Why I decided to pursue LPDP Scholarship to continue my education in early childhood
I always knew I wanted to pursue my education more than just a bachelor's graduation. This motivation instilled firmly in my mindset since I was in vocational high school. This realization comes after the fact I would be the first in my family to receive the title when I graduated from university.
Coming from a family whose parents never experienced higher education, they became the main source of my motivation to aim bigger. Even though research suggests people whose parents did not hold a degree and joined the labor straight out of high school were more likely to believe that a college degree was not worth the money, my parents are the opposite. They believe that college or graduate school is valuable as a good career even though they obtain no college degree at all. A study published by the U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics explained that in students who enrolled in public four-year universities, 45% had parents with college degrees and 26% did not. The findings show how U.S. students' college enrollment is influenced by their parent’s educational background.
Yet, luckily as an Asian family, education is a key for us to thrive in life.
Why Master in Early Childhood Education? 🌻
Graduating from Indonesia’s first-established ECE program at Universitas Negeri Jakarta gave me eye-opening knowledge.
I learned through years of study and research in university that education is a vital key for children starting way before their born. The life of children started not when they are delivered out of the womb, instead it should be prepared from the pre-marriage period. The way future parents prepared their physical and psychological aspects to choose the right partner, face parental roles, and participated in their descendant's development is part of ECE itself.
Not to mention the topics covered in ECE such as learning media, cognitive development, behavior analysis, pedagogy practices, and a lot more to uncover.
The importance of ECE has brought me to the topic of learning media. Personally, as an ex-student in Visual Design Communication major *cough cough* the process to develop creative learning media for children really intrigued me. It’s not only about aesthetics but usability as well. Not to mention in this fast-changing world, our kids are becoming digital natives in one night. How are we going to cope with that?
That’s why I didn’t go straight to pursue a Master’s degree last year after graduation. Besides, I aim to study abroad because my research topics are still uncommon lectures in Indonesia, even in my own university. I realized to make the dream come true I need to prepare myself with stable financial support and also experienced the industry so I know what’s the real problem I’m going to face in the future. Working in Koding Next is my option to step on this ladder for my ambitions.
After a year of preparing and practicing in the ed-tech industry, I’m finally ready to step ahead as a scholarship hunter. LPDP is my top priority at the moment and I’m prepared to join their second term of opening this July-August 2022.
Why I Choose LPDP? 🌱
I believe as lifelong learners, we have to give back and contribute to the community on whatever platform we have. Because my aspiration is to incorporate an ICT into the Early Childhood process and explore STEAM learning, I realized the capacity of doing so would be possible if I climb a ladder to the lectureship. My recent work is an amazing spot for me to learn from the best practitioners in ed-tech, but it ain’t the proper place for me to pursue my goals. UNJ (formerly known as IKIP; Institut Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan) is infamous for a higher education to produce qualified teachers and educators across the country. Being a lecturer and researcher at my alma mater is my main goal to implement the vision.
Speaking about scholarships, I’ve already done some research regarding what kind of funding would work for my study.
LPDP is #1 on the list. Firstly, because LPDP is fund management where its funding comes from our own taxpayers. Therefore I hope once my master’s research is implemented in large-scale policy in Indonesia, all the taxpayer’s money would be paid off. Value beneath LPDP itself is also the one I’m looking for in a scholarship environment. Moreover, LPDP has more complete coverage of the overall costs to study abroad. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’alla make it easier for me to be accepted as one of the awardees.
What Universities Do I Intend to Apply? 🎓
There are 3 universities and programs I selected to continue my postgraduate degree:
- UCL Institute of Education — Early Childhood
- Harvard Graduate School of Education — Learning, Design, Innovation, and Technology
- Stanford Graduate School of Education — Learning, Design, Technology
After doing some research and browsing through their course catalog, I believed those schools are the right choice for me to learn and develop a tool and/or curricula to integrate ICT into the ECE process. Guess I don’t have to blabber too much about their well-known QC World Ranking.
Some people asked me: why I chose UCL as the first option? The answer is quite easy actually. Because UCL is ranked #1 for Education Subject 9 years in a row! Additionally, UCL is equipped with its Innovation Lab and Helen Hamlyn Center of Pedagogy. Oh, another thing is, tuition fees and living costs in the UK are way cheaper rather than on the Ivy League campuses so it might be another consideration for me to choose UCL first among other available options 😂.
. . .
Alright, I think this is the end of the first part of my Master’s degree journey. I’d like to add part 2 soon!
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