From a simple thing like a smile to everyone I meet to giving back to the community by getting involved in many volunteer-based organizations, I always try to be “the miracle”

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” To be honest, I could not agree more with him. I strongly believe that every single one of us, especially the youth, has the capacity to bring change to our community, our country, and on the larger scale, to the world. This point of view has led me to become “Puteri Kampus Indonesia 2009.”

The competition started in July 2009 when 800 college students from all over Indonesia sent their applications to Yayasan Putera Puteri Kampus Indonesia. Then, on the 24th of October, 60 short listed candidates were invited to a preliminary round that was held at The Cempaka Room, Apartemen Istana Sahid, Jakarta. The very next day, 48 semi-finalists were interviewed and in the end 24 students, 12 male and 12 female, were chosen as the “24 Finalists of Pemilihan Putera Puteri Kampus Indonesia 2009”. It was such an honor that, among those 24 finalists, I was one of them.

From 6th of November until 10th November, I spent 20 hours of my life each day attending seminars, visiting an atomic reactor, a publishing company, making social visits to orphanage, and getting involved in many heated discussions about politics, tourism, public health, agriculture, and, of course, education. During every activity, we were always accompanied by one of Indonesia's most influential leaders, including Dra. Mien R. Uno, Ibu Lusiana and Prof. Poerwanto, to mention just a few.

Those activities were interesting as well as very tiring and every single one of them forced me to maximize my capacity to think, analyze, and solve problems in an extremely quick way. Then, on the 8th of November, in front of 8 judges- all of them experts- I was requested to present my ideas and the paper I had written before on the subject of stem cells, cigarettes, and nuclear medicine. One of the judges even asked me, “If you were the Minister of Health of Indonesia, what would be your priorities to overcome health problems in Indonesia”. Well, as you can see, this contest was not simply a beauty pageant.

10th November 2009 was the Grand Final. After spending 4 long, long days with the other 23 overachieving students from 14 universities, it was time for me to show the public what I had learned. The Grand Final was 3.5 hours long. In the end, Ibu Exacty, the Chairwoman of Yayasan Putera Puteri Kampus Indonesia announced that I had been chosen as the winner of this year's “Pemilihan Putera Puteri Kampus Indonesia”. I was really surprised, excited, and thankful at the same time. It was such a great thing to bring honor to my friends, family, and, of course, to my campus.

My job as Puteri Kampus Indonesia does not end there. It is just a beginning, a beginning of my long-term dedication to the development of higher education in Indonesia.

Dian Anggraini
Puteri Kampus Indonesia 2009
Biomedical Engineering, Semester 5, Swiss German University

Notes:
Dian is already a national champion in general knowledge (UI National Competition) as well as a scholarship exchange student with the U.S. in her senior school. In addition, she is a highly active member of BEM who gives freely of her time & help other SGU students in their studies. For Dian, simply 24 hours in a day are not enough!