Hello, my name is Clara Lilianie. Everyone calls me Clara. I live in Hati Suci Shelter, Jakarta. Right now, I study Psychology at Tarumanegara University, also in Jakarta. I started college in 2019. I’m so thankful that Heliconia trusts me by giving me this scholarship. When I was told that I got this scholarship, I felt so grateful to God. I couldn’t believe that Heliconia gave me the chance to reach higher education and make my parents proud, my family, and myself. I’m motivated to become a Psychologist, so I can help everyone who has problems, who feels lonely and insecure with themselves. Because Heliconia gives me this precious chance, I promised myself that I will always do my best to get good achievements. I will prove to Heliconia that I deserve this scholarship and make Heliconia proud of me.
Message from Clara, August 2022
I just finished the 6th semester! This semester, I started to feel more tired but still excited about college life. In the last story, I was looking for an internship program but I am also interested in a research program. In December, I applied to several companies that are looking for HR Internship. At the same time, I applied to a research program at my university. I was interviewed by the lecturer and I was accepted. The next day, my lecturer invited me to do research on Belitung Island. I was surprised and happy at the same time. I’ve never traveled by plane and that was my first time. I asked permission from Hati Suci shelter and met my lecturer for the briefing session. We did the research in Belitung for four days. The lecturer told us about our purpose and the topic of the research. On the first day, we held a meeting all day long about our plan. On the second day, we provided new knowledge to the primary school teachers about IoT and STEM. IoT is known as the Internet of Things and STEM is known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and these are the learning media that we used to study about four subjects at once. STEM used a plant medium whose root development was measured by the students. On the third day, we went to the public senior high school to give counseling to students about resilience in adolescence. On the last day, we went back home.
In March, I was asked to help the lecturer to do research again in Salatiga, Central Java. We went there by bus. Our team was 11 people going to Salatiga. We gave the knowledge about STEM to the primary school teachers who teach grades 4, 5 and 6. We did an interview with the teacher after the session to ask their opinion on STEM being applied in the school. We interviewed four teachers. One of those teachers said that if STEM is applied, it will be hard because she is worried about the security of the students. Students are not sufficiently responsible to maintain the equipment. I was so happy in Salatiga because my classmates, Audi and Ajeng also join in this research. Audi was my roommate and she is a very nice person. We shared a lot of stories and we were happy about that. In Salatiga, we stayed about three nights before we went back to Jakarta.
At the beginning of July, Ajeng and I were invited to go to Solo, Central Java. My lecturer did research on students’ character and traditional dance. We want to see if the students who learns traditionally may have a different characters than those who are not educated in the traditional dance. We went to Solo by train. It was my first time being on a long-distance train. We departed at Gambir Station at 21:00 and arrived at 04:00 o’clock the next day. My lecturer is very kind to me and my friend. We tried a lot of traditional foods and she bought us batik skirts. In this research, we interviewed the students, parents, and the teacher at the dancing place. The dancing place is called ‘Sanggar Tari’. We visited three Sanggar Tari and did the interviews. My friend and I interviewed the students. We asked them about their interest in traditional dance, how they manage their time, their desire to learn about traditional dance, and how they can be balanced at the school and the Sanggar Tari. I was amazed by them because, in this era, they still kept the heritage of their culture. They are just kids and teenagers. From the interview session, I got new knowledge about traditional dance. Two weeks later, we went to Yogyakarta. But, Ajeng couldn’t join us because she was positive for Covid-19. In Yogyakarta, we visited two Sanggar Tari and the results of the interview gave us little differences from the Solo results. The students in Yogyakarta are quieter than the students in Solo. In Yogyakarta, I visited the Kesultanan Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta palace), there were many tourists visiting the palace. Our guide said that the tourists came from many countries, such as the Netherlands, France, Spain, etc. I also visited the Vredeburg Fortress. I loved seeing the diorama about the history of Indonesia. This semester, I’m very grateful because of the research, I could visit many places and cities I’ve never been to.
Greetings, Clara
Message from Clara, 2021
Time flies so fast. It feels like just yesterday I started my campus journey and now I just finished my final exam of the 5th semester. I often think about how lucky I am to get the opportunity to study through the Heliconia Scholarship Foundation. This semester, I studied 5 chosen subjects, they are Forensic Psychology, Family Psychology, Business Law, Criminal Law, and Social Media Analysis. I chose those subjects because I love to watch Korean Drama. My favorite Korean drama is about some cases related to law and forensic psychology. In the Family Psychology subject, I learned many things. I learned about marriage life, family communication, and also how to deal with a disabled child in the family. I chose Social Media Analysis because, in this era, everyone uses social media for their daily activities. In Law subjects, I sometimes struggled in studying and I always asked Labi, one of the other Heliconia students, to help me. Fortunately, Labi is always willing to help me and I am grateful for that.
In Indonesia, Covid-19 cases are significantly decreased. Public facilities start to open normally and some schools have started face-to-face learning. I still do online learning, only some student organization activities can be held on campus. My friends and I as Cathecumen Facilitators from the Catholic Organization collected some donations for people in need. I was entrusted to serve as Legio Mariae Coordinator. I like religious activities, and this activity fulfills my passion to serve God. My job desk is to organize the weekly meeting, provide the meeting link and remind all members to join the meeting. Unfortunately, the secretary position is vacant so I had to do the minutes of the meeting.
Now I am looking for a vacancy for an internship program in a company. If there is no company that opens an internship program for me, then I want to apply to do research. I really want to take the internship program, because I really want to know about the company culture, the organization structure, and face the real issues and how to handle it. But research isn’t that bad too, we will learn and collect the data in real situations.
In September 2021, Heliconia held an online fellowship. At the beginning of the fellowship, I thought this event would be so boring because we just met online. But it was totally wrong. I love the fellowship so much. I hope that Heliconia Family will grow bigger day by day.
Sincerely, Clara
Message from Clara, 2021
I finished my final exam for the 4th semester in June 2021. I wish the results are good and satisfactory to me. I can’t go home since March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It makes me feel so tired and sad at the same time. I want to go home so bad. Sometimes, my mom comes to visit me in the shelter. I felt so bad for my mom because she walked too far, and her foot was in pain. I think my mom forced herself just to meet me. I hope this pandemic will end soon.
We still study online during pandemics and my eyes sometimes get sick because of the laptop screen. The subjects of this semester were difficult enough, we got many exercises and projects. But I believe those exercises and projects will be good for my future. My favorite subject this semester is Social Psychology, and the lecturer is very kind. Her explanation is very simple and quick enough, so we can understand the materials very well. One day, my laptop was exposed to rain and I couldn’t turn it on, so I had to go to the service center to fix it. The cost was expensive for me. I cried a lot and promised myself to keep my laptop very well.
Although we did online classes, we sometimes hold some organization events so we can visit the university. On campus, I join Catholic Organization for students called KMK Adhyatmaka. People in this community are so kind and nice. They are very welcome to me and I am so happy. In this community, my position is a Catechumen Facilitator. Catechumen Facilitator is a person who accompanies the frater to teach the candidate who will get Catholic baptism. This time we had 14 candidates who were baptized. After they were baptized, we must hold a spiritual service. They choose to hold an event in a prison. We did an online meeting event with the prisoners. They were so excited, we are very happy with their responses. We worshipped God together, played games, and sang together. We plan to hold this event again next month.
I also join the retreat in April 2021. To join this retreat, we must pass the selection because not everyone can join. I am so proud of myself because I passed the selection. Many of my friends want to join but not all of them can be accepted. The retreat was online for two days, it was so tiring but also fun. I got new friends.
For the next semester, I will study some subjects in another faculty. I think it will be very exciting. We will get a new challenge. I want to take Law subject and IT subject. I wish I can pass the next semester well.
In the shelter, when the holiday came, other children and I helped the kitchen crew to prepare the vegetables. We did it with fun, talking to each other so we didn’t get bored. We had bad news too. Because Covid-19 cases in Indonesia increased so quickly, some children in the shelter were positive for Covid-19 and they must be isolated for 2 weeks. Fortunately, I didn’t get infected. For the children who were not infected, we were very busy because we had to replace them doing the chores. To avoid getting more cases, we have to wear masks for 24 hours to protect ourselves.
Sincerely, Clara
Message from Clara, 2021
First, I want to say thank you very much for giving me a chance to get higher education in Indonesia. I promised myself that I won’t disappoint people who care about me. I am very happy and excited to learn new lessons. I have been accepted to Tarumanagara University, one of the best Psychology Major in Indonesian private universities.
This University has some values, it’s called EPIC: they are Entrepreneurship, Professionalism, Integrity, and Caring Community. All Psychology students must have those values. I joined an extracurricular called Mnemonic Club. In this club, we can create or join a psychology competition, such as debate, and also discuss any psychological issue that is happening now, movie analysis, etc.
The lecturers are good, funny, honest, humble, and intelligent. I have some close friends in my class, they are Meicy, Febe, Ajeng, Christo and Wilson. They are so good to me, very helpful, and teach me a lot about their personality. My favorite friend is Ajeng. She is good, humble, smart and she has a beautiful smile. She is very funny and cheerful too. So far, the subjects in my major aren’t very hard, but I still need to study well and read my books.
In my major, I get so many projects. Usually, I make a group project, so we can share our tasks to do the project. This is my first story, I hope you like it. Thank you very much. God bless us always you.
Sincerely, Clara
Message from Clara, December 2020
I finished the final exam in early December 2020. In the 3rd semester, I think the materials were more difficult than in the 2nd semester because we studied fully online. There was one course which difficult for me, the Quantitative Research Methods course. When I did the project, my friends and I were divided into groups. We must do research for 3 months. Our topic was about “sleep quality of the college students in Jakarta during pandemic”. Before we started the research, I thought it would be easy. But I was wrong. This research was so difficult, especially when we counted the results. We must recode their variation answers into numbers, it was so tiring. Then my friends and I decided to have a meeting to discuss our research at Central Park Mall. Because of this research, I often went to sleep at midnight. When our research was done, I was so happy and I wish my group will get a good score.
I had my favorite course too, which was the Psychology Assessment Practice course. In this course, we practiced being a psychologist and learned how to solve our client’s problems. I always got high scores in this. My lecturer is a detailed person and very humble. She gave us the best advice to improve our skills, she always appreciated our efforts. My friends and I as a group did a project to interview a psychologist to get to know further information about the psychologist’s job desk. Luckily, our interviewee was a good person and we really enjoyed the interview.
On Christmas Day, I didn’t go back home because the pandemic is not over yet. In Indonesia, the covid-19 cases increase every day. If we would to go back home, we must do a PCR test which costs is expensive. I miss my mom, but I couldn’t force myself to go home for now. I hope this pandemic will be over next year. On the other side, I registered myself to be a member of the Christmas committee in college. The event was held online on December 24th, 2020, and I became the master of the ceremony. That was my first experience and I was nervous. I often practiced to improve my skill, and the leader of this event said that my skill has improved well.
In the shelter, my friends and I who were not go back home during the holiday, watched the movie every night, which was enough to cheer us up. We created the Christmas tree together and it was so beautiful. We also cooked some snacks for us to eat together. It was so funny. I hope next year I can study on campus again to meet my friends and go home to meet my family.
Greetings, Clara
Message from Clara, June 2020
I finished the final exam of the 2nd semester in May 2020. In February, before the Covid-19 pandemic spread in Indonesia, I had a ‘live-in program’. ‘Live-in’ is a program from the university for the students to live together with the residents inland for several days to learn from their lives, do their work, increase my empathy for other’s life, etc. I lived in Ciherang, West Java for 3 days in one of the resident’s houses. My friend, Meicy, and I lived in Dede’s House. Dede is the first daughter in the family whose house we ‘lived in’. Dede lives with her parents and her brother. Her parents work as farmers and they have livestock to sufficient their lives. Dede is a shy girl, and she is nice too.
One day, I asked Dede about her dream or her ambition in life, she said to me that she has no dream because she graduated from elementary school only. Her parents don’t have money to pay for her education. I was so sad and grateful at the same time. I was sad knowing her condition makes her stop dreaming. In Indonesia, education isn’t spread well inland. I’m so grateful because Heliconia Scholarship Foundation supports me to continue my study at university to reach my dream. I encouraged Dede to never stop dreaming because there is always hope in our life. In Ciherang, Meicy and I helped Dede’s mother in the rice fields by pulling weeding. That was the best experience I ever had because I could learn about new things and be grateful for everything in life by living together with the residents inland. Three days later, we must back to Jakarta again. I was sad because they were so nice to us. I said to them that I will come again to visit them someday.
In March, when the government gave an announcement to the citizens to stay at home and we got lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I started studying from home, which means I study from the shelter. All of the Hati Suci shelter members can’t go home for several months because it’s too dangerous for our families and there is no guarantee if all of us will get affected or not if we go home. A study from the shelter makes me happy because I don’t need to wake up early and use public transport to go to campus. I spend time playing with my friends in the Hati Suci shelter, they are like little sisters to me, sometimes I help them if they have homework from school.
I also helped the teachers at Hati Suci School (the school which is inside our shelter) to supervise the exam in the classroom because of limited computers, so we did an offline exam. Every morning, we do routine exercise to keep our bodies fit and we learn some recipes to make snacks. We are so proud to learn something new in this pandemic situation. On the other side, I feel so sad because I can’t meet my friends, my mother, and my big family. I miss them so much.
On May 28th, 2020, we celebrated Carli’s birthday and I was so happy about that. I wish Carli gets all of the best things in this world. She is a hero to me and to the other members of the Heliconia Scholarship Foundation. This is the end of my story during the 2nd semester. I hope everybody who reads this is in good condition. Thank you.
Greetings, Clara
Message from Clara, 2020
I finished my final exam in the 1st semester. The results were good enough, I must get better results next semester. Until today, I still can’t believe that I am a college student. I am so thankful for Heliconia’s kindness. I want to tell you about my final exam. In Positive Psychology class, my team and I made a video about sexual harassment. Hati Suci shelter and the campus were the places where we did the video shoot. We posted the video on YouTube and shared the link to get some likes. Our group didn’t get many likes but thank God we still got B scores. In Communication Psychology class, my group and I did a presentation, and we got an A score. I was so speechless and happy because that was my first presentation task in college.
After the exams were finished, we got a new project for Philosophy class. We went to Blok M and Kota Tua Jakarta (the old part of town) to find out about something digression as we could. It was so funny but tiring too. We started our trip from 8 AM until 3 PM. This field project was aimed as a social project, in collaboration with Hati Suci High School. My friend Dicky and I later presented our project report that we got from the field to the students in Hati Suci High School.
After the project was done, we had holidays. My mother and I went to Lampung in Sumatra Island. I was very happy because I met my cousins, my nephews, and my grandma. I came back to Jakarta in the new year. Now, I just started the 2nd semester, I believe that it will be fun because I am ready to face the new journey. In Indonesia, people talk about Corona Virus and it scares me. I hope you are fine and stay safe there. See you.
Sincerely, Clara
