Joining in the competition is one of the effective ways to develop the abilities of both soft skills and hard skills of a student. It seems, that is what Noviana Aribah Tsabitah lives by. Student of the English Language Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (PBI UMY) 2022 successfully managed to come out as the first winner in a national-level essay competition with her partners last Friday (28/10). Novi and partner won first place in the event of Festival Bidikmisi KIP Kuliah Nasional (FBMKN) 2022 in Makassar.

Furthermore, the competition, which started from September 24 to its peak on October 28, 2022, was attended by more than hundreds of participants from all over Indonesia. Not only essays, but this festival also opened other divisions of competitions such as inspirational stories, debates and more. Especially the essay competition, Novi and partner succeeded to go to the final round which was held in Makassar from 24-28 October 2022. She said that in the essay competition, 15 teams from various institutions in Indonesia were participated in such as IPB University, Bangka Belitung University, Pontianak State Polytechnic and many more.

In its success, Novi and partner did not get this success instantly. At least, Novi and partner spent more than a month of preparations for this competition. In addition, she said that the choice of essay competition divisions was in accordance with her passion in the field of writing. “I want to develop and expand my writing skill through this competition so that my writing will be getting better and better as the time goes by” Added Novi

As an outstanding freshman, she advised UMY students, especially PBI UMY, to dare to develop talents and interests according to their passion. Besides, Novi also advised her fellow PBI UMY colleagues to dare to take the opportunity and challenge themselves to participate in a competition. For her those who are willing to develop and have courage will be positively responded by the universe. Additionally, although participating in the competition will drain a lot of time and energy, but all of it pays off with the benefits received, including relationships, opportunities, self-improvement, and other benefits. Keep moving forward, Novi and always extraordinary, PBI UMY!