Posting ini merupakan lanjutan dari posting sebelumnya mengenai cara penulisan essay beasiswa, namun sekarang pembahasannya akan sedikit lebih teknis. Posting ini diawali dengan video tentang bagaimana cara menjawab essay beasiswa dengan penjelasan dari Kak Budi Waluyo founder Sekolah TOEFL dan SchoolingMe. Pada video tersebut dijelaskan bahwa dalam menulis essay, kita harus memahami lebih dalam maksud dari sebuah pertanyaan beasiswa. Biasanya dalam satu pertanyaan terdapat beberapa tujuan pertanyaan yang diharapkan dapat dijawab dengan tepat oleh pelamar beasiswa, dan kita harus memisahkan pertanyaan yang memiliki perbedaan tujuan tersebut dan kemudian kita jawab satu per satu kemudian digabungkan dalam satu ide pokok utama.

Berdasarkan buku “College Essay Esential: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Succesful College Admisions Essay”, ada 2 jenis struktur dalam menjawab essay yang harus kita pahami: (1) Narative Structure: Essay ini bersifat kronologi dan memiliki hukum sebab-akibat dimana satu momen pengalaman mempengaruhi kepada pengalaman selanjutnya. (2) Montage Structure: Essay ini dimana kita menulis berbagai momen pengalaman tapi sangat mendukung satu ide utama dalam paragraf. Untuk contoh dari kedua struktur tersebut, defir berikan pada jawaban essay CCIP 2018 dibawah.

Baca Posting Sebelumnya: Pengenalan Beasiswa CCIP dan 3 Rahasia Sukses Menulis Essay Beasiswa Part 1

Naaah jika sudah tahu fundamental how to write essay seperti yang di jelaskan pada dua paragraf diatas, selanjutnya mari kita bahas tentang essay CCIP 2018 ini yang terdiri dari 15 pertanyaan jika dipecah atau 8 pertanyaan utuh jika tidak dipecah atau 6 pertanyaan jika dikategorikan. Defir mengerjakan essay CCIP 2018 ini satu bulan penuh pada November 2017 dan mengerjakannya dengan cara mencicil jawaban, target 1 pertanyaan untuk 2 hari dapat diselesaikan, tapi dalam prakteknya ada yang 1 hari menjawab 1 pertanyaan dan yang susah ada yang 3 hari untuk menjawab 1 pertanyaan. Defir sarankan untuk mengerjakan dari yang termudah ke yang tersulit (boleh acak).

Defir akan membahas essay CCIP 2018 ini per kategori, yaitu (1) Field of Study (2) Goals (3) Leadership (4) Adversity (5) Diversity (6) Time Management. Naaaah jika sudah mengetahui kategori diatas, mulailah dari sekarang perbanyaklah referensi membaca mengenai ke-6 hal tersebut dan cari pengalaman yang dapat mendukung pada setiap kategori tersebut. Sehingga nanti dalam pengerjakannya akan lancar. Yuk kita bahas satu per satu!

Field of Study: Motives & Related Experiences

#1: Within your proposed field of study, what do you want to study? Please describe in detail your specific concentration areas of interest within your field of study.

#2: Please describe your related experience within this field of study. How would this program of study build on your past education, training, and/or experience?

Untuk masing-masing pertanyaan diatas, kita harus menjawab masing-masing minimal 2 paragraf yang tujuan dari pertanyaan tersebut adalah untuk mengetahui apakah ketertarikan kita terhadap program dan konsentrasi jurusan itu sesuai atau tidak dengan tujuan dari CCIP dan ketersedian education tools dan penempatan kuliah di college nanti. Menurut defir essay ini merupakan essay yang paling vital atau sangat penting dalam penilaian kita layak atau tidak menjadi penerima beasiswa.

Untuk pertanyaan #1, di essay ini kita harus menjelaskan konsentrasi jurusan apa yang diambil beserta alasan kuat yang dijawab dengan cara straight to the point dan logic. Berikut contoh jawaban yang defir tulis dengan montage structure dan silahkan jadikan referensi namun jauhi plagiarisme yaaa:

I am eager to learn more about Business Management and Administration specifically in Marketing at a community college in the United States. I choose marketing field because it allows me to tap into my passion and most importantly, I think marketing is one of the essential elements in every business as not only it can build brand awareness, but also it can increase sales, grow businesses and engage customers. Besides, I have always dreamed of studying abroad to advance and update my training in marketing and my communication skill in English. I need to learn the specific courses in a community college which focus on social media marketing, promotion, public relation, sales management, etc. These kinds of particular subjects are barely available in Indonesia, especially in my previous education in my major of marketing. Plus, I need to experience education atmosphere in the English-speaking country to develop my critical thinking in academic writing and my speaking proficiency in English. I believe CCI program is the perfect opportunity for me to practice and learn new skills with the international language.

Furthermore, this program offers an internship abroad which is important for me to improve myself as both an individual and as a future professional. When I was in college, the importance of intern program gave me inspiration for the current digital era, and I have learned about social media marketing which I had never known before. I have shared and applied this knowledge to my current job as Consultant for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). According to data from Ministry of Cooperative and SMEs, Indonesia's SMEs contribute about 55.6% of the GDP, and the share of SMEs with e-commerce capabilities is 8%. The data shows that SME is one of the pillars of Indonesian economy as it can generate a positive impact on economic development as well as reduce the number of unemployed and poverty. For developing SMEs, the government has a program to drive 6 million SMEs Go Digital by 2020, and I want to be part of the success of the program, so I hope I could sharpen myself in marketing especially in social media marketing with CCI program.

Untuk pertanyaan #2, Di essay ini kita harus menjelaskan pengalaman yang berhubungan dengan jurusan yang kita ambil. Jika sudah S1, maka jurusan yang dipilih harus berbeda dengan pendidikan terakhir tapi pengalaman profesional, kegiatan sosial dan non formal lainnya sangat berhubungan dengan jurusan yang diambil. Jika SMA-D3, maka jurusan boleh sama dengan pengalaman yang mendukung. Poin utama dari essay ini adalah sinktonisasi dan koheren antara jurusan yang dipilih dan pengalaman kita serta menjelaskan bahwa jurusan yang kita pilih sangat mendesak, dibutuhkan dan penting untuk kita dalam mengembangkan diri, karir, dan sosial. Berikut contoh jawaban yang defir tulis dengan narative structure dan silahkan jadikan referensi namun jauhi plagiarisme yaaa:

I have started to fall in love with marketing since in the college, and I had rewarding experiences in this discipline on my previous education at Polytechnic of APP Jakarta. I am grateful that I had been on The Dean’s List every semester and won several marketing competitions. My most memorable project at the contest was about producing an innovative product from the culinary heritage of Indonesia called ‘rujak’ which is seasonal fruits with spicy palm sugar dressing and served on stone mortar, remodeling to be the Rujak Chips Mr. Chipo. My team and I were excited to learn how to create a marketing strategy as well as how to give service excellently and sale directly our product to the customer in the competition. We created not only the selling value such as a delicious taste, unique branding, and attractive packaging but also the promotion idea like beautiful display stand, sales outfit, production video, product's mascot and jingle. Eventually, because of our product design, creative marketing plan and high selling in the contest, we got the 1st winner in Innovative Product Competition at the campus level and the 2nd winner in Business Plan Competition at the national level. These achievements helped me find something I am truly passionate about, and this is the reason why I choose marketing on this proposal which I believe CCI program would give me more insight into this discipline.

After graduated, I had worked as a Consultant for Small and Medium Enterprises in a government department in Purwakarta, the 2nd smallest regency of West Java. Even though I do not directly work in a marketing department or an advertising agency, but I actively involved in helping small business grow by giving them advice about marketing and business management. It is remarkable for me to assist business owners and to provide the best solution for improving their business operation and marketing, and it made me realize that I need to develop my competency in order to be able to support them more, especially in digital marketing. According to Deloitte's research in 2016, only 9% of 57.9 million MSMEs in Indonesia use the internet to sell their products with an integrated social media or e-commerce platform. In fact, the World Bank research mentions, the involvement of SMEs digitally become one of the drivers to achieve the target of 7% Indonesia's economic growth in 2025. The data makes me think the opportunity for SMEs to explore and utilize social media and e-commerce platforms to support their business. However, I still have insufficient knowledge in this field. Thus, I need to learn more from the expert. I hope I will be able to enhance and increase my ability in marketing through CCI program for gaining bright future of my career path and be able to contribute more to the society.

After I entered the business world, I became increasingly fascinated by how marketing worked and realized a lot of marketing skills which I have to improve for pursuing my dream by joining CCI program. I demandingly need to find internationally-standardized platforms to develop myself personally and to upgrade my capacity as tomorrow’s marketing expert. Thus, I believe this program could be one of them which would provide my needs such as developing my communication skill in English, learning marketing from the expert, consulting for career development, experiencing marketing internship abroad or volunteerism in general business, and having networks from around the world. I hope this program will bring me priceless life-changing experience and generate bold motivation to play my roles as an Indonesian youth who could not only succeed in a professional career but also give positive impacts to society. Finally, I am very excited and highly motivated to become a participant in CCI program.

Goals: Short-term and Long-Term

#3:  Please describe your short-term goals that you want to accomplish during the CCI Program in each of the following areas. (a) Professional and/or educational goals; (b) Personal development goals; (c) Learning about U.S. culture and sharing your culture with others.

Pada essay ini, kita harus menjelaskan seraca rinci rencana jangka pendek kita, artinya kita harus memiliki gambaran jelas mengenai apa yang akan dilakukan, target prestasi pendidikan yang ingin didapatkan, serta budaya apa yang mau kita pelajari dan bagikan selama kita di Amerika serikat. Untuk jawaban minimal 1 paragraf per kategori. Dalam membuat goals, usahakan masuk akal dan tidak berlebihan alias SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic dan Timely).

#4: Please describe your long-term goals that you want to accomplish in the first few months upon returning home after the CCIP. (a) Professional and/or educational goals; (b) Personal development goals; (c) Sharing what you have learned and giving back to your local community after the CCI Program; (d) How would the CCI Program help you to achieve these goals?

Pada essay ini, terkait impian jangka panjang terkait apa yang ingin dicapai setelah pulang ke Indonesia dari segi karir, pendidikan dan pengembangan diri. Jelaskan pula rencana apa yang akan dilakukan setelah kembali dari Amerika dan bagaimana kita menggunakan keterampilan dan pengetahuan didapatkan dari mengikuti CCIP dan kontibusi apa yang akan kita berikan di masyarakat setelah mengikuti program beasiswa ini. Tips: Buat goal yang SMART dan jelaskan alasan kenapa CCIP ini bisa membantu mencapai itu semua.

Leadership: Characteristics and Experiences

#5: (a) What are three leadership traits or characteristics that are important to you? (b) Give an example of a time that you demonstrated at least one of these traits and improved a situation.

Pada essay ini, usahakan kita memiliki referensi yang banyak mengenai kepemimpinan dan juga paling penting memiliki pengalaman menjadi pemimpin dalam sebuah organisasi. Dari pengalaman dan pemahaman yang kita miliki mengenai kepemimpinan ini, bisa kita elaborasi sehingga essay pada bagian ini bisa lebih bermakna. Berikut contoh jawaban yang defir tulis dengan montage structure dan silahkan jadikan referensi namun jauhi plagiarisme yaaa:

In my opinion, the most essential of leadership characteristics are inspiring, cooperative and competence. First, the inspirational leaders always have a clear vision which is inspiring people to achieve goals together. They also show the quality of integrity for succeeding the organization's objectives and overcoming the community's problems. That is why they own the trust of the people. Driven by that, I have worked hard to keep polishing this leadership trait by demonstrating my clear vision, mission, and commitment to be a leader. The result is I had been elected as the leader of several organizations which focused on community and youth empowerment since in I was the middle school. For example, I was the chief of boy scout movement and vice president of students' council in junior high school, the chief of Paskibra and the president of students' council in senior high school, and the president of TPL-IKM Communication Forum in college. Yes, they were mostly small-scoped organizations, but they indeed have taught me a lot of lessons about how to become a good future leader for inspiring people to accomplish our goals altogether and empowering them to deal with the challenging situations of the community. Second, …………………………………….. Last, ………………………………………... In my experience, I mostly have met followers who have a high commitment to the organization but a low competency for doing their jobs. For example, when I was a leader for industrial scholarship awardee in college, the members of technology and information division had limited skills in journalism and website, but they wanted to overcome this situation by consulting with me as a leader. In this case, I helped them with coaching style; I gave time listening to their problems and offering advice for participating in training with the former member of the division who has competency in operating website and with a lecturer who is expert in journalism. After we organized this workshop on our campus, the division members actively update well-written news in facebook groups and website. Their posting was always helpful for educating all member of the community. In the end, I understand leadership is about the progress of follower for getting a job done successfully and achieving organization goals together.

Adversity: Challenging Situation

#6:  Please describe a problem or challenging situation in your educational, professional, or personal life and describe how you resolved it and what you learned from this situation. How did you demonstrate flexibility during this challenging time?

Pada essay ini, kita harus memaparkan pengalaman dari tantangan, rintangan atau hambatan yang pernah dialami baik itu berkaitan dengan masalah pribadi, sekolah, kampus atau pekerjaan. Dalam menulis essay ini kita tidak harus memiliki cerita yang sangat luar biasa, namun kejujuran sangat diutamakan dalam penulisan essay penyelesaian masalah ini. Ketika menulis bagian ini dan membacanya kembali, kita harus bisa memberikan elemen kata-kata emosional sehingga pembaca merasakan kesedihan atau semangat dalam perjuangan menyelsaikan tantangan ini. Berikut contoh jawaban yang defir tulis dengan narative structure dan silahkan jadikan referensi namun jauhi plagiarisme yaaa:

Because of the economic condition of my family, I had to allow my family to take a role in deciding my future because my parents said that I could never go to the college. I had to study mechanical engineering at a vocational high school which provided a scholarship and good prospect for jobs after graduation. Although I am not passionate about that field of study, I had to support my family by going to that school. For the first time, I was far away from home by bringing hope and expectation from my family. I was frightened to take care of myself in a boarding house and to keep motivated for studying. I overcame this situation by setting goals to accomplish during the study. I wrote these goals in a paper and put it on the wall of my room. The goals that I wrote are (1) get the high grades and be the best student in the class every semester, (2) get a scholarship for financial support, (3) be the leader of the school organizations, and (4) win the regional and national competition. Believe it or not, although I am not passionate about my field of study, I achieved all of these goals anyway because I had big motivation and consistent effort.

I had the moment of truth which I got during my internship in the last semester of my vocational high school. It made me realized the significant role of passion and the meaning of doing an actual job. I realized that my future should be decided by myself as well as my profession because I will spend the most of my time for the rest of my life doing it. I couldn't imagine how it feels if I always do such thing, but I have no passion for that. It is not too late for me to change my major. At that time, I decided to get a full scholarship for going to college with a major that I am excited to pursue. I knew that my passion is business and management because I always enjoy involving in activities of the various organization since in middle school, and activities related to selling something like books, cloth, jacket, etc. during my vocational high school. The accomplishment that I wrote before helped me a lot to gain the opportunity for college’s scholarship. I am very grateful that I got a TPL-IKM scholarship from Industry Ministry of the Republic of Indonesia to learn more about marketing management in college. I told my family about my passion and my achievement, and I promised them to be independent. They agreed for me going to college and said that they are really proud of me.

Diversity: Multicultural

#7: (a)  Living in shared housing with diverse, multinational participants is challenging! Give an example of a time that you had a conflict with a colleague and describe what you learned about how to be successful in resolving conflict.

Since I was little, I always have a big passion for discovering other parts of the world which I believe it would show me different kinds of people and cultures and eventually will provide me proper understanding regarding the cultural diversity in the global society. Fortunately, I got an opportunity to start exploring my curiosity in Indonesia which is the world’s largest developing archipelago country and has more than 300 tribes with different cultures. I was selected as one of 30 awardees of TPL-IKM scholarship batch 6 in Polytechnic of APP Jakarta. This program gathered outstanding students from all over Indonesia to learn and live together; I experienced studying in the same class and living together in a dormitory with them for three years. It felt like an adventure of Indonesian culture every day.

The conflict situation of the Industrial scholarship grantees was mostly disagreement in the discussion forum. That circumstance was always challenging for me as a leader of FKM TPL-IKM APP (Industrial Scholarship Grantee Communication Forum) because every member has a different voice tone and accent in speaking as well as different mindset and unique characters. For example, we discussed for preparing a cultural performance for TPL-IKM Awardee National Forum at Polytechnic of ATK Yogyakarta. As a leader, I had to take the role as a mediator of discussion to accommodate all members' recommendations. Every group member had ideas to be featured in the showcase such as members from Sumatera and Borneo wanted to perform their traditional dance, members from Ambon and Papua aspired to sing together with an ethnic instrument, and a member from Java and Sulawesi hoped to present drama and poetry. In this lengthy debate, a group member from Papua and Ambon seemed to dominate the discussion and got what they want, and the other groups appeared disappointed and had to accept this condition. In that situation, I convinced them about the importance of collaboration and the significance of the open-mindedness regardless of our religions, races, culture, and skin-colors. If we all stand together, we definitely can make a better decision to give the best cultural performance in that event. They agreed and showed me harmony by the combination of their ideas for the show. The result is the moment of the concert musical drama which contains traditional dance, song and poetry had successfully opened my eyes and my mind about how beautiful differences are and how diverse our cultural society in Indonesia is.

After I had been through this experience with the representatives from all over Indonesia, I hope for the next I would get an opportunity to experience study abroad and make a lot of beautiful moment with multinational participants across the globe in the United States. I always dream of traveling the world to become a humble and compassionate human being, and I will never get tired of putting my best efforts to make that particular dream of mine into reality.

#7: (b) Consider this scenario:  You like to study at night; your roommate likes to practice his guitar at night. How would you handle this situation? 

If we have a different view of something or a contrary habit at the same time which disturb each other, the key to resolve this situation is open-mindedness, communication, and negotiation. In this case, I want to study at night, but my roommate wants to practice his guitar at night. I will communicate our situation and my concern with him, and I will stand in his shoes about what he wants and what his motive is. I predict the alternatives that will happen are (1) I will reschedule my time for studying, (2) he will change the time for practicing his guitar, or (3) we do all of them at the same time but in the different room. However, I want to achieve a win-win solution for our situation. I hope whatever the result of our negotiation will make the best solution that is acceptable to both of us, and leaves feeling that we are satisfied, in some way, after this communication process.

Considering the scenario that will happen, I would really appreciate if he doesn't mind to change the time for practicing his guitar or figure out where he will practice guitar at night. I would be thankful to him for understanding my study habit time. It is important to appreciate what he gives to me and ask him what he wants for the exchange because I want him happy too about the result and I never want to be a friend who always put myself first.

But if I have to reschedule my time for studying, it is not a big deal for me because I can use my daily habit like waking up in the early morning as the advantage to learn college material or other. I think the morning study shift has a more positive attitude towards my studies because I have more energy which my brain is fresh and can absorb more information. Furthermore, I will persuade my roommate as a requirement of changing my study shift with asking him to study together and choose a place where we are comfortable to learn together like our study room, library, or park. For the night schedule, I will practice guitar too because I have the similar hobby with him. With spending a lot of time together, I hope it will give more opportunities to value our friendship and to make more best moments during community college initiative program.

Time Management

#8:  Consider this scenario: You have just woken up. You have an exam tomorrow which you have not started studying for. You have a class scheduled today from 2 pm to 5 pm. You have also signed up for a volunteering activity in the evening with your cohort. You have a group project for a class that is due in two days. What are your priorities and how would you organize your schedule?

Semoga pemaparan yang sangat panjang diatas dapat menjadi bahan pencerahan untuk pengisian essay beasiswa CCIP pada periode selanjutnya. INGAT! JAUHI PLAGIARISME :)) semoga sukses dan bila ada pertanyaan atau saran mengenai essay ini silahkan berikan komentar dibawah ini. Cheerss!!

P.S. Referensi lain untuk essay CCIP:
- Essay CCIP 2012 oleh Ilham
- Essay CCIP 2015 oleh Ziadah
- Essay CCIP 2016 oleh Morten
- Essay CCIP 2016 oleh Fatimah
- Essay CCIP 2017 oleh Tri Rudiyanto