Leadership & Influence Question

Chevening is looking for individuals who will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries.
Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing
skills to support your answer.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

Leadership and influence are about being able to move people, and I believe that every leader customizes
her style by her own strengths and weaknesses. For me, it means putting out what I ought to be the aspect
that I exceed the most: creativity, innovation and the courage for initiating changes. It started during
college where I joined a committee for a social act project for the faculty’s freshmen. The destination
village has always been a farming village, but I suggested for a fishing village even though it was more
difficult in terms of accessibility and sanitation. I went to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs
Indonesia for and later I managed to secure a partnership deal with the ministry. The deal soothes the
anxiety in the team and the team eventually agreed to go to the fishing village. Following that, I acted as
a team leader for several student competitions. In one occasion, my team initiated to submit a paper to
an international conference. Our paper was accepted and we had to go to Birmingham for the conference
but the costs were not cheap. We eventually managed to get sponsors after I had always persisted my
teammates to just keep putting all efforts.

After I graduate from university and got my bachelor degree, I acknowledged that my spirits to always
initiate for a better change still need to be nurtured and maintained. My job in the Central Bank involves
on improving the Indonesia Banking Survey and suggesting improvement for the database management
of the value-added in Indonesia’s banking sector. My manager was very busy so there were a lot of times
that I had to act with my initiatives and I had to be independent to learn new things. Due to time limitation,
I understood that the chances to present my findings and discuss my ideas in front of my manager had to
be well utilized because those are the moments that I could stood up for my idea.

During my second job at Financial Services Authority, I was responsible for researching and designing
possible schemes of financial inclusion for rural area and for farmers. My benchmark study has resulted
in many possible schemes overseas that Indonesian might saw as quite impossible. Therefore, I had to
present the best argument to support the idea. As I am the one who did the research, I might know well
and better about the details of my ideas but I had to convince the people who did not read the materials
at all. Influencing my co-workers, inviting them into heated discussions, revising through my work,
reminding the others about deadlines have became my daily task. I am still responsible to work
independently and have the capability to lead my project and influence people. I believe that leadership
is not a matter of title and position, but the ability to manage a project and influence other people for a
good cause.
Networking Question

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening
community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this
requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and outline how you hope to use these
skills in the future.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

I am aware of my strengths and weaknesses for networking, one of which is being an introvert. However,
I do enjoy networking and getting to know more people as it introduces me to diversity and a better
understanding of the big picture. I found it very interesting to be able to discuss very different point of
views, and I have to expand my network to gain more insights..

Academically, I was a teaching assistant at University of Indonesia. To be able to join the department's
academic network is an irreplaceable asset. I assisted Professors and managed a deeper relation with the
Department of Economics. The circle of teaching assistants was also filled with many highly potential
students who later worked in various important organizations supporting Indonesia's macroeconomic
development. Additionally, in personal life, I joined a community for youth studying abroad and managed
to publish my story of doing a student exchange in South Korea. I was well informed for youth
organizations and changemakers communities in Indonesia. I have also made sure to create my own global
network during my exchange student period as well, starting from campus to volunteering in international
cultural activities and doing internship in a market consultant company in Seoul. Being able to do
internship in another country was a great chanve to meet colleagues from various backgrounds and have
a deeper understanding of different work cultures.

My own personal ambition is to buid a financial technology start-up. Therefore, I have participated in
several start-up competitions and incubation programs. My idea is still an idea but I got many valuable
insights from the activities, along with a closer connection to the stakeholders for start-ups, such as the
corresponding ministries, big start-up founders and business analytic companies.

Professionally, I had the opportunitites to work in two independent policymakers in indonesia: the first
being the Central Bank of Indonesia and the second is the Financial Services Authority Indonesia. At the
Central Bank, I met many important people who worked for the monetary development of Indonesia as
the regulator. However, the Central Bank is not limited only for the monetary aspect, but also to ensure
economic growth and low unemployment so there were a lot of real sector research involved. Daily
discussions about the economic issue in Indonesia became my everyday meal, with my bosses always
quoting the prespectives of many well-known economists in the country. Everyone there is ambitious and
encompasses qualified experiences.

During my following job at the Financial Services Authority Indonesia, the athmosphere of economic
discussions as everyday meal remains the same. However, as my department is the Financial Literacy and
Inclusion Development, our job is closer to the citizen themselves, especially for the remote areas. The
focus is more people-minded and to face real problems in the field. I was also given the opportunities for
a closer look to the most important people in the public poliy field and financial services industry, which I
deeply hope to give me future advantages.
Studying in the UK Question

Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to
your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future.

*Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education
section of this form (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

Prior to my application, I have done two jobs as a research fellow in the Central Bank of Indonesia and the
Financial Services Authority Indonesia. As a researcher, I discovered that a bachelor degree is not enough
to secure a position to decide on the framework thinking and concept design for the research on public
policymaking. I believe that contiinuing study in a more focused field will improve the future researches I
will write.

My research interest came from my own observations where I found that the poor, or generally any
human being, migh act irrationally on matters concerning money. During periods of emergency, people
might agree to unfair agreements because the need for money were too tight. For those reasons, I chose
Development Finance for my graduate study.

Based on my own experiences working in the field of policymakers, the study on development finance is
a very large field with only few parts sufficiently explored and the remaining huge parts are waiting for
breakthrough innonvations. Indonesia is a unique country with certain characteristics that needs specially-
designed policies, therefore I strive for the best place to study on maximizing the financial sector for
development. There are not many universities offering Development Finance as a major. With careful
research, I found three universities for my purpose:

1. MSc in Development Finance at University of Manchester, which I have obtained an unconditional offer.
From the list of Universities offering Development Finance course, University of Manchester is the best in
terms of prestige and ranking-wise: ensuring outstanding networks of capable professors with rich
experiences and abundant oppotunities to arise. However, beyond that, I found the syllabus is quite
strong in quantitative research skill, which is something I look forward upon improving on, especially with
my previous job in statistics and the high need of quantitative research for Indonesia cases.

2. MSc in Development Finance at University of Reading. Their program of Development Finance is

3. MSc in International Finance and Development at SOAS University of London. I found SOAS's reputation
as leading university for development studies with a lot of case studies in Asia and Africa is very attractive,
along with the specialized focus to expertise in real issues rather than just textbook theories.

To sum it up, I am highly eager to start learning deeper on Development Finance in United Kingdom in any
of the university above with their own strengths and weaknesses that I am ready to adapt with. I believe
that the study will empower my academic and research skills and support my future career focusing in
Indonesia's economic development.
Career Plan Question

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your
immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to consider
how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country. (minimum word count: 100
words, maximum word count: 500 words)

I will use my obtained knowledge in UK to expand my career as a researcher for economic development,
specializing in microfinance. I plan to return to the Financial Services Authority Indonesia to develop
possible financial inclusion scheme for farmers, fishermen and people living in the rural area. Given the
constant decline in the agriculture popularity, Indonesia is looking for ways to strengthen the food
security: namely to cut on the supply chain, initiating innovative agritech and agri fintech, and getting rid
of loan sharks. I saw few startups are already executing the idea of fintech for fishermen and failed, mostly
because of inability to create a win-win solution to the farmers and the loan sharks (to eliminate them,
gently). With London being the world center of Financial Technology, I believe that there is a lot that could
be learned from the success story in UK. The financial market, especially the microfinance industry, needs
to be intervened by the regulator to support development. In a developing country where most people
fall at low income class, Micro Financial Institutions (MFI) play serious role that should not be
underestimated.

To support such ambition, I plan to make use of one of the UK government project in Indonesia: The Cross-
Government Prosperity Fund which one of its aim is for financial sector reform in developing countries.
Along with the UK-Indonesia partnership in the maritime sector, namely the partnership for expertise
sharing in a package of marine and fisheries initiatives. However, such good partnership would not be
adequate if the financial education of fishermen remain left as it currently is. Inclusion to formal financial
services are urgently needed to prevent bad financial management. By making a proper use of the
Prosperity Fund, such conditions could be helped. Other than the UK Prosperity Fund, there is also the
Newton Fund with food security and maritime sector as the priority area, which I found to be working in
line with the goal I set in mind. The Newton Fund could be used for research collaborations on
development topics, as well for microfinance market development.

Additionally, I want to give back to the communities around me. Mainly because of financial limitation,
most students in Indonesia could not afford formal education, let alone studying abroad. I want to show
that studying abroad is not a foolish dream if accompanied by the correct financial strategy – even if there
is not enough fund available. Being financially literate means opening doors to more possibilities. I believe
that both my job and my personal motivation to influence people is in the same pathway.

In ten years, I pictured myself as a senior level manager in the FSA and as lecturer to teach Development
Finance. Development Finance is a very practical thing that the government put special attentions into,
yet is is still under-learned in the university. With the experiences I gain from the policymaker field, I could
share more real cases to my future student and help them to shape the next future.