Never Give Up

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The most important thing to be successful is never to give up. I have proven this throughout my life. The latest proof is that I successfully got a pathway scholarship for a doctoral degree program in 2024. As many as 45 candidates get the scholarship. The program will help us to reach our goal of studying in the US in 2026.

I have been struggling and waiting around ten years to get it, which is the biggest of my dreams. I started the long journey to make my dream come true in 2014. I decided to learn English more diligently until I got a TOEFL ITP score of 500. The score was enough to get a scholarship for English training from the Indonesian Educational Ministry, the IELTS test preparation, in late 2015. The selected participants were around 40 from several universities in the entire Indonesia. We attended the full two months of training in the Language Office Centre at Gadjah Mada University.

We learned enthusiastically because the instructors were friendly and had mastered their expertise. We were given a lot of knowledge and skills for success in the test. At the end of the training, we also had an opportunity to take the IELTS official test. Fortunately, I got a good overall score of 6.5. The score was enough to apply to many universities in Australia, the UK, and the US.

Armed with the score, I applied to some universities in those countries. The peak was when I was admitted and got the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) from the University of Newcastle, Australia. Sadly, I did not get a scholarship to fund my studies there. Indeed, I almost got a Fullbright and LPDP scholarship. Nevertheless, because of my lack of speaking skills, I always failed in the interview sessions, even up to three times. It was a very disappointing moment.

I then decreased my standards. I applied to a country that did not require a high English score and without an interview, Chinese Taipei. I had a university as well as a scholarship to fund my studies. Again, I could not attend it because of another reason.

I had tried many times to make my dream come true. Unfortunately, I got nothing. Then, I stopped applying for scholarships. I hibernated for a long time, around five years, to solve another big problem I faced. At that period, I never tried anything related to the future of my career or academics. As an exception, I did not stop learning. I have been learning English until now.

Surely, I didn't surrender. In the middle of 2024, when I was 42, I tried again. I applied to the pathway of doctoral study in the US scholarship program for the second time. Finally, I was successful. I got it. I was also offered by a professor from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in the US to join her project in the PhD program.

Now, my friends and I are fighting to go to the US in 2025 or 2026. I hope everything will be okay this time. Let us pray together and wish Allah to grant our requests.

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