Teenagers pave their way to success
Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Sanur, Bali
Evelyn Mintarno is just like any other MTV generation of teenagers. She adores the music of teen pop idol Britney Spears and hums hit songs by boybands.
But, she also listens to the classical music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven and is an accomplished pianist herself.
In her spare time, she can be seen strolling Jakarta's crowded malls or watching her favorite movies at the local cineplex. What makes her different, though, is that Evelyn is really fond of physics and science -- the two most difficult and hated school subjects.
Evelyn was one of five Indonesian students representing Indonesia at the International Physics Olympiad in Nusa Dua, Bali last week.
The four other students were Agustinus Peter Sahanggamu from SMU 78 high school in West Jakarta, Christopher Hendriks from SMU Pelita Harapan in Karawaci, Fajar Ardian from SMU Insan Cendikia in Serpong and Widagdo Setiawan from SMU I in Denpasar, Bali.
The news of their success at the International Physics Olympiad -- grabbing three gold medals, one silver and one bronze -- has breathed fresh air into the tarnished world of Indonesian education.
"I would have won a gold medal if I had not been so sloppy when doing my theory examination and experiments. I was a little bit nervous at the time, maybe because there were a lot of 'cool' students," smiled Evelyn, while sipping her vanilla milkshake at a cafe in Sanur last Tuesday night.
Evelyn, who has just graduated from BPK Penabur I high school in West Jakarta, should not feel too disappointed as she was also awarded a prize for the best female participant by the Olympiad's organizing committee. Only 15 female students out of 300 students from 69 countries participated at the Physics Olympiad 2002.
"The number increased from only six females last year," said Evelyn, who also took part in last year's Physics Olympiad in Chinese Taipei.
"But, I want to prove to people that a girl like me can also master tricky subjects like physics," said Evelyn, who will enroll at the famous Stanford University in Palo Alto, California along with her twin sister Evelyna next September.
She has not yet decided whether she will major in physics.
"But, my dream is to become an internationally recognized scientist," said Evelyn.
With such encouraging results, these teenagers have excelled in the world arena, erasing the image of Indonesian students as unintelligent and dull.
"We never felt inferior when facing students from various top schools in developed countries. We knew for certain we could go through all series of examinations. And we've made it," said Agustinus Peter Sahanggamu, the gold medal recipient.
The youngest of three children, Peter was always "the best student" since he was at elementary school. He had taken part in a number of world physics competitions, winning a gold medal at the Asian Physics Olympiad in Singapore last May.
"My last achievement in Singapore forced me to do better at this Olympiad," said Peter.
His friends, Widagdo, Christopher and Fajar had other interesting experiences.
"I feel relieved now because we have already ended 10 months of training," said Widagdo, who won the Indonesian team's second gold medal.
Before taking part in the Olympiad, these five students received intensive training for 10 months. Led by Yohanes Surya and his team of trainers, the students were quarantined in a small shop house, locally known as ruko, in Tangerang. They were exempted from daily school requirements during the training.
"While other kids were playing and having fun, we had to practice and practice, sometimes for 16 hours a day," recalled Widagdo, who will take part at the International Computer Olympiad in Singapore on Aug. 18.
Playing computer games and Playstation became their favorite pastime.
"When we felt that our brains were swamped by all the physics theories, we sneaked to the TV room to watch cartoons or teenage TV series like Meteor Garden," Fajar said.
Christopher once broke the locked TV cabinet with a knife because he was so desperate. "As the Olympiad got nearer, watching TV was not allowed. But I was so tired and bored, I needed to watch television," said Christopher.
But Fajar, the son of a nuclear expert, found all the training necessary.
"Only a few countries such as Indonesia, Russia, India, Iran and China seriously trained their Olympiad teams. A lot of students, including those from Western countries, came to the Olympiad with inadequate preparation," said Fajar, who has been invited to study at Nanyang University.
Still, he regretted not being able to chat and make friends with overseas participants during the Olympiad.
"We spent most of our time in our hotel rooms, resting before taking our examinations. We also had a strict diet, avoiding fat, sweet food and soft drinks," explained Fajar, while eating a chicken breast.
The shy and introvert Peter regretted some local media coverage. "Many articles were exaggerated," Peter said.
Many articles, he said, wrote that by winning gold medals, they had already been proposed places at prestigious universities like Harvard and Princeton in the United States. "The fact is that only the rector of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has invited us to study there," Peter said.
Winning gold medals does not guarantee these gifted and brilliant students an easy road to achieve their dreams, although their triumph has already given Indonesia a better name.
Studying at world-caliber universities has been their ultimate goal and will certainly hone their intellectuality and professionalism.
"Yet, it will be too expensive to study abroad. We have to pay at least US$100 to buy a registration form, and that is excluding the annual school fees. My father is only a high school teacher," sighed Peter.