Muhammad Hasbiansyah Zulfahri is an archaeologist from Indonesia and the founder of a large young social enterprise in Yogyakarta. He completed his undergraduate studies in Archaeology at Gadjah Mada University, with a scholarship from the Karya Salemba Empat Foundation and its donors. His perseverance and achievements during his undergraduate studies led Hasbi to continue his master’s studies with a scholarship at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France, IREST, Gestion et Valorisation Touristiques des Patrimoines.
Hasbi is known not only for his many achievements, but also for his businesses in the social and environmental sectors. He founded Hay Bambs Indonesia (2015), which is active in the cultivation, product innovation and marketing strategies for bamboo products from upstream to downstream.
One by one, Hasbi’s dreams began to come true, because he believed that “Every big dream we have, God has instilled in us the strength to achieve it.”
Life’s journey is indeed full of twists and turns, sometimes not as we dreamt it would be. However, with determination and hard work, there are undoubtedly many paths that will lead us to our dreams.
Like Hasbi’s life journey, it was not as smooth as he had imagined. After graduating from high school, he had to give up his dream of going to university due to economic circumstances.
Hasbi spent a year unable to attend university, working instead to save money for his studies. He started out carrying rice sacks at the market, then sold snacks, and finally sold newspapers on the streets.
Indeed, the man from Cianjur, West Java, had been living away from home since graduating from primary school until he finished secondary school in Yogyakarta. In his second year of secondary school, he had already decided to ask for pocket money from his parents.
“At times like that, I pray: I must be able to become better with free tuition in 2012,” he said.
Since high school, he has had dreams written down, both short-term, medium-term and long-term. At the end of high school, his main dream was to study abroad for free. His second dream was to study at one of the three best universities in Indonesia, namely UGM, UI or ITB.
This man has a motto in life: “AMPUH: Seize opportunities, strengthen motivation, think positively, give your best effort, and live a balanced life.” With this motto, he lived his life until he was finally able to attend UGM.
“I have big dreams and hopes in life. When I have those things (AMPUH), I must put in a great deal of effort and energy to achieve them,” he said with determination when describing his motto in life.
Although his hope of free tuition seemed unattainable at that time.
“That experience taught me to always be grateful to Allah SWT. Even though it was quite difficult to study at my own expense at that time.”
Finally, in 2013, Hasbi received a KSE scholarship. Things began to look up when he received the KSE scholarship. He became more focused on achieving his dreams and was able to perform better.
“The KSE scholarship ensures that my monthly expenses are covered. I can focus more on developing myself through science, organisation, and community empowerment. As a result, I have had the opportunity to win various competitions and establish a socio-enterprise.”
During his time receiving the KSE scholarship, Hasbi was known as someone who had many friends and was very active, but he also excelled in many areas. Initially working many part-time jobs, Hasbi started a business called Haybams Indonesia in 2015.
While receiving the KSE scholarship, Hasbi was active in the UGM KSE Association and served as the minister of achievement development there. He also participated in several training programmes and competitions held by KSE, including: the top 10 in the YES Competition, the CCFI Leadership Camp, and 2nd place in the KSE Social Entrepreneur competition.
In addition to KSE, over the past eight years, he has achieved 18 local, national and international awards, published 23 papers in the form of proceedings, articles and journals in local, national and international media. He has also been actively involved in 34 organisations and committees, both locally and nationally, and participated in 30 research, training and community development projects.
It was his persistence that led Hasbi to discover France and earn the opportunity to pursue his master’s degree at Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France, IREST, Gestion et Valorisation Touristiques des Patrimoines. “It was an honour to study at the oldest university in France and one of the world’s leading universities in 2016,” he said.
Hasbi’s big dream is to become President of UNESCO and also to return to Indonesia to serve as Minister of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia and establish a foundation focused on Indonesian culture.
To pursue his big dream, Hasbi participated in an internship programme at UNESCO from 2018 to 2019. In addition, he has also been a Project Assistant at Mairie du 18eme Arrondissement, a Research Intern at ICOMOS France, and has taken Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) by UNESCO (Accelerate Class, e-tourism) to deepen his knowledge of world heritage site communication management.
After graduating and obtaining a Master’s degree in France, he fulfilled his promise to return and devote his knowledge to his beloved homeland. Currently, he works at the Indonesian Heritage Preservation Agency as Executive Director.