The festivities of UPH Festival 25, held on August 15-18, 2018, ended with a Basketball Exhibition – a prestigious competition between UPH Eagles Men’s Basketball Team (students of the 2014-2018 batch) and the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) Garuda Bandung. The game took place at Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) Basketball Court, Lippo Village Campus, on August 18, 2018.

The Indonesian Basketball League (IBL), in addition to being a professional team, is also the best basketball competition team in Indonesia, directly managed under PERBASI (the Indonesian Basketball Association).

Andromeda Manuputty, UPH Sports External Sports Program Coordinator, admitted that this competition is especially challenging for UPH Eagles, because the IBL team members are professional basketball athletes.

“The IBL team are professionals, which means they regard basketball as their full-time job – they dedicate all their time in basketball. Combine this with experience and physical training, and we have a team that is a particular challenge for UPH Eagles. The Garuda Bandung team also has won many achievements, one of them being a three-time champion of Kobatama (Kompetisi Bola Basket Utama, which is the name of Indonesia’s previous professional league),” Andro explained.

UPH Eagles prepared a lot for this game. Andro told about all preparations that have been done up to the level of excellence. In addition, this game is held on the same week as LIMA (Student League) Nationals, which runs from August 9 to 16, 2018, and this guarantees that the Eagles team are well-prepared for both games.

The exhibition, besides being an unforgettable experience, should also give students the opportunity to show pride for their beloved university.

“Through this Basketball Exhibition, we want new students to get to know UPH Eagles, so they can start building their sense of ownership and pride towards campus – they can start to have campus pride,” Andro said.

In addition to the Basketball Exhibition, UPH Festival 25 also features other sports activities, one of them being the 5k Founder’s Fun Run ‘Finish What You Start’. The theme was chosen time and time again because UPH aims to continually instill in new students the fact that they are together starting a new moment in their lives – their campus life. This journey, which they have started, should be finished, despite having to go through all the processes along the way. Students should finish their studies in UPH, and everything should be for God’s glory.

The 5k Founder’s Fun run will be directly led by the Founder of UPH, Dr. (H.C.) James T. Riady, along with the Rector, Dr. (Hon) Jonathan L. Parapak, M.Eng.Sc., the director of UPH Sport, Stephen L. Metcalfe, and the other UPH leaders. Participants will first stretch in the Soccer Field and listen to motivating messages.

“It is our aim that through UPH Festival, new students can feel the atmosphere of campus life – academically, socially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. This will help them understand how we implement UPH’s vision and mission holistically,” Andro suggests. (mt)