UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) students have made another international achievement. They are Dimas Satrya Sukma Wijaya (FKp), Bethari Ayu A (Fisip), Dea Salsabila Defri (Fisip), Inezia Kartika A (Fisip), Ramadhan Pambayung K (Fisip), and Anggie Lucca (Fisip). They won the Best Social Project award at the International Conference, Istanbul Youth Summit (IYS) 2021 Turkey on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
In the 2021 Turkey International Conference Istanbul Youth Summit, Dimas and his team presented a project called Benerinkuy (platform for repairing damaged goods) which won great attention from the judges.
Through this title, Dimas and his team tried to make an innovation to help the economy by repair services during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, they (Dimas and the team, ed) immediately went to the field to find repair services on the streets, then helped promote their business through social media.
“In the short term, we go straight to the field, we look for repair services such as locksmiths, shoe soles, repair of umbrellas and others. Then we interviewed by asking about their businesses affected by the pandemic, so we know the problems of repair services when a crisis occurs. Then, we also asked their identity and telephone number, after that we tried to promote it through Instagram, “he explained.
In the long term, Dimas and the team plan to make an application to facilitate the promotional efforts of repair services, which hopefully will provide benefits for businesses and the general public.
“So, at first, we wanted to make a mobile application with a concept similar to an online taxi, but at that time due to limited time and resources, we only made the application a blueprint for the long term of the project we were running. We hope that with this application the community can benefit, business actors can increase their turnover, and the community can also be helped by the existence of this application, but it is still long term, because there is no time to work on it, “he said.
Asked about the motivation for his participation, Dimas said that initially he only wanted to open new networks and gain experience.
“Initially it was simple, participating in competitions like this can open new networks, add new friends, add experience, and add to our portfolio in our CV. Apart from that, today we are realistic that work is not only judged by IP, but also from the experience and soft skills that we have, “he said.
Even then, preparation for competition is not without challenges. Starting a social project during a pandemic and with a short period of time, Dimas and the team always hold meetings twice every week to discuss the concepts that will be carried out.
“At that time we only had two months to work on the project, so we always hold meetings twice a week to discuss the concepts that are being carried out. After that we decide what execution we will do in the field. “At that time, honestly, the concept fluctuated, because two months is a very short time to do social projects,” he said.
Furthermore, Dimas and the team are also trying to create a blueprint or design for the application. So, it can be presented at the conference.
Their struggle was completely paid off by winning the Best Social Project award defeating national and international participants. Through this achievement, Dimas wants to convey an important message for students to always take advantage of the opportunities that exist, and always develop their talents or abilities so that they become great potential for self-actualization.
“This is part of self-actualization, the only way to catch up with what I experienced is to participate in similar activities, it’s not a matter of winning or losing, at least we are trying to improve, we are competing with competitors in a healthy manner, if we don’t take advantage of it. Opportunities will not come the second time, “he said.
The international conference itself is one of the annual events initiated by Youth Break the Boundaries (YBB). The goal is to build a youth leadership spirit in the future, by providing a moral approach and emphasizing the national character values, as well as opening new horizons of international education and culture for the younger generation.
As the best university in Indonesia, UNAIR supports its students to be able to excel at the national and international levels, in both academic and non-academic realms.
UNAIR as the best university in Indonesia encourages students to excel at local, national and international levels. (*)
Author: Adelya Salsabila Putri
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
