2019
UPH Students Demonstrated Creativity as an Asset in the 21st Century.
To face the challenges of the 21st century, today’s youths no longer rely on conventional assets that are usually seen as indicators of success. Money, treasure, and cars are no longer the deciding factors for someone’s success. In this era, there is a leading asset that is loved by youth: creativity. Creativity is now an asset that supports life.
In the Kafe Kita event held at Radio Heartline on September 19, 2019, Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) student and alumnus were present to answer how creativity equips youth to lead the nation. Felicia Silas, UPH Business School alumnus and author at LINE Webtoon, and Agnesia Cahaya, UPH Design Product 2015 student who transformed her final project into a large-scale business, were present at the event.
Silas and Cahaya started by chasing their hobbies. They are UPH students who persevered to channel their creativity into their hobbies.
Silas explained, “Before becoming an official Webtoon author, I entered my Webtoons for free. It was just me channeling my hobby because I love to draw.”
Several months after, Silas was contacted by the manager of Webtoon to offer her a position as an official Webtoon author who will have a special column In Webtoon. This is the start of her professional career.
Similarly, Cahaya’s business started because of her final project. The final project enlisted students to create a business product – a product to be sold to the public.
Cahaya said, “Initially, I started the business because of my final project. However, it has always been my dream to become a handbag designer and to start a business in this career.”
Cahaya combined denim and rattan materials to design a circular bag, which has become a trend in youth. In addition, Cahaya used a natural dye to color the bag.
Cahaya explained, “The bag is unique because it is a mix of denim and rattan. It is also unique because of how it is made. The blue denim color was produced by natural coloring from the indigo plant. For the rattan, we worked together with a rattan craftsman at Cirebon. The income of a rattan craftsman is low, so through this business, we enable them to gain more profit and to improve their craftmanship score.”
Now, Silas has 13.5 million subscribers in her Webtoon series, Wonderwall, and Cahaya has sold her brand @caleoofficial in Bali and the United States.
The alumnus and student testimonies showed that creativity pioneered success and that creativity is not separate from the learning process happening on campus. With the education system that focuses on implementation and on giving significant impact to the surrounding community, UPH students are charged to demonstrate the skills they received in class in different situations and communities.
This is creativity. The learning process at UPH not only educates the students to remember important facts in class. It also does not force students to develop skills without a clear aim. However, UPH trains its students to become creative, to be able to see the needs and potentials available in the real world. The system directly teaches the students the importance of creativity and how this asset can be a support in life. It teaches them how this can help them profit and to use this profit to support their creative processes.
The testimony is aimed to boost Indonesian youths to be braver in leaving the old concepts and to persevere in creativity in their areas because creativity is promising in life.
baca juga:
