Rodiah gazed at the expanse of snow from the window of her flat in Sweden. This cold yet warm city is now her second home. After decades, Rodiah finally achieved her long-delayed dream of pursuing a master’s degree in Sweden. This journey began with the small dream of a girl who grew up in a modest family. Her father always emphasised the importance of education as a means to change one’s fate. However, reality does not always align with dreams.
High school was a time of uncertainty. Rodiah had buried her desire to continue her studies because of her family’s financial situation. However, the full support of her father and mother, who always told her that education was the greatest investment, gave Rodiah the strength to keep fighting.
Her acceptance into Padjadjaran University was a turning point in her life. Although the tuition fees were burdensome, assistance from her family and information about scholarships from Karya Salemba Empat (KSE) paved the way for Rodiah.
Her experience at KSE taught her many valuable lessons. From community service activities in Jatinangor to participating in an entrepreneurship camp in Batu, Malang, everything shaped Rodiah’s character and outlook on her future.
After completing her bachelor’s degree and working as a nurse, Rodiah never stopped dreaming. She held on tightly to her dream of continuing her studies abroad. With determination and hard work, Rodiah applied for various scholarships to continue her master’s degree.
With a hopeful smile, Rodiah looks to the future. She knows that this is not the end of her journey. Education is a lifelong journey, and with determination and hard work, no goal is too high to achieve. Her life journey is proof that with effort and prayer, all obstacles can be overcome, and delayed dreams can finally be realised.
My name is Rodiah, but I am more commonly known as Roro. However, in the world of social media and scientific publications, the name Rodiah Widarna is more frequently heard. After graduating from the Faculty of Nursing at Padjadjaran University in 2012, I continued my education in a nursing professional programme and successfully completed it in 2013.
A Small Family with Big Dreams
During their high school years, Rodiah and her younger sibling faced significant challenges in continuing their education to university. Although the family’s economic situation was only sufficient to meet their daily needs, education remained a dream deeply rooted in Rodiah’s heart. Rodiah’s father often reminded them that investing in education would bring about significant changes for their future. From primary school to secondary school, they both received assistance from the school in the form of books and tuition fee reductions, which greatly helped them pursue their academic achievements. During her time at SMAN 2 Bandung, Rodiah’s report card grades declined because she thought, “Why do I need good grades when I’m not even sure I’ll go to university?” However, Rodiah also did not dare to ask her parents whether she should continue her studies or not.
Rodiah, a second-year high school student in her second semester, was faced with the choice of a university major. Rodiah wanted to become a psychologist. However, her teacher suggested that she major in nursing at the Polytechnic. She was hesitant at first, as she initially believed that nurses only assist doctors and do not have their own specialised field of study. Rodiah returned home after school with a confused expression on her face. She sat down in the living room, and her father, who was reading the newspaper, immediately noticed her expression. He put down the newspaper and asked, “Rodiah, what’s wrong? Why do you look so confused?”
Rodiah replied reluctantly, “Sir, I’m thinking about my future. I want to be a psychologist, but some of my friends and teachers have advised me to choose nursing instead.”
Father responded kindly, “Every choice has its risks, and there is no such thing as a perfect path. The important thing is that you feel happy and satisfied with your choice. Have you considered everything carefully?” Rodiah bowed her head, “Yes, Sir. But I’m also thinking about our financial situation. I want to choose a major that can quickly help us financially.” Her father understood, “You are a wise girl, Rodiah. But remember, your father and I will always support whatever choice you make. Education is an investment, and we believe you will make the best decision for your future.”
Rodiah was determined. “All right, sir. I will consider all this carefully. Thank you very much for your support.” The man touched Rodiah’s shoulder warmly. “You’re welcome, child. We will face all this together. Never hesitate to talk to your father and mother if you need help or advice.”
Rodiah felt calmer after talking to her father. His support and advice gave her additional strength to face the future. Her father’s words continued to haunt Rodiah’s mind, inspiring her spirit and confidence to pursue her dreams without hesitation. Finally, after being convinced by her father’s words, “You will definitely go to university, don’t worry about how to pay for it, just focus on your studies,” she was convinced.
Long story short, Rodiah passed her high school final exams and planned to continue her studies at the Bandung Polytechnic in the nursing department. She chose this major based on the advice of her high school English teacher, Mrs Dinar, and her uncle at the time. Rodiah took part in the selection process at Poltekkes Bandung, which included an administrative test, a written test, and a health test. Shortly after that, about a few weeks later, Rodiah took part in the 2008 National Selection for State Universities (SNMPTN). Rodiah chose the Mixed Science (IPC) stream, with her first choice being the Faculty of Nursing at Padjadjaran University (FKep Unpad), her second choice the Faculty of Economics at Padjadjaran University, and her third choice the Faculty of Agriculture at Bogor Institute of Technology.
Nursing Science: My Pride and My Father’s Pride
Initially, Rodiah thought that becoming a nurse did not require higher education. However, Rodiah’s assumption was proven wrong. Nurses need specialised knowledge and skills, and some even have PhD degrees. Rodiah’s interest in nursing grew stronger because of the immediate job opportunities in hospitals.
When her father fell ill, Rodiah had to endure a challenging and emotional time. Her father suffered from a health condition that required intensive care for six months before he eventually passed away. During this difficult period, Rodiah felt a heavy emotional burden, but she also experienced profound growth in her understanding of the importance of healthcare.
As a nursing student still in her second semester, this experience became a turning point that strengthened Rodiah’s determination to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. When her father passed away, Rodiah felt sad and devastated, but she also felt grateful that she had the knowledge and skills to take good care of him during his final journey.
“I am grateful for this nursing education and will continue to pursue this profession, as my parents, especially my late father, had hoped,” said Rodiah.
Scholarships Provide Opportunities and Additional Potential
Rodiah was accepted into her first choice at UNPAD through the SNMPTN selection process, but was confused about the high tuition fees. Fortunately, her family lent her the money to pay the admission fees. At UNPAD, Rodiah found a lot of information about scholarships and finally passed the KSE Scholarship selection process in 2009. This scholarship helped me a lot, especially after Rodiah’s father passed away in the second semester.
Finally, after being declared to have passed the national selection (previously announced in newspapers and on the internet) for her first choice, Rodiah had to prepare for re-registration and so on at her destination campus, namely the Faculty of Nursing, Padjadjaran University. Rodiah’s father finally borrowed some money for the re-registration fees.
However, after sitting in the first semester, Rodiah’s faculty provided a lot of information related to scholarships that students could obtain at that time, including the Karya Salemba Empat (KSE) Scholarship. Unfortunately, as far as Rodiah could remember, at that time KSE only accepted scholarship applicants who were already in their third semester.
Prospective Nurses Join Business to Help Parents
Rodiah’s mother has been selling yellow rice and mustofa at the market for a long time, even since Rodiah was in secondary school. My father, who has passed away, used to work as a driver and labourer, but since Rodiah was in secondary school, he joined my mother in selling food.
After returning home from college in the evening, Rodiah helped her mother with various preparations, such as washing rice, slicing tempeh, and frying crackers. In between her busy schedule, Rodiah also took the time to watch television, read books, or do her homework. Since her father’s passing, my life has changed. Rodiah was forced to stop attending taekwondo training, which she loved, because she had to help her mother sell goods. Rodiah even missed the opportunity to advance from a yellow belt to a yellow strip belt because her training went late into the night, while she also had to help her mother prepare for selling goods at night.
Amidst the deep sadness, there was also news that gave her new hope for the future: Rodiah had successfully obtained a scholarship from KSE. This scholarship not only provided much-needed financial assistance to continue her education, but also served as a strong sign of support from her community (Paguyuban KSE) and various soft skills training that helped shape her into who she is today.
KSE Entrepreneurship Camp & Mustofa Ibuku’s Potato Business.
Rodiah’s experience in KSE activities in Jatinangor, where she was involved in community service as a committee member for social assistance distribution and as a free health check officer on the coast of Jatinangor, left a deep impression on her.
The entrepreneurship camp in Malang lasted for about five days at Matahari Pagi School. At that time, Sandiaga Uno’s presence created an unforgettable atmosphere for Rodiah. “The activity lasted for about five days at Matahari Pagi School. Sandiaga Uno’s presence created an unforgettable atmosphere,” said Rodiah with a smile.
During the training, the participation of various competent speakers, such as KSE administrators, KSE founders, and other business practitioners, was an important moment in enriching Rodiah’s knowledge and insight into the world of entrepreneurship. The ideas and concepts inspired by the training helped Rodiah see further into how to develop her parents’ business more strategically and effectively.
This experience not only changed Rodiah’s view of entrepreneurship, but also inspired her to plan concrete steps to expand her potato business.
While helping her parents with production, Rodiah chose Mustofa Potatoes, a product that is widely known because many people are familiar with it. Then, many people said that the taste of their potatoes was different from others, so they had their own characteristics and received many orders.
At one point, we started looking for a tool to grind potatoes so that we no longer had to do it manually. In the past, our father used a knife to cut potatoes manually, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge at the time and because our children were still young.
After conducting her search, Rodiah finally found a potato cutting machine that enabled us to significantly improve production efficiency.
Seeing the great potential, Rodiah’s younger sister also developed a variation of Mustofa potato chips with a round shape and dry seasoning.
I then asked a friend in the Student Executive Board about scholarships from the beginning, and he told me about the Bidik Misi scholarship. My younger sibling finally took part in the Bidik Misi selection process and received the scholarship, which covered their tuition fees from start to finish. We faced so many challenges in pursuing our education.
First Steps Since Becoming a Nursing Graduate
Starting from her noble aspiration to become a true nurse who is honest, intelligent, and capable of caring for patients wholeheartedly, Rodiah moved forward to pursue nursing education and earned her bachelor’s degree.
During my final semester, I began to consider pursuing a master’s degree. However, at that time, Rodiah was focused on preparing for her professional education. Rodiah was interested in community nursing, but once again she was unsure about her passion. After graduating from the Faculty of Nursing at Unpad, Rodiah continued her studies in the Unpad Nursing Professional Programme because to become a nurse in a hospital, one must graduate from the nursing professional programme and obtain a Nursing Registration Certificate (STR) as an official document permitting practice in clinics and hospitals.
The Leap After the Nursing Profession
In short, after graduating from the Nursing Professional Programme, Rodiah worked as a school nurse at a boarding school in Lembang, West Java. After working there for a year, Rodiah wanted to apply her knowledge by trying to work in a hospital, and applied to a hospital specialising in treating the poor in the city of Bogor, West Java.
After moving to Bandung, Rodiah applied for jobs at the health department and several healthcare companies. While in Bandung, Rodiah worked as a health verifier, provider relations officer, survey supervisor, and researcher. After all these experiences, Rodiah realised that she felt sad to see people fall ill. People who fall ill experience a decline in productivity, which also affects their families and surrounding communities, as well as incurring high costs. Rodiah realised that her calling was in prevention and health promotion. Rodiah joined the Research Centre for Care and Control of Infectious Diseases (RC3ID) at Padjadjaran University in 2018 to pursue her passion.
After graduating from university, Rodiah focused on applying for jobs. However, fate had other plans, and Rodiah ended up teaching at an Islamic boarding school while studying religious sciences. In between her busy schedule, Rodiah applied for a master’s degree scholarship in Korea, but unfortunately, she was unsuccessful.
Nurse at Boarding School
Rodiah’s experience at the Islamic boarding school was unique and made her feel ashamed of herself. There, Rodiah lived with junior high and high school students who were very diligent. At 2 a.m., they were already showering and performing tahajud prayers, which motivated Rodiah, who had previously been lazy. In addition to working as a nurse, Rodiah also studied religion there. To this day, Rodiah still keeps in touch with the children from the boarding school.
The reason Rodiah left the Islamic boarding school was because she wanted to apply her knowledge in the real world, namely in a hospital. After graduating from the boarding school, Rodiah also tried selling mobile phone credit while at university, but it wasn’t suitable for her and she eventually stopped. At that time, Rodiah helped her mother sell yellow rice at the market every Saturday and Sunday.
As students at Padjadjaran University, Rodiah and her friends often spent time together doing creative things, such as camping or working on proposals together at a friend’s house.
Social Careers Helping Others
Her experience at Dompet Dhuafa sparked Rodiah’s love for healthcare and helping others. Rodiah enjoyed learning and caring for patients there. This experience motivated me to continue learning and not to give patients incorrect information. After Dompet Dhuafa, Rodiah worked at a company in the field of provider relations and claims verification. This job was purely for financial gain, and Rodiah began to forget her dream of pursuing a master’s degree. However, in recent years, Rodiah has wanted to break free from her routine and return to pursuing her dreams. Rodiah wants to work in health research and help others with her knowledge.
Healthcare Careers at the UNPAD Research Centre
Recently, Rodiah recalled her experience applying to the Unpad Research Centre. At that time, Rodiah was working at Telkomedika and saw advertisements for open positions at various Unpad Research Centres. Rodiah was interested and remembered that she had applied to the Unpad Research Centre at the beginning of her career but was not accepted. Her experience at the hospital made Rodiah uncomfortable seeing sick people and unproductive.
Then, Rodiah saw a job vacancy announcement at the UNPAD Research Centre and tried to apply again. This time, Rodiah was accepted and started working there. It turned out that Rodiah really enjoyed working at the Research Centre because it felt like studying and attending lectures.
During her first two years at RC3ID, Rodiah has been part of the HIV (Early) Test and Treat Indonesia (HATI) Study as a research assistant. This research was conducted in collaboration with Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and Atmajaya University Research Centre, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, the Kirby Institute (affiliated with the University of New South Wales), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Since 2020, Rodiah has been assigned as Tuberculosis (TB) Research Manager at RC3ID and supervises 11 research assistants. Rodiah is involved in the COVET Study, which is a study on the impact of COVID on the private health sector conducted in three countries: Indonesia, India, and Nigeria.
During this research, we established good cooperation with the Bandung City Health Office and the Rodiah TB Programme, which aims to contribute to changing the paradigm of most Indonesians from one of sickness to one of health.
Readers of Research Journals in the Field of Health
Rodiah’s job as a research journal reader opened up new opportunities. Initially, Rodiah was interested in HIV research, but then her focus shifted to tuberculosis research. The supportive work environment at Research Centre 4 encouraged Rodiah to continue her education.
In 2021, Rodiah began researching the impact of Covid-19 on the private healthcare industry. Previously, Rodiah had volunteered at Biofarma and other places during the Covid pandemic. In July 2021, Rodiah’s mother fell ill and passed away due to Covid in August. Rodiah closed her office window and returned to her desk. On the desk lay several journals and books she had recently purchased. In her heart, she resolved to continue her studies and pursue a higher degree. For her, education is a lifelong journey. And for Rodiah, that journey had only just begun.
The struggle beyond delayed aspirations
In 2022, when Rodiah’s mental condition began to stabilise, she started to reconsider her master’s degree studies. Rodiah took intensive IELTS lessons at the end of 2022 and decided to take her first IELTS test in early 2023. In early 2023, after her IELTS test results came out, Rodiah registered for the LPDP and took part in the first selection stage in January 2023. Unfortunately, Rodiah failed the interview stage.
In 2023, Rodiah decided to apply for a scholarship from the Education Fund Management Institution (LPDP) of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia. Although she failed in stage 1 in 2023, Rodiah was finally declared to have passed the 215 selection process in stage 2 in 2023, specifically in November 2023.
Rodiah enrolled in the Master’s Programme in Public Health Science at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. More specifically, she is pursuing a Master’s in Public Health Science – Specialisation in Health Promotion and Prevention. Although she was on holiday in Singapore with her cousin, Rodiah remained determined to take the LPDP Scholastic exam.
The long preparation paid off when Rodiah was accepted into her dream study programme at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, which focuses on public health. With determination and enthusiasm, Rodiah is ready to contribute to this field through the RC3ID programme. In mid-March 2024, Rodiah received an email from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, informing her that she had been accepted as one of the prospective master’s students in public health at the institution.
The incidence of tuberculosis in Indonesia, particularly in Bandung, remains high. One contributing factor is the disruption of access to treatment due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Social restrictions and lockdowns have made it difficult for many people to access healthcare services.
The Gateway to Your Dreams: Master’s Degree in Sweden
Amidst her busy work schedule, Rodiah received full support from her boss to join the LPDP programme. Initially, Rodiah was hesitant because she wanted to continue her studies abroad. However, her boss convinced Rodiah to try LPDP first and promised to help Rodiah with her office projects until July.
Currently, because her superiors know that Rodiah will continue her studies, she is assisting in various aspects of the project, such as preparing ethical protocols, creating forms and questionnaires, and assisting with hearings with the Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Office. Rodiah’s previous experience in Covid-19 mapping is also helping her in this project.
Since her mother’s passing, Rodiah had lost her motivation and enthusiasm. Life felt empty, like returning to an empty house with no one inside. Rodiah felt lost and without direction or purpose. However, a glimmer of hope emerged when Rodiah decided to continue her studies in Sweden. Although the graduation announcement felt bittersweet because Rodiah was alone without her parents’ support, she was grateful to have extraordinary friends. They always supported and helped me every step of the way.
Despite still being busy with work, Rodiah has prepared the necessary documents to apply for the LPDP Scholarship and study in Sweden. One of the most important documents is the residence permit visa, as Rodiah will be living there for 21 months. Rodiah is grateful to have completed the tuition fees and residence permit, which have been paid for by the LPDP scholarship, even though the costs are quite high.
A healthy paradigm is not only about maintaining health and preventing illness, but also about promotion and prevention. This is in line with Rodiah’s thinking that health is not only about treating illness, but also about proactive efforts to maintain it. Unfortunately, many Indonesians only go to the doctor when they are already sick. In fact, regular health check-ups and preventive measures are very important for maintaining health. Although Rodiah comes from a family with limited financial resources, she believes that financial problems should not be a barrier to achieving one’s goals.
Epilogue: It is never too late for “aspirations”.
Rodiah gazed at the blue sky from the window of her flat in the city of Solna. This city, so unfamiliar yet soothing, was now her new home. After years of waiting and struggling, her long-delayed dream had finally come true: to continue her master’s studies in Sweden. It is never too late to pursue one’s dreams. Rodiah’s interest in studying health sciences abroad was not new. From the beginning, she wanted to gain knowledge directly from the source. In Indonesia, the knowledge gained often came from second or third parties who had studied there. Rodiah wanted to experience studying directly at the best campuses, such as the Swedish medical universities renowned for their quality of education.
For Rodiah, education is not just about obtaining a degree, but about broadening her mindset and aspirations for the future. She wants to change the paradigm of illness to a paradigm of health. That is, she wants people to focus more on prevention and health promotion rather than just treating disease. Rodiah aspires to help build a healthy and productive society that can build the country. In Indonesia, many people only go to the doctor when they are already sick. Rodiah wants to educate the public to focus more on prevention and health promotion.
With strong determination and burning enthusiasm, Rodiah is ready to embark on this new journey, bringing hope and change for a better future. Under the auspices of the Karolinska Institute, Rodiah is confident that she will be able to achieve her highest aspirations.