherent part of human daily life. The importance of culture in everyday life cannot be separated from its essence which plays an important role in determining the identity of a society. The formation of a community’s identity can be formed with characteristics consisting of a variety of cultural elements, including language, knowledge, and art. The element of art is the main concern in seeing the uniqueness of a culture, one of the components of art that attracts a lot of attention is the art of music.

Rafi Karninto is a 2020 Faculty of Cultural Sciences Anthropology UGM student who has produced several musical artworks that combine local cultural diversity. Rafi, his nickname, started his musical journey in 2017. Initially, he started his musical journey by covering regional songs such as the cover of the first song from Banjar, called Saputangan Babuncu Ampat in November 2017. After successfully covering his first song on the YouTube platform, Rafi started his cultural content videos on his YouTube platform by bringing cultural elements to gaming, vlogs, and dance creations.

In 2019, Rafi released his first original song titled “Pantun Tidayu”. Interestingly, this song combines three different languages: Ahe (Dayak Kanayatn), Pontianak Malay, and Mandarin. These three languages were also inspired by the origins of the three ethnic groups in West Kalimantan.

“From the beginning of creating the song, I enjoyed experimenting by blending music from different cultures into one piece,” Rafi said about the cultural musical work he has created.

Not only does Rafi sing songs in different languages, but he also arranges and orchestrates the arrangements of the songs he creates. Two of Rafi’s latest songs, titled “Pemuda” and “Jatinegara,” showcase his talent and ability in musical instruments. The song “Pemuda” was initially composed for a dance creation to commemorate Youth Pledge Day on October 28th while he was interning at the Youth Pledge Museum. In this song, he arranged the instrumentation to be adapted to the music of the 1920s era, while still incorporating ethnic elements from 7 regions that participated in the Second Youth Congress.

“As for the song ‘Jatinegara,’ the inspiration comes from my own neighborhood, Jatinegara District, which has a history from the colonial period and has interesting places to explore. The music uses Betawi gambang kromong with additional modern elements,” Rafi explained about the background of developing the song “Jatinegara,” which he created on March 9th, 2024.

From the various cultural works he has created and preserved, Rafi hopes to collaborate more with various artists and other cultural content creators in the future. He also hopes that his own works and those of cultural enthusiasts can continuously preserve local and Indonesian culture by having opportunities to showcase their works at various events.

To listen to more of Rafi’s music creations, readers can visit a dedicated page containing Rafi’s music works at this link.

SDGs 4: Quality Education | SDGs 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDGs 10: Reduced Inequalities | SDGs 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities | SDGs 17: Partnerships for the Goals

The Department of Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture at Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has once again achieved a prestigious achievement. This time, the Wignyasta UGM group successfully won first place in the Javanese Literature Reporting Competition organized by Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA). The competition took place from November 7, 2023, until the announcement on December 3, 2023, online.

The Javanese literature reporting produced by Wignyasta UGM is titled “Sapa sing Temen, Bakal Tinemu.” In this report, the Wignyasta UGM team interviewed Nini Klenyem, a Javanese literature writer from the past to the present. Nini Klenyem tells the story of her ups and downs in publishing her work. Even though she did not continue her formal education like most people, her strong determination to create brought her works to become more diverse and published until today.

The Wignyasta UGM group consists of four students of Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture from the 2023 class, namely Alma Syahwalani, Bernadetta Rahayuning Tyas, Rachel Aulia, and Dian Nitami.

Etymologically, Wignyasta comes from the word “wignyan,” which means “3 sandhangan panyigeg,” and “asta” which comes from the Javanese word for “hand.” The word “wignyan” is interpreted as having a value of 3, while “asta” is interpreted as having a value of 2, resulting in the number 32. By following the sengkalan system, the numbers are reversed to become 23. “We made it our team name to lift the 2023 Batch,” Alma revealed in an interview on Thursday (December 21, 2023).

The process of creating the report was not without challenges. Alma explained, “In the creation of the report text, we faced the obstacle of having to know and use the appropriate Javanese language level, especially when interviewing Nini Klenyem. We also faced other obstacles such as limited storage on our devices, while we had to revise the work.”

“However, Alhamdulillah, we managed to overcome all of that so that the reportation work was ready to be competed. The creation of this Javanese literature report was also not without the guidance of Ibu Wiwien (Dra. Wiwien Widyawati Rahayu, M.A), our lecturer of the “Introduction to Javanese Literature” course. She also helped in the selection of the interviewee, because we did not have much information about Javanese literature writers,” Alma continued.

With the achievement achieved by Wignyasta UGM, it is hoped that students of the Department of Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture of UGM can continue to improve their skills and knowledge related to Javanese culture, language, and literature. It is expected that students will continue to be enthusiastic in creating, as well as be able to use their time to achieve achievements. This achievement is also in line with point four of the Sustainable Development Goals, Quality Education, which is to provide and develop the quality of education.

Once again, a brilliant achievement was achieved by students of the Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture Study Program of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) who are members of Paramadaya (Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM Choir). Yudha Adistira (Batch 2022) and Abimanyu Mahendra Maladeta Darmadi (class of 2023), successfully won first place and the rotating trophy in the choir competition entitled “Christmas Choir Festival.” The competition was held at Galleria Mall Yogyakarta on Sunday (December 17, 2023).

Yudha, Abimanyu, and their Paramadaya colleagues performed the songs “Grown up Christmas List” and “Lihatlah Lebih Dekat.” The choir performance they presented invited the admiration of the audience and the jury. For this reason, Paramadaya was able to win first place and the rotating trophy.

In an interview with Yudha Adistira, he shared his experience, “At first we did not expect to be able to win the championship. Our competitors were from other universities that included the scale of the University Student Choir (PSM), while we were from the Faculty PSM. In addition, many participants were more senior and more experienced than us. Alhamdulillah, we were able to overcome these challenges and win. Hopefully, in the future, we can win first place again so that the rotating trophy can be obtained again.”

This success is proof that the Students of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at UGM can develop their potential in non-academic fields through Semi-Autonomous Bodies (BSO) such as Paramadaya Choir. The development of potential, both academic and non-academic, within the scope, of the study program, faculty, and university scope is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education, especially in improving the quality of education for the community.