Just received an email from a student of mine who attend my ‘I Am Gifted!’ camp 6 years ago. I am so happy and proud that he became one of the top students in Indonesia, scored straight ‘A’s for A levels as is now studying engineering in Cambridge University. Every student truly has the potential to be GIFTED!

If it is a bit too small to read my screen capture. Here is the email typed out

Dear Adam,

It has been a while since I graduated from IAG program in June 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia. During the program, a lot of things happened and some of them have changed the way I think and behave. The program has shaped me into a better person. I forced myself to be more confident, more persistent, more friendly and also more hardworking. Since that time, I have taken so many actions as what you have told us to do in the camp. I set my goal to become an all-rounded person in the school, who is not known as a geek but can top the class at the same time.

In year 2007, I finished my year 10 as the 2nd best student in the class and was admitted to join the natural science class at SMAK 1 PENABUR Jakarta. In year 11, I found that everyone was very good academically and non-academically. I slipped off from the top of the class and moved out from the top 5 position in the class. This, however, didn’t put me off. I learned from my experience and climbed back in my year 12. I graduated from the high school with flying colours, 2nd best student in the class, top 5% of the batch, and scored high marks in my final exams.

Since secondary school, my dream is to become an engineer and therefore, I applied for engineering course in the university. Luckily, my parents are able to support me financially to study overseas. I applied to universities in the USA and Canada. However, none of the universities can change my goal to study in the UK. As an Indonesian scholar, I can’t enter the UK universities with my Indonesian High School certificate. I was required to take A-level or IB or foundation programme, which is basically redoing what I have done in high school. But of course, to achieve goals, we need to take action. I decided to take the bet of losing time (A level programme takes 2 years) and US/Canada university opportunities and flew to the UK to do my A level in one of the international school in Cambridge, UK.

After a while, I found that even though the course is equivalent with my high school, but I still learned a lot of new stuff here. We were never taught about how to write a proper essay in Indonesia. Here in the UK, I was taught and forced to write essay, making me more ready to enter the university life. I also decided not to miss anymore opportunities offered to me. I joined the Student Representative Committee, the College Newsletter team in the college and joined the Indonesian Student Society under the Indonesian Embassy in the UK. At the end of my 1st year in A Level, I was chosen by the college to receive a scholarship for my 2nd year course due to my outstanding A level results. When I graduated from the college, I was awarded the Student of the year award by the college by achieving 4A*s and 1A in my A level together with an offer from University of Cambridge to read engineering.

Now, here I am, currently studying engineering at one of the best university in the world and many thanks to the camp and the trainers, who actually shaped me into the person who I am right now. To look back, such achievements are amazing, yet I shouldn’t be contented with these achievements. I am now looking forward to become one of the leading engineer and businessman in the field of renewable energy and manufacturing. Please wish me luck!

I hope all AKLTG staffs are doing well and I miss their training. I wish I can join the training session again as a trainer in the future if there are opportunities.

Warmest regards,
Kevin S. Widjaja
IAG Alumni 2006