[Bahasa Indonesia]

[News Column]

Coordinator: Setra Y.

Creative Staff: Dian S., Amri T.

Vision: Inspire, improve, and support education in Indonesia

Mission:

1. Plan and implement projects that would provide practical benefits to the key players in the educational system in Indonesia: educators, students, and learning/educational communities such as schools, community colleges, and universities.
2. Become the meeting point for those who have similar interests and passion for the advancement of education in Indonesia.

Indonesian Christian Orphan Scholarship (ICONS)

ICONS is a scholarship program with the mission of awarding financial sponsorship for bright and talented Indonesian orphan children to pursue higher education. This program allows deserving recipients to fulfill their potential. Upon completion of their education, recipients are expected to contribute to the impoverished Indonesian community. This scholarship is awarded to orphaned high school graduates and middle school graduates. Without such sponsorship, they would have chosen vocational school which might not allow them to continue to university. This fund is also awarded to those who are accommodated at orphanages as a result of having low-income families. The orphanages where this program is implemented are screened to ensure their credibility and ability to monitor their residing sponsored children. The staffs in each orphanage are also asked to recommend children with high academic achievement and good behavior to be candidates of the scholarship.

Support for right-based education is an important component for the long-term presence of Indonesia in the global economies, as well as to raise the standard of living of those constricted by social structure and disparity. Right-based education is rarely available in Indonesia, due to the expensive cost of education attainment. Scholarship programs like ICONS have the potential to tackle this phenomenon in a small scale and to promote the role of intellectuals in nation building. Besides bringing impact to the society, the recipients are hopefully equipped with the unique identity and skills to pass on their aspirations to their spheres of influence.

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The fund for the scholarship program is collected from generous individual sponsors who are willing to commit for a certain period time – for example, per-semester sponsorship. Besides financial support, this program uses the advantage of having the scholarship committee knowing the sponsored children in person. This allows sponsors to communicate personally with the sponsored children through correspondence. In addition to building relationships and keeping the sponsors updated, correspondence is also intended to spread the vision and the urgency of nation building in Indonesia to these future potential leaders.

This program began in July 2007 with three children selected from a particular orphanage in Surabaya, Indonesia. The said orphanage has been evaluated in contrast with other local orphanages in terms of its operations, style of education and moral guidance, along with the children’s discipline and good manner. One of scholarship recipients is now an English major at a local university, after achieving exceptional score for English subject in the final national examination (UAN). The two others are enrolled in a private high school (SMU), which is unusual for orphaned children who often opt for vocational school (SMK) due to ease of job seeking. These high school students will later have the opportunity to pursue higher education if they remain qualified for this scholarship.

Your participation and generous commitment in any form is crucial to the advancement of this program. Join us to today!

For more information, please contact:

Setra Yappi
syappi@gmail.com