Gastin Gabriel Jangkang the Covid-19 Pandemic Student Batch with a Myriad of Achievements
Becoming a doctor has been my dream since I was little, not without reason or just joining in like the dreams of young children in general. Until I was 12 years old, the hospital was so familiar to me because of the asthma I had. Seeing the figure of a doctor who treats patients in a hospital is an inspiration to me, when I grow up I want to be a doctor who is able to help and treat many people. I continue to cultivate this dream by studying since elementary school and continuing to work hard to have good academic grades up to high school level.
2020 was a year full of challenges and struggles for me and my family. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, my father had to stop working as a private employee due to deteriorating health conditions, my mother was a housewife, while I had just been accepted as a new medical student at the medical faculty of Lambung Mangkurat University. As the eldest child, I want to lighten the burden on my parents, especially in terms of tuition fees. I tried to submit myself as a recipient of several scholarships but ended in failure. I contemplated and thought about how to continue my education and that of my younger sibling who was still in high school, it was impossible to continue to expect the savings I earned when my father was still working. In this dilemma, it was as if I had received instructions from God Almighty to get out of this predicament, that I had the capital and strength within me, namely the achievements I had so far achieved. I then started participating in various competitions such as writing essays in national river opinion competitions and English debate competitions since I was a freshman. Every time I win and get a prize, most of it is used to pay for UKT and family daily needs. Apart from studying, I developed myself by participating in campus organizations. On the sidelines, I taught math lessons, helped MSME businesses and volunteered in various activities. How my days pass, if many people make achievement or superior achievement as a choice, but for me achievement is a must and a way for me to survive to achieve my goals.
Three years have passed, I have at least 91 achievements in various achievements both academic and non-academic from the study program to international scope, one of the things that is very memorable is when I became the best achieving student in 1 of the Indonesian medical student senate association because it opened up my opportunity to collaborate with all medical students in Indonesia.
With the achievements I have achieved and the struggles I have gone through, I want to motivate more people. Deficiency is not a barrier but a challenge that can be overcome with persistence. Armed with the ISMKI network, I and medical students at 17 universities in Indonesia organized the Medical Expo event as part of the online Medical Education and Profession (MEP) for high school students who wish to study at the medical faculty, through this expo we share tips on dealing with tests as a prospective medical student to introducing the academic situation in medical lectures. In addition, we produce various research information content about health and medicine on Instagram social media as an effort to educate people about health. In the field of competition, we held an audience with the Association of Indonesian Medical Education Institutions (AIPKI) to initiate the Regional Medical Olympiad during a pandemic.
I also got valuable experience when I joined an international debate organization, namely the Debate Society by University of London (DSUL) and became the only representative from Indonesia. Through this organization I collaborate with debaters from around the world. At that time I was selected to take part in international debate competitions, namely Africa Intervarsity and Uhuru World Debating Championship. Being a part of DSUL is an honor that makes me want to share more inspiration, motivation, knowledge and enthusiasm for debate with young people in Indonesia so that they also have the same opportunities and are even better than me. I introduced DSUL and debate in Indonesia by teaching debate to 90 high school students and being a core judge in two national debate competitions, one of which was the Indonesian Public Health Olympiad. I also continued to take part in various debate competitions and managed to win three debate competitions, representing my university in the National University Debating Championship (NUDC) 2 years in a row organized by Puspresnas.
With encouragement in various competitions, I also feel it is important to hone my language literacy skills as the key to communication and my preparation as a future doctor. Therefore, I joined with Bastra.id, a youth-led organization that wants to improve the Indonesian language and literature skills of young people in Indonesia. As the curriculum manager of the NGO, my duties include planning program curricula so that we can reach more young people with beneficial language literacy programs. With a passion to inspire, I became part of the language ambassador for the province of South Kalimantan. As a language ambassador, I have the opportunity to have a wider network with the government, especially the Language Center and the Indonesian community, especially in South Kalimantan. One of the programs I carry out is teaching elementary school children in remote areas of Kalimantan about the history of the city of Banjarmasin using the Banjar language as a form of preserving the local language.
As a form of my contribution to the advancement of education in Indonesia, I also share my experience, knowledge and creativity in the form of books and journals. I had the opportunity to write in an international journal which examines research on how debate can improve medical students’ critical thinking as a form of learning. I also wrote two books with ISBNs which contain tips and tricks on debate and basic anatomy as science guides for students. My hope is that if I am not able to share knowledge face to face, at least my books and journals can reach many readers.
In the field of scientific research, my team and I succeeded in becoming the favorite winner of the 34th national scientific week through the idea of an underground hospital. My team and I also developed an innovative leave-in soap product made from aloe vera and basil and managed to get funding to implement the idea in Bogor at the Technology for Indonesia event. Then, this innovative product made me a winner in the Indonesia Medical Innovation and Research Award in Health. I also patented this product at the national level so that it can be further developed for the benefit of the Indonesian people. On the other hand, I took part in various national and international poster competitions related to research as a form of public education.
Returning to my dream, wanting to become a doctor that is useful for many people, I try to continue to be involved in various community service activities including the Alliance of Medical Students Care for Houses of Worship during the Covid-19 pandemic. I also take part in educating the village community about stunting and how to overcome it with locally processed products. Besides that, I was a debate coach, resource person in various research and English activities, as well as being an assistant lecturer in anatomy in my study program which led me and my team to win 1st place in the AMYGDALA national level anatomy Olympiad.
In 2023, all of these accomplishments and achievements have also led me to win the Indonesia International Student Mobility Award (IISMA) scholarship at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia and to become the first undergraduate medical study program student at my university to receive an IISMA scholarship to be able to study in an international academic environment .
Winning 1st achievement at the national undergraduate level in 2023 is an extraordinary achievement for me. However, I don’t want to stop here. I want to continue to be enthusiastic and inspire more young people out there as a form of my efforts to achieve my dream of becoming an inspirational and transformative doctor in the field of medical education curriculum. I have a dream to continue my education abroad to study the development of medical science in the structural sphere. From this trip, I learned that with passion, dedication and hard work, we can turn a weakness into a strength to achieve extraordinary things and contribute to society and the environment around us.
Failure happens only when we give up so keep trying, don’t give up and involve God in it. Take the opportunity to achieve success in the future is my life motto. I am Gastin Gabriel Jangkang from Lambung Mangkurat University for the selection of students with national achievements.
Source :
Gastin Gabriel Jangkang
(NIM 2010911110031)
Undergraduate Program of Medicine Study Program, Faculty of Medicine, ULM
