Hello…
My name is Ria, a short version of Ratna Patriana. I’m a
master student of Rural Sociology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia. I
join with PARE Program since this year, from Introduction to PARE, Summer
School and Long Semester. All of these programs so far have given me so many
lessons, fruitful experiences and, of course, good friends. The last that I
mentioned was so exceptional, especially after we joined the summer school. Tight
schedule, difficult tasks, happy and sad moments that we shared together have
bounded our friendship, regardless the language barrier and duration of the
program.
We came from different background, which most of the
students were from natural sciences background. Mine is social science which, I
guess, was the one and only in this program. At first I felt afraid that I can’t
follow the lectures, but with the helps from other students, I can understand
the materials. The knowledge that I gained from this program was relatively new
for me, and thankfully each student come from different disciplines, so that we
can share our knowledge and mix it together to build an interconnected idea.
The last summer school program was – how can I say? –
incredible! During that short period of time, we have visited so many places,
from Tomakomai, Ishikari, Ebetsu, Toyako, Mori town, Maruyama zoo until Hakodate. We learnt
so many things, from oil storage, biogas, wind power, hydro power, geothermal
power and many other sustainable energy initiatives. At the end of the
program, we were challenged to build a master plan about sustainable energy
development to overcome the problem in Population, Activities, Resource and
Environment – PARE Chain – in Asia.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Freedom is not worth having if it
doesn’t include the freedom to make mistakes.” And because of Freedom is the
power of the youth, Freedom also the power of us too. Even though in the
beginning, making a master plan in a very limited time sounded impossible, with
the power of freedom and without worrying of making mistakes, all of us
eventually finished our group master plan and presented it in an awesome/sugoi/sud-yord/keren-banget way. That was, for me, the biggest
challenge that we had to face in this summer school. And honestly, the idea
that came up from each master plan was extra ordinary. I’m very proud that I
can be the part of this program.
That was my (not very) short introduction and experiences
in PARE Summer School 2014. And now I miss my summer school friends!
Ratna Patriana
PARE ID: PARE 26-005
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