Hello, I’m Sherly. I lived in Hati Suci Shelter for 12 years, since I was 6 years old. Then I got the Heliconia Scholarship to study Psychology at Tarumanegara University from 2012 until 2017. I think education changed my life economically, psychologically, and morally. After graduation, I’ve been working for three years as a recruiter for the Human Capital department of an agribusiness company. Now that I work in recruitment, I know for myself that I select candidates to join the company, based on their educational backgrounds. These are the main criteria. Therefore, that I had the opportunity to study at the university is very valuable to me. Because studying at university has opened my way to dream bigger and become an independent person. I hope that the Heliconia Scholarship Foundation will open more opportunities for many more youngsters like me. I’m very grateful to the sponsors and all members of the Heliconia Scholarship Foundation.
Last message from Sherly, 2017
Firstly, I want to apologize for the delay in writing this report, because my dad died. So, I had to take care of everything, and I also just got my graduation certificate this week. Gratefully, thank you very much to Heliconia Foundation and everyone who supports my study at university since 2012. Especially Carli, Mili, Naomi, and everyone in Heliconia Foundation. I feel grateful for your support both financially and morally, and give hope in my life by giving opportunity for me to study at university.
Now, I work as a Human Resource at Dwidaya Tour since May 8th, 2017. This year is a year that I will never forget because of many impressive events and new experiences in my life. As long as I write the monthly reports since 2012, several times I often talked about my father who had heart disease. My father was the best father in my life, he is the number one person who always supports me to study at college. After the heart surgery, he had treatment for 2 months, on May 24th, 2017 my father passed away, and I believe God will always give the best for us. I graduated college in the same month that my father died. When I celebrated Graduation Day, my father was still hospitalized, that day was a very eventful day. We had to get back in time to meet my father after graduation, and we did not tell him that I was graduated that day, because I did not want him to be sad for not attending it.
My mom, my sister, Mili, the orphanage caretaker, and my friend came to my graduation. Because of them I was very happy and amused even though my father was still sick and could not come. I was so speechless that day. I was sad, touched, feeling wonderful, feeling relieved, embarrassed, and scared because I finally graduated and will study independently in the real world.
This is will be my last report, getting a scholarship from Heliconia and receiving support from everyone, greatly transformed my life into a better person. Once again, thank you very much for everything. Now, I can work according to my major at the university. I am very grateful for my life. All thanks to the help of the Heliconia Foundation, and in the future, I also want to be like your organization, which can help many people to have a better life. God Bless You and always grow to be a great foundation for many people.
Very sincerely, Sherly
Message from Sherly, 2016
In the final exam of the ‘Psychology of Art’ class, my friends and I did a drama performance. The title of our drama was ‘In a Room’, it was about a person who experiences hallucinations of schizophrenia. Besides drama, we also have a painting exhibition. We exhibited our posters about psychology that we painted.
My thesis was about “The Psychological Well-Being of Adults with Albinism”. I did interviews with some respondents for data retrieval. When I did the thesis, I felt so complicated and found it difficult to do the research. I had some trouble getting the respondents because there were only a few people with albinism, and not all of them are interested to be met for the interview. Some respondents also did not match the criteria to be my research respondents. However, I enjoyed every new experience that I gained during the thesis research. I became familiar with many new people, new life stories, and many more that I could learn from them about life.
During this semester I also still do ballet dancing, at the end of May we did a dance performance at a wedding. I also did a TOEFL test as a graduation requirement at my university.
In October I finished doing the research for my thesis. I had the thesis exam on October 11th, 2016. I did a presentation about my research and answered some questions from the examiners. I was so nervous and exciting.
In November 2016, I had a plan to do an internship in Human Development. But I was sad that I could not take the internship because my father suddenly got a heart attack, so I preferred to take care of him until the surgery time.
My graduation day will be held in May 2017. Thank you very much to Heliconia Foundation and everyone who supports my study. I feel so grateful for your support both financially and morally, also gives me hope for a better life by giving me the opportunity to study at university.
Sincerely, Sherly
Message from Sherly, 2015
In June 2015, Hati Suci Shelter held an annual event, named “Pasar Murah” (cheap market) to help poor people around the shelter area. At that event, my friends from college and I helped them by selling food, clothes, and other household needs. The bazaar was so crowded and fun.
From August 18th to October 2nd, 2015 I studied Psychodiagnostic II. I learned about the tools of psychological tests: such as Edward’s personal preference schedule, sixteen personality factors, the Sacks sentences completion tests, Kraepelin, Baum test, House Tree Person test, draw a person, Wartegg-Zeihen test, and thematic apperception test. This subject was very interesting and enjoyable. The test results helped me to understand myself before I understand others (my client), I need to understand myself first.
In November 2015, I studied Psychology of Art. I learned the history of art, especially painting. Painting activities according to the theme and the various works of art. This course was very pleasant. Psychology of Art will be used for Art Therapy, it is necessary to understand the historical development of art and the experience to paint a picture. I also needed to paint in this class. The first theme was “a place to go”, I drew a tulip because I wanted to go to any place which has many tulips. The second activity was the art of collage, we made a work of scrap materials, such as a basket from old magazines and handbags from old jeans. In the third activity called “mandala”, I painted four seasons landscape. In the mid-exam, we had to make posters by painting any psychological themes.
During this semester, I worked on the thesis proposal. I had the Proposal Thesis Test on October 12th. I met my guidance lecturer every Wednesday to help me write the proposal.
Sincerely, Sherly
Message from Sherly, 2014
This semester, I needed to teach Physics at Junior High School. As a teacher, I had to analyze what did I need to teach Physics, the aspects of child development, the barriers of teaching programs, the teaching methods, and the teaching successes by giving written test forms to the students. I had to make a report about the teaching plan and did a presentation for the final exam at the university.
My friends and I donated 100 books for Hati Suci’s library (the shelter where I lived). My friends often join “The Writer and Writing Competition” and I often help them by giving ideas for their books. The publishers (from the competition) provided 100 free books that we could take to the library. We were so happy. Hati Suci Shelter also held a Christmas event in January, that event we met the caregivers and the alumni of Hati Suci. The theme of that event was “The Most Beautiful Gift”.
In January 2014, I was sad because my campus got flooded; because of that, my ballet training was canceled several times. But at the end of January, I was happy because I celebrated Chinese New Year, I went to my relative’s houses to receive Ang Pao (the money inside the red envelope in Chinese tradition).
On campus, there was a Musical Drama Show, the title was ‘The Upik’s Dream’. I did a ballet performance at that event. That was a big event and very attractive. On February 8th, there was also a seminar about Entrepreneurship. I joined the seminar and we discussed how to become a good entrepreneur.
From March to April I had a Clinical Psychology class. I learned how to be a good interviewer, counselor, and observer. At the end of class, there were Badan Narkoba Nasional (National Drugs Council) and Tzu Chi Organization (Social Organization) which explained The Danger of Using Drugs and how Psychologists help drug users. They gave us an explanation of some cases. The psychologist has an important role to handle narcotic or drug cases.
On April 24th, I had an Organizational and Industrial Psychology class. I learned about human resources management, job analysis, organization, job desk, and job description. I learned about how Psychologist works in the company.
Sincerely, Sherly
Message from Sherly, 2013
From December 11th to February 10th, I spent the holidays with my family. My sister just graduated from college. My family attended her graduation day on December 19th, 2012 at Jakarta Convention Center. I was so proud of her.
On Christmas day, my sister and I sang at the church. It was very interesting and fun and it was my first experience singing on Christmas day with my sister. I also visited my uncle’s house and played with my nephew.
I had Developmental Psychology subject, it was very interesting because I learned about myself, about my experiences, and about others too. We had a discussion in the classroom. I also had a Psychology Personality subject. We discussed the theory, watched psychology movies, and made analytical reports. At the end of the semester, we did a presentation about Character Personality Psychology. It was more interesting than other subjects. The material helped me to adapt to the social situation and how to face certain personalities. It was also about how past lives influence people’s personalities.
This semester I have a task as a group assignment. Our topic for the assignment was the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer in women. The respondents were some students in Junior and High School. We found that many students do not know about the HPV virus. It’s because the cognitive dissonance occurs that between attitudes and behaviors is not unidirectional: their attitudes are positive but their vaccination behavior does not exist. I made an intervention so they know more about cervical cancer, its causes, and how to prevent it.
My faculty will hold a Musical Event on November 30th, 2013 I can’t wait to participate in this event, especially doing the ballet performance. I took ballet training every Monday and Wednesday. I must learn new dance movements for seven different dances. I enjoyed the ballet exercises but was also tired because I had to memorize the movement and also study at the same time.
I want you to know that I’m in a bad circumstance. My father has Heart Disease, so my family looks for an alternative treatment to heal my father. I was so worried about him. My father was hospitalized for 10 days because his heart is getting worse. But I’m very happy now because my father is already home and getting healthy again.
Greetings, Sherly
Message from Sherly, 2012
I want to say thank you to Heliconia for trusting me by giving me the scholarships. I am very pleased and very excited to learn. I started my study on August 13th, 2012 at Tarumanagara University as Psychology major. In the first week, the university held an event to welcome all new students. I was introduced to Tarumanagara University and the teaching system. During the event I had good impressions of the university; the seniors & friends were friendly, well supported, and willing to help new students, lecturers were good, honest, and intelligent. They hope someday the graduate students will have the best competency to think, speak and write. We should be active students in the campus organization to make us more intelligent and able to communicate well. The university also held a workshop for parents, they were invited to this event to listen to some explanations about the learning system, the psychology department, and the student activities such as choir, ballet, and theater.
College life was busy. I was tired because I must attend many lessons from morning to evening. It was about 8 hours a day and the distance from my house to campus was also far. However, now I got used to it. I got some public lectures with a huge number of students, it was about 150 students. Too many students made me not focus on learning, especially Philosophy subject, the material was given ineffectively. Philosophy has many terms or phrases which are difficult to understand. However, I will study harder for this course and always evaluate the materials from the lecturer.
I joined the student choir and had a rehearsal to prepare our performance every Thursday from 5 pm until 7 pm. This is a fun activity, we have started to perform in various events such as Psychology Workshops 2012 and Graduation Event of Psychology.
From October 19th to 21st 2012, we went to Cipelang, West Java, to have a course about The psychology of Group Dynamics and Communication. It was about 6 hours from Campus to Cipelang by bus, and we still needed to go forward by public transportation and hiked the hill. I was so tired of carrying my backpack while walking on the rocks and hiking. We needed to hike per group and must solve the challenge or question at every stop. The next day we hiked to Mount Gede Waterfall. This activity was aimed at all students working together and solving problems in a team. I was happy because I got some new friends.
Greetings, Sherly