My name is Lisa. I am from Hati Suci Shelter. I now study Communication Studies at Tarumanagara University.
I was born into a normal family. It can be said that I was born in a family where, when I was a child, everything was well. But since my father quit his job, the economy in my family slowly decreased. My mother works in Malaysia as an employee in a supermarket. For several years I lived together with my father. The condition of our house is good in summer, but when it rains, the roof leaks.
My father always taught me to be grateful in any circumstances. This is what always makes me live calmly and always feel sufficient. Circumstances change from time to time. After I graduated from elementary school I was recommended by my father’s friend, who was a Math teacher at Hati Suci School, to live in the Hati Suci shelter, because of the condition of my father, who was not able to take care of me properly because of the bad economy in the family. I accepted the situation, in which I had to stay in Hati Suci Shelter. I didn’t feel that I was dumped by my father. That day I thought that it was a safe place for me to live and all my needs are provided well. So I didn’t feel sad.
Since I was little I really liked dancing. My mother once told me that when I heard the sound of music, I would reflexively dance, following the tempo of the music. Because I really like dancing, I made it one of my hobbies. My other hobbies are playing guitar, environmental photography, and drawing cartoon animations. The more I get to know myself, the more I develop my hobby and learn about it.
In Hati Suci Shelter, there are additional activities during holidays. One of them is contemporary dancing. But I feel that my interest is not in line with the existing genres. I prefer to participate in Kung Fu. I think it’s better to try new experiences because dancing can be self-taught and Kung Fu is also quite useful for me to protect myself. This month (July 2021) the number of Covid-19 pandemic casualties in Indonesia is so much increased. Some activities, such as learning English, learning Mandarin, and make-up class, were all delayed.
A few weeks ago I was positive for Covid-19. I was quarantined for several weeks in one room in the shelter, together with other friends who also got infected. I am very grateful that during quarantine, all of our needs were provided well. I got food and medicine from the caregivers. Thank God, I wasn’t quarantined at home, the situation would be more difficult considering the family’s economic condition. After two weeks of quarantine, I had an antigen test, the result was negative, which means I’m healed from Covid-19. I was very grateful to God, to the caregivers, and also to my friends, who also participated in helping me during quarantine.
I am very grateful that I was chosen to be one of the recipients of the Heliconia Scholarship. I was very moved when I was told that I passed the interview test and receive this scholarship. Because during the interview I was so nervous. But I tried to cover my nerves so that during the interview, I could answer all questions well.
In the morning, minutes before the interview began, my heart was beating quite fast. But after seeing that the interviewers were very friendly, slowly my nervousness was getting less. I remember, that during the interview I was moved and cried. I was carried away by the atmosphere. The next day I was notified by email that I was accepted as a recipient of the Heliconia Scholarship. I feel very lucky. Because I firmly believe that there are many teenagers out there who are smarter than me and have special abilities, but because of the economic condition in the family, many young people can’t afford their dreams of studying. So, as a person who receives this scholarship, I will take this seriously. I will try my best to show that I am a person who will not waste this opportunity. I will do my best so Heliconia will not be disappointed in me.
I want to thank the Heliconia Scholarship Foundation, which has been helping so many people, especially in the field of education. I also want to thank the donors, who are willing to help us to pursue a better education. I understand very well that the costs which are required for college are not cheap. So on this occasion, I will give my best.
Sincerely, Lisa
Last Message from Lisa, May 2025
There were many problems during my thesis work. I once lost motivation and did not enthusiast in studying, but I tried to remember my struggle at the beginning of study and my committment to complete it. This is my responsible to finish my study as my promise to heliconia. I’m so grateful that those problems were over and finally I completed the final assignment. Commitment and responsibility are what makes me survive to complete my study.
I also grateful with the support from the mentor of Heliconia, thanks to my family also for supporting me. With so many problems that I had, I often lose the spirit to continue my study but the support from heliconia mentors for giving me a sense to be enthusiast anymore and also believe that I am able to complete my thesis. The mentor of Heliconia, Susan has given me so much of her time, energy, and mind to help me solving my problems in study and also in the orphanage.
Everything about heliconia was very good and very helpful to me. I feel so much grateful with the opportunity that heliconia has given me until I graduate Bachelor Degree of Communication. I’m proud of myself for graduating in 3,5 years of study. I hope heliconia will get more donors, so heliconia can continue to finance youngsters from orphanage to study in college. I also hope all heliconia graduates can help each other and become heliconia family.
My graduation day was on May 11th, 2025. I was very happy because in this special day, my mom came to Jakarta to attend my graduation day. It’s been two years we don’t meet each other. My mom and I live separately since 2018, after my father died. My mom lives in Semarang, Central Java, and I live in Hati Suci orphanage. In the graduation dinner, my mom was so touched meeting the Head of Student Affairs, Naomi and some mentors, also other graduates, Wina and Sevio. My mom was happy in tears seeing me graduating university. Thank you heliconia for celebrating our graduation.
I feel a bit anxious to enter the work life, because it will be new experience for me, being an employee. But I’m so thankful now I got a job as an Event Marketing Staff at Trivent Pro, an Event Organizer Company in Jakarta.
In the end, I want to say don’t compare yourself with others, do what should be done. Sometimes we are busy comparing ourselves so that we lose time to develop our abilities.
Message from Lisa, September 2024
In the 6th semester, I did an internship, I worked at a local lighting company, named In-Lite, as marketing communications. During the internship, I learned how to be a worker in a work environment with professional demands, accuracy and initiative. There were many things to do in marketing division. The process was quite complex so I need to adapt to the situation. This internship made me become more focus, both in work, time efficiency and team communication.
The thing that I thought was fun during the internship process was when the company opened a booth at Jakarta Fair (PRJ/Pekan Raya Jakarta). I was given the opportunity to do sales in the field by serving customers directly. I also had the opportunity to take part in a collaborative Art Exhibition event, the company provided the lighting for several art works. I was so happy seeing the artists creating their art works. The weakness in this semester was I needed to adapt very quickly to the work environment. Due to the demands, I must memorize all types of lighting products available in the company. After three months, I was able to memorize the type of lamp, along with the lamp code, and using the accurate website.
Message from Lisa, November 2023
In the 5th semester, I studied “Presentation and Negotiation”. This course was about how to do presentation and negotiate with the audience. I was taught the basics of doing individual presentation and group presentation. After knowing the basic theory, the lecturer gave each student the opportunity to have a turn to make a presentation about any topic. I was also taught how to get the audience’s attention when the audience starts to lose focus. After the presentation, I was required to hear constructive criticism and suggestions for the evaluation of individual presentation. For the group presentation, I got a group assignment to create a talk show about the U-19 World Cup in Indonesia. The most important things when interacting are to pay attention to body gestures, reduce unnecessary gestures, facial expressions and speaking intonation.
The experience that most enjoyable was the course “Communication Service”. In this course, students were asked to carry out community service activity that have a positive impact. I was quite tired when I surveyed several locations because at that time the weather in Jakarta was very hot. Together with my group, we did social activity for PKK (Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga), it is an social organization from the government that the members are all married women to take care about Family Empowerment and Welfare. We did a socialization to those women about how to use Gmail and Google Drive in order to maximize their daily performance, such as archiving letters, deleting spam emails, and saving files on Google Drive.
My goal for next semester is to finish the internship and complete the internship report on time. Heliconia mentors have provided sufficient guidance both in academic and non-academic problems. During their busy lives, they are still able to remember us is really cool and extraordinary!
Message from Lisa, July 2023
In semester 4, I had “Implementation of Communication and Publication” course, my class got the opportunity to held an Communication Week Event at Gandaria City Mall. The theme was Indonesian traditional outfit, Batik and Kebaya. Some participants walked on Fashion Show stage to influence the younger generation that Batik and Kebaya are fun and not old-fashioned.My friends and I, from the Business Fund Division were responsible to collect some funds and sponsors. Less than 3 months, the funds from selling foods and drinks, class treasury, and sponsorship had been collected IDR 27 million. We also collaborated with Radio Hot 93.2 FM. My friends and I went to the radio station to advertise about the event by answering some questions from the broadcasters and listeners. It was my first time to be broadcasted for the radio. Sponsors, Publications, and Crowds are the assessment criteria given by lecturers. Our event was very successful and it would not have been possible without the efforts of all my friends and supervisors.
On May 24th-28th, 2023, as a representative of my campus, I joined the comparative study to some universities in Yogyakarta. We visited Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, UPN Veteran Yogyakarta, Universitas Amikom Yogyakarta, and Universitas Sebelas Maret Yogyakarta.
Message from Lisa, January 2023
In October 20th, 2022 I became the representative from the Faculty of Communication Studies at Universitas Tarumanagara to join Public Relations seminar at KFC Indonesia to celebrate KFC’s birthday. It was a pleasure to be part in this activity. I learned about the industrial field and also how a company handles cases or problems. Most companies need Public Relations to maintain good relations between consumers and producers. I also got a free voucher from KFC for successfully answering their quiz.
The next day, at Universitas Tarumanagara, Student Representative Council held an Internal Leadership Training in Bogor. This activity was held on October 21st, 2022. The event was carried out with a vision of leadership, responsibility, togetherness, cohesiveness, and initiative from each member of DPM UNTAR (Students Council).
On October 28th, 2022 I became the Publication and Documentation coordinator for the Creadzy (Campus Advertising Magazine) work program. This event was held to build closeness and teamwork between members. In the field of publication and documentation, we did some tasks such as documenting the events, designing the certificates, designing Instagram feeds, and designing the snapgrams.
On November 12th, 2022, fifteen Hati Suci children, including me, went to Bali to perform in a choir, we sang two Indonesian national songs ‘Si Patokaan’, and ‘Ampar-Ampar Pisang’. We also sang one Kenyan song ‘Jambo Bwana’. It was the first time in my life to go by airplane, I was feeling a little bit afraid. On November 14th, 2022 we also performed at the O20 event (part of G20 event). Feeling nervous? Of course. But we were so ready for this event after many days of practice. After performing, we immediately continued our journey to B20 event for the second performance. All the performances went smoothly and we were happy because we did our best. In the evening, during dinner time, we sang together with Sanda Ojiambo, a General Assistant Secretary of United Stations. We also performed the song ‘Beauty and The Beast’. The next day, we had free time to watch the Barong and Kecak Uma Dewi Art Performances, visited the Bajra Sandhi Renon Monument, had lunch at a Fish Soup Restaurant, went to the bargain market, went to a modern shop to buy some souvenirs, and finally we visited the Sanur port which was recently inaugurated by the Indonesian president, Mr. Jokowi. It was a great experience in Bali. Together with other Hati Suci students, we also performed in a choir during Christmas.
In the third semester, there were so many assignments given by the lecturers. Especially the TV and Film Broadcast Production courses. The assigments were to create a TV variety show program proposal, designed a studio layout, and created a movie, my group chose thriller movie.
Message from Lisa, August 2022
Two weeks earlier I had just finished the Second Semester Final Exam. Before I took the exam, I took part in extracurricular activities on campus. Creadzy is the name of the organization I’m currently following. I would like to share some of my interesting experiences.
Company visit is one of the work programs from Creadzy where this activity aims to add insight related to the world of work in the advertising field. My first company visit was to an advertising agency called Future Creative Network. In this event, I have the responsibility as the contact person and host who leads the event. Being a contact person made me learn many things, starting from how to answer questions well and speak with good and formal grammar. Being a contact person is also required to be able to convey information as accurately as possible, from Creadzy to advertising agencies, and vice versa. Then a few hours before the company visit took place, my colleague and I did an offline host exercise.
The time has shown 5 o’clock in the afternoon. A sign that our company visit is almost over. All the members and representatives of the company gathered for a group photo. In my opinion, during this company visit, heavy materials were packaged in a light manner and delivered so that even sitting on a bench for more than three hours was not too boring. I learned a lot of new things that the world of advertising work is different from what most people say.
After a few weeks, I was entrusted again to be the PIC in a Job Fair event. The Job Fair is one of the biggest events of the Student Council in my university in collaboration with the five UKMF (faculty-student activity units). This event has been prepared from January 2022 to early June 2022.
Picking up, dropping off, and serving resource persons is one of the tasks of being the PIC in the event. It also taught me how to build and maintain good relationships with other people. This event lasts for nine hours. There are ten sources from several agencies. These ten resource persons cover advertising agencies, journalism, the world of photography, public relations, and the world of nature. Each resource person explained a brief 25-minute material about their respective agency and a glimpse of the world of work at the agency.
Sincerely, Lisa
Message from Lisa, April 2022
I will share the stories about my activities and busyness at this end of the semester. After I finished the midterm test, I continued my studies online. After two lecture meetings, I faced a final semester test. Of all the existing courses, everything I learned was very useful for me. I was taught to create a website, analyze internal and external communication activities for a company, and much more. Sometimes I feel bored with online lectures. The material given can indeed be listened to well, it’s just that the feeling of wanting to meet directly with college friends sometimes comes to my mind. I really wanted to experience what face-to-face lectures were like. When I was given a group assignment, it once crossed my mind, that maybe it would be different if the group assignment was done in one place together. Laughter is sometimes able to reduce fatigue when doing tasks. Even so, I don’t mind continuing to do my duty and study online.
During this pandemic, I pray for a speedy recovery on this earth. In Indonesia, the number of cases of the COVID-19 virus has also decreased considerably. I really thank God for that. A week after finishing the first-semester final test, I took a few days to watch a movie series entitled “Money Heist”. This movie is interesting because the storyline impressed me with the way of thinking and the knowledge of the characters who played a role. And without realizing it, I was digesting some everyday sentences in Spanish. I really like watching movies. When I’m bored, I can watch movies, play with friends in the field, cook snacks for friends, help the caregiver tidy up the warehouse, read history books, and learn to write Korean.
During the holidays, extracurricular activities at my campus were still running. On Monday, December 6th, 2021, I asked the caregiver for permission to go to campus for a meeting. In Indonesia, meetings outside the campus have become commonplace. And for the first time, I met my friends and classmates that day. During the meeting, I was also allowed to order food and drinks. The meeting was held at a Dutch restaurant, the name of the restaurant was “Huize Trivelli” the building and the knick-knacks of the restaurant were still very antique. When we entered the room, a Dutch song was playing. The restaurant used to come from a Dutch family. In the meeting, I was challenged to hold an advertising work program with one of the food products. At first, I was afraid, but after my friends supported me, I felt more courageous and confident to take this responsibility. I certainly don’t work alone. I imagined how memorable it would be if I could complete the experience. Interacting with people who have a broader perspective is also one of the things I really want. Hopefully, this activity can go well. Many experiences and responsibilities are given and it has been done well. From the event, I learned to communicate politely in public and to be responsible for what I got. I also learned “taichi” martial art from Tiongkok. I’m currently learning a move that uses a wooden stick.
Sincerely, Lisa
Message from Lisa, November 2021
I am a first-semester student at Tarumanagara University. I want to tell you about my first experience in college. The first time I joined class, I felt a little awkward because I had to adapt to the new environment even though I’d been chatting with my friends already through the class chat group. My friends know me as a friendly and easy-going friend. My college time was divided into two different times. Some classes start in the morning, and some classes start at noon. Because I want to be an active student, I started taking the Student Activity Unit. I want to join an organization that is related to advertising, so I chose to join the Advertising Student Activity Unit (Creadzy). In this organization, my task is to create posters and post the content on Creadzy’s Instagram account. One day, I reviewed a Korean boyband, named BTS which is loved by many people. I not only make Instagram posts, but I also think about the visuals of my content to make them look interesting and definitely keep up with the theme.
In academic activities, I am interested in participating in online seminars. The seminars I attended were not only from my campus but from the public seminars where I saw the information on Instagram. I got many pieces of knowledge from great speakers. I attended seminars about technological developments in the world and the impacts that we receive, I also attended seminars about social politics which discussed the economy in Indonesian society, and I also attended seminars starring one of the most famous actors in Indonesia, his name is Joe Taslim. He shared some tips about how to be confident when appearing in public. It’s only been a few weeks since I’ve been in college, and there are already many group assignments that must be done with a fairly short deadline. Even so, this certainly doesn’t make me lose focus, and until now I can still maintain a balance between academic and non-academic activities.
Two weeks ago, I just finished one of the complex assignments from one of my courses. In this assignment, I was required to make a speech about the condition of pure memorization. I didn’t find it difficult because I had done the exercises repeatedly and of course had memorized the material. On the day of my speech, I wear a neat shirt and ponytail my hair which will be the judging criteria. After I gave my speech, my lecturer said that I did it amazingly, even my name was an example of making a speech. Apart from that, I also participate in COVIC activities. COVIC is one of the annual programs of the Student Executive Board. I tried to register myself as a committee and I was accepted and worked on an Opinion Competition Committee. This competition event has been planned since early October and will start in November 2021. I learned many things when the committee held regular meetings every week. I learned to be responsible for the tasks assigned by them, and not only that I also learned to build relationships with many people.
Greetings, Lisa
