LIVING MY OWN DREAM (pt. 1) : Bridging Course program

 Holla!

A couple of days ago, I just applied for my student visa at the Belgium Embassy in Jakarta. While waiting for the visa will be granted, I am reflecting on my progress to this moment, then I realized there have been many ups and downs which construct who I am today. I am soooo happy that the days I always had dreamt and prayed a year ago, I have been living right now. Praise the Lord, thank you Jesus Christ, glory to Your name! God is good all the time.

In order to record my master's pursuit journey until I get accepted into 5 universities as well as 2 scholarships, thus I made this post. I hope some of you who might be interested to take a master's study with a scholarship can be strengthened to pursue your own dream. You are not alone and your door will be opened soon as well, just keep going. Trust me even though this journey is undoubtedly uneasy but it's worth it!

So here is the list of content I'll mention in this post(s) :

• Bridging Course, the super duper beneficial scholarship program in strengthening my English skills and indeed bridging my dreams to come true

• My version of tips and tricks to prepare for my first ever IELTS test (before the D-day test)

• What did I do on the D-day IELTS test

DISCLAIMER !! My story will be based on my experiences, so I hope you can filter which are right/applicable for you and which are not.

First of all, I would like to emphasize that even before entering the uni life, I have set a target to get a master's degree. What a wild dream for a young lady age, huh? :""D I couldn't be thankful enough that I could be surrounded by a very supportive circle during my uni life so that it burned my wild dream to be actualized. 

After finishing my bachelor's thesis in May 2022, I applied to the Bridging Course program in July 2022 while waiting for the official graduation ceremony. It was recommended by Kak Fanny (a.k.a my lovely laboratory assistant or one of my mentors, muchas gracias Kak Fann, she's really like an angel God sends for me).

Bridging Course scholarship is a joint program conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, IIEF, and LPDP. This program aims to support Indonesian prospective scholars in pursuing master's study abroad by giving a 3-month intensive English course (either IELTS/TOEFL iBT), academic writing skills, LPDP application mentorship, many overseas scholarship webinars, etc. Besides, you'll get a monthly allowance too.

The selection requirements of this program are actually changeable per year, so I think if you are interested, you had better check the official source (Kemendikbud Dikti website/Instagram account). The selection process prolly similar year after year, consisting of an administration screening (including a motivational letter) and an interview conducted in English.

In this program, I learned to practice various IELTS questions with many awardees around Indonesia online. Another—and the very ultimate benefit— from this precious program is funding to take an official IELTS/TOEFL iBT test (choose one of them according to your needs) TWICE! What a very generous program, right???? Thanks a bunch BC team (Ibu Diana, Ibu Fenty, Mbak Dita, Mas Chairy, Mr. Martin, etc) for the unforgettable opportunity you gave for me!

During these 3 months, I learned under the guidance of Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Angga as IELTS teachers in my class. They were really supportive and encouraged me to casually use English without any consideration that it would be wrong. They also often approached the students to use many pleasant learning websites.

When it came to weekends, it was the time for scholarship webinars facilitated by the committee such as scholarship opportunities from Spain, French, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Japan, and so on. Other than that, I could ask for proofreading of my essays because at that time I was really eager to apply for numerous scholarships in the first semester of 2023. My essays were checked by Mr. Martin and Pak Yos from USAID and Mr. Nadhera a PhD candidate in the UK.

During weekdays, I used my time to be spent learning IELTS with other BC fellas (Kak Savira, Kak Imas, Kak Krisna, Shania, etc). We were so ngambis at that time since each of us have different targets for IELTS scores lol ;D. Additionally, I also often revised my essays in my leisure time after asking for proofreadings from roughly 10 people! haha. Even though it was extremely exhausting and drained my energy and mentality, after receiving the acceptance results, those pains and tears paid off. I am grateful for not giving up at that time during my hardships. Big thanks to Jesus Christ and my family (especially my beloved parents) who have always been there for me no matter what happens, comfort me with love that no one could offer, heal my wound and raise me up again to climb my staircase dream! I couldn't enjoy all of this blessing without them.

Moving to the LPDP mentorship, though it's only conducted in 3-meetings, I was honored to be mentored by Pak Ronald who helped me in making my LPDP essay and interview preparation look more p̶e̶r̶f̶e̶c̶t acceptable.

Lastly, if you want to know more details about this BC program, you can stalk the community account on Instagram @/bridgingcourseawardees or drop your questions below and I will try to reply later!

For the next subtopics, I will continue on the upcoming posts because I have talked a lot on this page wuehehehe. See you there!

xx