Narasi Perjuangan - Aiko Mitsue

Struggle, Hard Work, and Unexpected Blessing

Hello, my name is Aiko Mitsue and people usually call me Aiko. I am from Mentari Intercultural School Bintaro, I am accepted into the medical science bachelor international class through jalur WNA. Universitas Indonesia ranked one for medicine in Indonesia and only Universitas Indonesia has a double degree in Indonesia that involve international collaboration with other universities such as UK and Australia. This could grow me as a person in terms of clinical skills, self-awareness, and self-development.

Furthermore, KKI UI has the most advanced medical technology in Indonesia. I also learned that KKI is designed to train doctors who are able to compete with graduates from other countries and have international standard competencies. KKI graduates are also targeted to be able to continue their postgraduate education at international medical education institutions. By using an international curriculum, students are encouraged to develop ways of learning and develop clinical knowledge and skills through a variety of academic resources. Furthermore, I learned about the educational philosophy of the UI, the International curriculum, and international collaboration with three other universities. It also has a double degree which gives me an opportunity to learn more about the intricacies of research.

In addition, I believe that studying at UI could develop several points of competency such as self-awareness and self-development, effective communication, the scientific foundation of medical science, management of health problems, management of medical and health emergencies, and health care management.

I became interested in the profession as a doctor started when my brother was born earlier than the due date, because he was born premature, he had to stay in an incubator for two weeks. Specifically, he had an RDS or in particular, transient tachypnea which is a respiratory disorder in a newborn. From then on I started to look at my brother’s doctor as a role model. Then I became more motivated to be a doctor that has competencies such as the ability to identify health problems, analyze, and deal with them effectively, efficiently, cultured, and humanely in the future because my youngest developed an intractable disease called retinitis pigmentosa.

To introduce myself further, in 2010, I attended a Japanese School in elementary and received Japanese education. During this time, because I was of course not mature I had another dream like I want to be a model, a professional figure skater, and so on. But in fifth grade, I started to think more about what I wanted to become when I grow up. Then I started to understand my characteristic more. For instance, I am the type of person that likes to help people with my hard work and is devoted to everything I do until the end. So started to think oh I want to be a doctor that can help people like my brother’s doctor when I was a little. During this time, I was doing figure skating and then met the parents of this my friend that graduated from FKUI and said that Universitas Indonesia is a great university to study medicine. From then I started to look for UI and have an idea of where I wanted to study when I was in university.

Then I started to attend an international school from junior high school until senior high school. At first, it was hard to adjust to the curriculum and the language used at school, because it changed from Japanese to English, and I was sometimes confused. However, it was gradually overcome and now I can speak three languages fluently and they taught me how to speak mandarin, so now I can speak four languages in total. On the other hand, I was able to learn about the differences in thinking and culture, so I am glad that I got an international sense. In high school, I was glad that I already have a dream of what I wanted to become. Because there were many people that don’t know what they want to do in the future and were confused. From junior high until the end, I choose IPA as my studies and started to study more about medical school, and in grade 11, I started to join a bimbel at Depok called Indonesia college.

In addition, in high school, I started to participate in helping the communities by joining a charity organization group called PASKAS (Gerakan Infaq Beras Tangerang). For instance, I went to the various orphanages in Tangerang and gave them bags of rice, snacks, and toys for the kids every month. It’s the best thing for me because I get to help them and we get to talk and play together. I remember once at this one orphanage that if the children or the caregivers were sick, they don’t go to the hospital but they go to the pharmacy because according to them, for daily food they wait for assistance from donors to buy daily food ingredients. So, going to the doctor's treatment is something of a luxury. Then I made a promise to myself that if I become a doctor, I will help them and will give free treatment to the less privileged people.

Besides joining a charity organization, I have been learning figure skating and ballet since I was a child. In figure skating, I won first place in Skate Asia, Figure Skating National Championship, Skate Malaysia, and Skate Bangkok competition, and this year in ballet, I joined an online competition and I was able to become third at the Hongkong Challenge Cup Dance Competition. I also participated in both competitions as a team and became a team leader. In these experiences, I learned to work towards one goal and to collaborate more by communicating and guiding them through the process.

At Indonesia college, I signed up for medical science study. It was offline and my class had a maximum of 10 students, and become close with them. During this time, I thought about joining a SIMAK KKI test so I learned about biology, chemistry, and physics. Basically, IPA subjects for medical students and learned about how you answer certain questions, and how to do Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI test). But when I was doing research on FKUI, I heard that there was jalur WNA for the international student so I started to look into it. When I was searching for the jalur WNA it was hard to find because it was private and the website was different from for jalur SIMAK and others. When I found the website, I started to look for all the requirements for WNA students then I found out that there were many documents that were needed for uploading. For instance, the main documents that were needed were SAT score, IELTS score, and a minimum of level 3 BIPA score. These tests were mandatory so I started to study and look for all the test information and book to study. Of course, it wasn’t an easy journey, especially BIPA but Alhamdulillah, I got 1350 for SAT, 7.5 IELTS, and a level 3 BIPA score.

After I uploaded all the documents, it stated on the website that the election result is on Friday, May 27th. As the day became closer to the day of the election result, I felt restless and just thinking am I gonna accepted at UI, or is my score good enough, and so on. So when I got a call that I have an interview on Thursday I was delighted and during the interview, I was nervous at first but as I was speaking and telling my stories, I became more relaxed and just having fun talking with the interviewer.

Then on May 27th at 4pm, when I opened the website with my family beside me, I was accepted as a medical student at FKUI. It was my happiest moment because it was my dream from elementary to study at Universitas Indonesia.

Before I was accepted as a medical student at UI, when I was in high school I was committed to doing social work inside and outside of school by joining a charity organization, GBK clean up the road to Asian Games 2018, clean up jalan perigi, and went to help orphanages. Now as a medical student at UI, I will become more active and participate in joining social work outside and inside the campus, improve the quality of life patterns in order to have clear goals in the future, so that they can provide maximum contribution to the faculty of medicine of the University of Indonesia. The hope for myself is that I hope that in the future I can become a better person, continue to consistently run something I have started, and eliminate bad habits that are still in me, then I also hope that I can achieve my next dreams, that I can graduate from faculty of medicine on time, can become a doctor that my patients trust, to pursue specialist education, can make my parents proud and happy, and can help pay for my little brothers to go to school or expenses. Then my hope for the University of Indonesia, especially the class of FKUI 2022, hopefully they can become a solid and each member can make the best contribution to the university and faculties, so that they can become students who can make their alma mater proud and hopefully with me studying here I can also absorb a lot of knowledge so that I can convey this knowledge to the community when I work later.

The plan that I want to pursue during the preclinical period later in the first year or so is, I can adapt well to the environment, also I have changed my bad qualities because I do not want to repeat failure again, and I also plan to get a good and steady GPA, as not to be overwhelmed when approaching the final semesters. After that in the future, I can keep my academic scores stable and so do my non-academic activities by remaining consistent with what I have started, and I also hope that I can make a proud contribution to my campus. Also, my hope for the next 5 years is that I will continue to be consistent in pursuing all my dreams and I also hope that I can make a good and make a contribution to the community and the environment around me, with the knowledge that I have gained and learned at FKUI and from the University of Newcastle. Then for my plan for the next 7 years, of course, I have graduated and have a master of research degree and have been appointed as a doctor, I want to further devote myself to the community by being able to advance and help the people, can help treat my patients who are there in remote areas who might find it difficult if they have to come all the way to hospitals in the city, and also I want to share knowledge with those who are there about the importance and value of health for themselves. And also I want to go to remote areas in Indonesia to help them get their right to health, can help treat their disease because I know it will be difficult for them in remote areas if they have to go to a hospital in the city. After that, I want to continue my specialist education and become a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology in the next ten years. After graduation, I hope to become a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology. I also hope I can contribute more to the world of health in areas in Indonesia.

My message to all of you who are pursuing FKUI keep your spirits up and never give up, work hard towards your dreams, achieve your goals, keep trying, and show earnestly that you are worthy of FKUI, and also don't be afraid to fail because in fact failure will make you stronger to face the next obstacles, and from failure, you can learn more things and later when you decide to back down, rest assured you will definitely become strong and will definitely get the best results and you will be able to achieve much better results than you planned, and the most important thing of all is never to forget Allah SWT and pray because in truth our life is a transient thing and will eventually come to an end and all things go on. Because your kindness will help you later when you are in a very bad state. Never stop trying and keep following your dreams, see you at FKUI!!!