Kinanti Dyah Nur Islami
With the U-GO scholarship
I feel like a big family is supporting me
Career: Elementary Education
Meet Kinanti Dyah Nur Islami. As a young girl, Kinanti lived in peaceful environs on the island of Bali. She spent her days playing with her sister down by the river or running through verdant rice fields. It was a good life for the girls until the day their parents divorced. During the separation, Kinanti’s mother was granted custody, and her sister remained with her father. She wouldn’t have any more contact with her father. Her mother decided it would be best for Kinanti to go live with her maternal grandmother, over 200 kilometers away on the island of Java. Kinanti left behind one home to cross the narrow ocean straight and find refuge with a new family in East Java.
In the village of Balo, Kinanti joined a brood of children all being raised by her loving grandmother. Life was simple but difficult. The daily necessities of food, sanitation, and transportation were barely met. In these stark conditions, Kinanti never imagined a future of attending university. But her grandmother was kind and embraced her like a daughter. In this family of assembled relatives, Kinanti felt safe and loved.
After primary school, with her weary grandmother advancing in age, Kinanti’s life changed course again. For her well-being and better educational opportunities, she moved to her aunt’s home on the island of Sumatra. Uprooted again, Kinanti crossed the water, traveling northwest over 1200 kilometers, to the town of Metro City on the southern tip of Indonesia’s largest island. Here, life improved. In addition to providing for her basic needs, her aunt enrolled her in a good school and encouraged her to pursue her dreams. Once again, she was embraced by her relatives, finding yet another family who welcomed her as their own.
Kinanti thrived in school. She was fond of her social studies teacher who told of faraway places, like the North and South Poles, or tales of her own country, Indonesia. Each story told in vivid detail provoked in Kinanti a sense of awe about life on planet Earth.
As she came closer to completing secondary school, Kinanti considered pursuing geography at university; however, her aunt encouraged her to explore a career in teaching. Thinking of the impact her favorite social studies teacher had on her life, Kinanti began to imagine a future in education. She envisioned transforming a child’s life just as hers had been transformed, imparting knowledge and expertise in a way that made learning both exciting and fun.
With the support of her grandmother and aunt, Kinanti applied to Lampung University in Sumatra, majoring in Elementary Education. After enrolling, she searched for a scholarship to assist with her university expenses. She discovered the U-GO scholarship, in partnership with Inotek, an incubator for applying technology and innovation to yield economic benefits. Now, in her second year of university, she is an active, engaged student, balancing her studies with several part-time jobs - kindergarten teacher assistant, private tutor, and a motorbike driver for hire! She is learning practical skills in her teaching and tutoring jobs that she hopes to apply when she has a classroom of her own.
For many young women in Indonesia, numerous obstacles lie in the way of them reaching their full potential. Less than 10% of Indonesian women achieve a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. For Kinanti, being separated from her initial home and immediate family not only jeopardized her fundamental education but also threatened her capacity to envision a brighter future. However, in the love of her grandmother’s and aunt’s families, she found the family and support she desired. Now, with the U-GO scholarship, she feels part of a bigger family, the U-GO/Inotek family, who are providing the necessary means for her to succeed.
“Thank you, U-GO, for prioritizing young women, like me.” On her way to becoming a teacher, Kinanti is motivated to inspire the next generation of students to reach for their dreams.