Speak Up for the jobs and scholarships

Getting a job or such scholarships is not that easy as you send your application. This is a challenging effort to send the application with the great hope the employment managers will read and take the resume. The fact what we are going to talk is not about how to send the resume to your dreamed job or scholarships, but on how to you get to be active for the jobs and also scholarships. There are some important aspects that you have learned in sending and applying for jobs, internship programs, and also scholarships. But, have you ever tried to talk to the people in charge in order to get the proper information, and also the link?

Active in such community college is indeed very important. However, there are lots of students out there with similar qualifications. Or, the lucky is that you are the only one in certain field, but still you don’t have the access in getting the jobs, internship, or the scholarships. This is the matter. It is much recommended that you start being active in contacting people in charge related to your dream in jobs or scholarships. They will provide you with the right information. And, even if you are lucky, they will help and recommend you for the jobs and also the scholarships, as long again, you have great record on your resume.

It is not a kind of nepotism where your network will determine your bigger opportunity, but this is the way how to gain the right path to get the peak. Being active for jobs and also scholarships is something okay as long you are not breaking the law by doing such corruption and any bad idea. As long you have good qualification and you are active in contacting the people in charge, you will get bigger opportunity. And, this is reasonable!

Stress relief technique for college students

This is common when the college students feel stressed with the huge and pressing timetable during the final week. After that, try to take some moment to relief the stressful days with some simple techniques. This is to ensure you still have the positive spirit of yourself to start the other activities both summer schools or holiday. There are some stress relief techniques for college students. These are simple, and you can do it at any time.

Deep breath is very simple and effective. This will help you calm yourself and your state of mind. You can do this anytime and anywhere, which makes it quite easy. Try it when sitting in traffic, waiting to be called up for an appointment, or if your class has grown too boring to follow. You can combine with your abdomen breathe. The second technique is for those imaginative persons, you can visualize yourself on such beautiful and quiet place. The next is thought-stopping, where you just need to close your eyes and say “stop” in middle of your hectic situation. This might need some processes and time, until you feel you are ready again for the situation. The most common is that you should take a break. This might be the combination of the three above. Take a time is precisely effective, but the consequence you might start from “zero” after the break.

Everything is started from yourself. Just start by turning off your iPod and laptop, and start by doing these simple techniques. You need not to go vacation or relaxation through spa or any massage clubs. This is expensive and also takes time; you may consider this if you have spare time. Above all, those simple stress relief techniques in releasing the stressful thought can be done at any time effectively, especially the college students with the pressing schedules.

Safe tips in using public Wi-Fi

Do you like discovering public Wi-Fi to enjoy free internet access in public places? This is common facility that you can find at most public places like cafe, mall, college, and other places around you. However, with the vast cases of cyber crime and any other crimes through virtual world, you should mind the safety tips in using public Wi-Fi. If you are connected, you should remember some instructions in order to get rid of the cyber crime through public Wi-Fi and any other bad potential crimes happening to you. Here are the instructions in using public Wi-Fi.

The most important thing you should do first before getting online in public Wi-Fi is to turn on your computer’s firewall. This will allow you to protect your data on the computer from any attacks from viruses, hack, and any other thread from the internet. Encrypting your personal data on the computer is also the similar idea to protect your personal data of getting lost due to the internet intervene coming at anytime in public Wi-Fi. The next tip in using public Wi-Fi is by not typing, entering, or any transactions requiring you with credit card account. This is very risky as you write the passwords and personal account; you are big potentially being hacked by other users. And, if you set your computer as auto connected to the public Wi-Fi, make sure you are turning off the Wi-Fi card when you are not connecting. This is declining the harms of the internet to your computer.

The last thing is that your ability in detecting the public Wi-Fi with the local network with their (personal) purpose like we call as Ad-Hoc Network. They may “spread” the connection in public, but connecting to this network allows them to get into your computer. Surfing in public Wi-Fi is should be nice. However, by considering some tips above, you can make your surfing even nicer. Have a nice day!

Benefits of Volunteering

Have you ever joined any community services or any volunteerism during your high schools and college? It is not all students want to join to the community services. The fact is that the more educated people, the more they are affiliated with such social community services. This is reasonable as they feel lots of benefits from what they are doing. There are many sectors that you can affiliate for the volunteering. This volunteerism will give you lots of benefits. The benefits of volunteering are varied from your resume until your financial aid. Here are some benefits of joining volunteering at college.

The first benefit of volunteering at college is to boost your resume and experience background. The resume will be very useful when you are about to enroll at college admissions or employment at company. Employers like seeing someone joining volunteering. Someone who volunteers means she/he has good time management, good work as a team, even without any payment. It is not only for your employment, but volunteering will boost your opportunity to get financial package. There are a great deal of scholarships and grants out there that list community service as a prerequisite, so if you dedicate some time each week to volunteer work, you could be giving your financial aid profile a boost as well. The next is that you will have wider network from volunteering which is very useful for your career in the future.

There are some minor benefits of volunteering; the essential value of volunteering is that you grow people. You are not selfish concerning your own self instead of helping the community to build their people. This is very great as you will contribute to the community services. The better, this is also beneficial for your skill as well in terms of personality, communication skills, and also social awareness.

Ours is the most delicious, isn’t it?

Just a few days ago, I stood in one of the booths of an international education fair in my city, Malang. Some of the favorite graduate school programs that people always asked for were fashion and cooking. Just in recent months, I realized that cuisine shows on TV were peaking in popularity. The culinary frenzy might be part of the euphoria of the TV shows.

Let’s say I consider this good news for our life style; the people, at least, have an alternative entertainment other than the political turmoil in Indonesia. Yet, I also consider this as a big question: Then, why do people prefer to study overseas just to learn culinary?

I am not saying that studying overseas is not good, but I am so surprised that almost all aspects of our life are always referred to those abroad, including the culinary and chef profession.

Take a look at the recent news that CNN released the readers’ choice that rendang, one of Indonesia’s traditional foods from Padang, was dubbed the most delicious food on Earth, while nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) was ranked second.

When the world has acknowledged that Indonesian food is the best on Earth, why do people continue to be proud of seeking education overseas just to learn cuisine?

The food business and chef professions in Indonesia are still dominated by foreigners, who do not know the real Indonesian traditional food ingredients. Let’s say they have competence in cooking, but they do not know the taste of local recipes. Let’s say they have assets and investments, but the fact is that the “pirating” of some traditional recipes is imminent and inevitable.

As a result, it is not surprising if the taste of Indonesian traditional food in “high class” or modern restaurants is not better than those at the traditional vendors or food stalls. That might be the reason why our notable culinary expert Bondan Winarno prefers to visit traditional vendors to taste the “original” recipes of our best culinary.

I do not want to blame the expats; but they should bring their Italian, American, Oriental and other recipes to Indonesia instead — and develop them here to make the culinary a lucrative business in this world’s fourth-biggest country by population.

But in this case, I just want to question why we don’t establish our own culinary schools to preserve our cultural heritage? Due to the high demand and the culinary show frenzy, this is the opportunity for the government and also local investors to build our own local culinary schools or invest in such schools. It is true that we have a limited number of culinary schools. In Indonesia, based on SWA magazine research, there are only 17 culinary schools and 12 universities that provide culinary majors.

Worse, those culinary schools do not focus on Indonesian traditional food recipes. The number of culinary schools in Indonesia is far lower than the number of Indonesian traditional recipes from Aceh to Papua.

Vocational schools, as a government program, should be prioritized to produce more chefs with local tastes. There should be a pride of learning cooking, especially Indonesian traditional food, in our own country.

Let’s become the barometer of international culinary while at the same time acknowledges the quality of international education in other fields like economics, science and also engineering. If only in food, we can be leaders. After all, ours is the most delicious, isn’t it?

*Published on The Jakarta Post

Tips to make your first class less stressful

This is the first day at college! What are you thinking of it? There will be hard and stressful class. There are many expectations from the freshmen as they are attending the first day of college class. Don’t get stressed with your imagination; think logically and you should do some instructions in dealing with the first day at college. Here are some tips for the freshmen who are attending first class with less stressful. These tips will make you feel comfortable attending the next classes for your rest four year college time.

First thing is your appearance. You don’t have to wear brand new clothes; just wear comfortable clothes as you feel okay with these ones. Wearing tight clothes is just going to show the stain of your sweat. Despite you are wearing the comfortable clothes, be mind of the standard outlook from yourself. Come prepared on the first day is the best option. Even though usually the first day is required to bring the textbook, but at least notebook and pen are very important to write what your professors essential words, especially dealing with the syllabus. Don’t forget to give friendly smile. Set your mobile phone in silent and vibrate option. The ringing phone in the class may jeopardize you in the class; some professors really hate the phone ringing in the class.

Be mind that the other students are the same stressful like what you are, so feel comfort and just relax. For some reason it is comforting to know that other students are too busy freaking out about their own flaws to really notice yours. It is easy to apply the tips above to experience the first class at college with less stressful; and you just need only one week for the adaptation. Relax, take it easy, and have a great first day of class!

Mind your extracuriculars

This is college admissions time, be ready for it! College admission matter is very important if you are about to attend college. If you want to take a look at the general requirements for the college admissions, both the high class rank universities and also the state universities, they require the positive record from your academic and non-academic records. Without those records, your application is just only application without impression. So, if you are a senior high school students and going to apply for the college, be ready with some positive records as stated below.

Be mind that your academic records are indeed very important. But, don’t sacrifice your extracurricular and social and community services involvement. College admissions officers may not consider them to be important but involvement in your school, church and community is oftentimes a big factor when dealing with scholarship applications. These extracurricular, let’s say as social involvement or non-academic records, will be special considerations by the admissions committee from the college. The students who deserve to be given the college admissions are those who have balance ability in the academic and social community involvement. Why is this so? Because logically, if the students have both ability they must be extraordinary in some aspects like social involvement, leadership, time management, and critical thinking that are very beneficial when they are at college.

If then you are good in sports, hone your ability until people get impressed with your athletic records, there are always financial aids for the students with this records. If you are smart in study, this is the time you should show your great research and publication. College admissions matter is not when you are graduating, but today while you are still at senior high school. This is the time for you to write your great impressions and records in both academic and leadership like social community involvement.

Utilizing Facebook for Jobs

Are you fresh graduates who are looking for jobs? Or, are you active college students who are building your network for your career? This is really tough to start your career. Don’t get ashamed with this condition; the competitiveness is imminent, and this is your strategy to start your own network to gain information about career. There are many ways to start your career network. You may utilize social network like Facebook as the start point for your jobs. Utilizing Facebook for jobs is something easy but your need to know some strategies in order to gain effective sources for the jobs from this social media. Here are some instructions for you to start utilizing Facebook for jobs.

Start utilizing your Facebook account by setting your privacy account. This is to ensure you will get the appropriate information related to your personality or careers. The information appearing on Facebook pages are related to your basic information, and this is controllable. The next thing is your profile pictures. Even though this is something private and you can attach all you like, but the company or employment may take a look on your profile and find proper profile picture; this will bring positive impact toward your career. Participate into the company Facebook page. The study has shown that if you want to work for the company, you should find them on the social media and follow the development of the company.

The last thing is that you should actively join groups for the networking. Select and consider the groups that may provide you with substantial information related to the career path. Joining the groups for career is also the best way to gain as much information by utilizing Facebook for jobs. As you are accustomed to utilizing the Facebook, you may start your own career tap from the network you have built from the Facebook. 

Time management for college students

Many students have problem in managing their time during their first time attending college. They have problem in managing their college time and also the leisure time. They are lacking of time by attending the classes, joining community services, and also hanging out for the colleagues. This is very different compared to the senior high schools where the parents and also teachers have the role in managing the time. However, this is a must to manage your time at college time. Time management at college is very important. Here are some tips in managing your time at college.

The easiest way in managing your time is by creating your own weekly agenda or schedule. You will know how to set your time during the week. Every agenda has its own goals. Set your own goal for the agenda and college activities. If you have some problem in determining the schedules between two or more schedules at one time, make priority scale. The priority will allow you to determine which agenda that will more benefits for you; and more sustained for you both during and after the college time. You should learn to say no in order to stick with your schedule. Within the tough schedules, try to still provide the spare time for you for the relax time. Relax time will empower more your creativity in the upcoming time.

Good time management at college is very important to determine your success during and after the college time. Say strictly no for the procrastination for your schedules. As the wise words, do not wait until for tomorrow. It is very hard to learn in managing your time. But, it is lucky that the time management is something learnable by all people, including the college students. So, there is not any reason for you not to start managing time. 

Gaining new hope during the National Scholarship Month

Do you know what makes senior high and parent dilemma for the college? Yes, the most problem for the senior high graduates and also the parents is the costs for the college degree. The expense for the college degree is very expensive. That is why it is the solution to apply for the financial aids for your college degree. The idea: November is the National Scholarship Month. During this time, you can have wider opportunity to apply more scholarships and other financial aids for your college degree. That is why, make yourself ready for this scholarship month with some new mindset and spirit to get the opportunity.

First think first, change your stigma and mindset that scholarships and other financial aids are only for the smart students, who have above average GPA, good academic record, and other things. Well, it is true that many scholarships do require that you maintain a certain GPA; but, be mind that grades are not the only criteria. There are lots of scholarships that are available for those who are active in involving community services, athletics, minorities, researchers, employments, and also for the military for those who are serving the military in this country. The point is that you can see that the opportunity to get the scholarships is not about the score-based selection. There are not any ideal students for the scholarships; there is ideal individual in each of the field.

Prepare your application for the scholarships during the National Scholarship Month his November. The biggest advice after your mindset is that big efforts to apply the scholarships. You might apply for the hundreds of the scholarships; there you have hundreds of opportunity to get the scholarships. The more you gain information from the Internet and fairs about the scholarships, so you are one of the above average students compared to the ordinary ones.

What’s your plan after graduation?

The nature of the college students is indeed different from the basic. Some of you may be the ones who are thinking about what you are doing after graduation since your first college year. Some of you might be very busy to think of your plan, and you are thinking right after you graduate. Then what is your plan after graduation? This is prevalent questions given by your college friends or from your family. This is hard to answer if you do not have any plan to do after graduation; and, you are not ready to enter to the real job field. These are some idea for you to know what to do after graduation.

The first thing is you are seeking for scholarships or financial aid to get your higher degree for your education. Scholarships for graduate schools are available for most majors. This is very important to advance your career with your higher education degree, while the scholarships will help you to get the degree. The scholarships for graduate schools are mostly for the law schools, medical fields, and education. If you are kind of students who do not like attending schools anymore, it is better you are joining Peace Corps or any volunteering or missionary activities. This will sharpen your personality before you are truly ready to get into the real job fair.

The other option is the worst one despite you are not ready for the job: forcing to join company for your career. Start your application sent to the company, and wait for the interview. Seeing the difficulty and dilemma after graduation, now you should consider the plan after graduation during your college time. Those three options are just motivating you to get the proper one. Both getting scholarships and joining the works are fine for you as long you feel comfortable with your routine after graduation. Good luck!

Buy your home with cash!

With the hit from the economical recessions, you should be mind in spending your money for your goods, especially for your property. The credit, savings, and other loan will kill you through the high rate of the interest. How about if you want to buy the property like home? It is better to buy your home with cash. There are benefits you will get as you can pay the house with cash. This is based on the Forbes financial guide for the upcoming years, within the pouring bombastic of recession in global economic. Here are the benefits of buying your home with cash.

The cash buyers will get discount and also 0% of interest rate. This is reasonable for the sellers that they need their property sold in easy way without any dealing with credit or any other parties in handling the mortgage. That is why, the most cash buyers are generally from foreigners or the investors with multimillions cash money for their buying. The next benefit is that you will get lower cost closing for your home buying. They do not have to fork over money to pay bankers or back attorney for the mortgage; otherwise, they save up to $750 money from the spending to co-pay the attorney. As we can see, the cycle of the transaction is very short; between the buyers and the sellers. And their transaction is ended there without any lenders or creditors.

There are other benefits if you buy your home cash like you got tax-break from your cash, you will get slower mortgage, and also you will get positive record on your credit. These things are very essential in American lives, especially. The phenomena of buying home with cash are not happening in some parts in the United States. If you want to check them, the highest transaction is in Miami with up to 60% transactions. 

OWS: The Income Inequality and the 99%

It has been two months that protesters occupy the New York business center near Wall Street. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has already been bragging the world’s attention to the economical turmoil, resulted from the transaction underneath the Wall Street stock market and also the lobbying with the government by the wealth in manipulating the policy. The motley mobs of OWS seem not uncontrolled regarding their goal. However, the protesters have stolen the world’s attention to their main goal about the income inequality and the 99% concept. With their two month action, is this still effective in sending the message to the world?

The problem of the income inequality becomes the imminent problem in the United States, and mostly in many developed countries. While the hard crisis and recession hit this country, billions of dollars are bailed out to the banks in which the wealth is there. On the other hand, the poor who claim as the 99% people were not bailed out; even, they are fired by the company due to the recession. There is not any special attention to the 99% people while the government prefers to back up the major sectors belong to the banks. The bankers seem innocent with their hard work. Despite the Wall Street and other banks are working hard in economical sectors, but as long the crisis are imminent and the more poor for the many, the bankers failed to do their job.

The OWS keep yelling their aspiration toward the income inequality and the 99% concept. The bankers have too much salary and they are also bailed out by the government at the same time. On the other hand, this is the challenge for the protesters to measure the effectiveness of the OWS movements from the Wall Street to occupying voting booth during the election.

The potential of Occupy Wall Street

It has been taking over two months after the Occupy Wall Street movement occurs in New York City. There are more and more supports and debates over the Occupy movements happening in most of major cities in the United States and other countries. Apart from the contempt response from the white collars and also the Republican Tea Party, the movements have caught the media attention over the world that there are symptoms in the current economical system. Amidst the “unclear” direction of the Occupy movements, we can actually find the potential of the Occupy Wall Street. Here are some reviews that you can see from the movements.

While some parties claim that the movement in New York City just creates more arrests and also criminals within the jobless people, they say that this is big no. The arrests and also the criminals are just scenario to spawn the troubles within the Occupy movements. So, ideally people will be led to the moral stigma that the movements are about criminals. Despite the ignorance from the authority, especially the White House who gives lame response, the groups of the people who support the Occupy movements are getting more and more. They are okay naming themselves as the “Little Guy”, as 99% group, who will fight the “Big Guy” which is the 1% powerful and wealth community. Analyzing the proliferation of the movements, even more academics are joining the movement as to say the protest to the income inequality and also the corporate greed.

Behind the “jobless” people, there are more experts, academics, and many other activists as the timing bombing to fight the big Goliath. The potential behind the Occupy Wall Street will prove the mistakes that New York City has spent too much money of the taxpayers for their corporate, and they keep going on, while the innocence people are just simply arrested without any clear solution.