Yumnaa Adina Ulfah Priyanto

Yumnaa Adina Ulfah Priyanto

Indonesia

I gave my paper to the officer, and thought “There is a big chance that I won’t win this competition but at least I am happy that I finally tried”.
Several weeks later as I carry the announcing paper, I run down the corridor with a huge smile, I was over the moon
I’ve always thought of myself as the most ordinary student among others. I’ve got average scores, I follow school rules, and being the center of attention gave me massive anxiety. I haven’t figured out much about my future or my dreams. I like to write, though I never share my writings. I thought to myself “I could write, so? millions have done it better”. Eventually, as years passed, I resented the idea of being idle and unconfident with my passion. At the age of 16, I took the courage to show up at my teacher’s desk and said “I am writing for a competition, and it would be nice if you could give me some feedback”. Fortunately, she said yes.
It was a national letter-writing competition and when I found out I got selected to be part of 30 finalists out of 4000 submitted papers, it was a huge deal for me at the time. Afterward, we got the chance to attend an exclusive seminar with three notable writers in Indonesia. This event truly encouraged me to maximize my full potential and to live my temporary life to the fullest with a well-being purpose. Since then, I have always tried my best with the opportunities I took. In 2018, I was blessed with a scholarship for an exchange program in South Korea, to encounter foreign cultures and was a minority for the first time and it thought me so many important lessons on how to face diversity and see the beauty in it.
For sure when the program was over, I craved more cross-cultural interactions so I joined AIESEC, an international youth-run, non-governmental and not-for-profit organization that provides young people with leadership development. I actively participated for one year as a Team Member of IGE (Incoming Global Entrepreneur). For a year I assist foreigners’ internships in Indonesian start-ups (Bandung) for one to three months, introduce them to Indonesian culture, make unforgettable memories with my new friends while they were in Indonesia, my homeland. Apart from AIESEC in the same year, I was also part of PURNA AIMS, an organization for AIMS alumni that was involved in assisting and helping exchange students at my university.
Currently, I am a project intern at Dejavato Foundation that deepened my perception of cultural exchange values, I had the experience of managing and coordinating an international webinar (with limited participants) as Webinar Chief Committee, perform as Webinar MC and Moderator to ensure events run well and guide the discussion align with the shared content, create aesthetic and eye-catching designs to promote social media account and host events. This internship has thought me the importance of teamwork and mutual communications. I also started as an Associate Trainee at Studec International, an education consultant to accommodate people abroad with meaningful purpose by providing programs like exchanges, conferences, the volunteer acts, workshops, educational tours.
I can’t believe it all started when I finally dared to learn and fight for my strength. Believing in myself is a long journey yet the most satisfying one. Having all of these experiences makes me realize my undivided attention to cross-cultural experiences and inspired my surrounding to stand up for their talents and dreams. Therefore, I decided to be a Global Peace Ambassador that hopefully could be the next platform as a way to maximize my potential and target to be the best version of myself.