Saturday (26/6) the Public Relations team of the Faculty of Psychology, Gadjah Mada University interviewed Hilman Dwi Himawan. Undergraduate students from the Faculty of Psychology, Gadjah Mada University won 1st place in the opinion writing competition at the national level held by the Surat Kabar Kampus (SKK) Ganto Padang State University on May 3 – June 10, 2021.
Hilman, as he is usually called, is a student who has been actively producing written works since he was in school. Since grade 3 Hilman High School who attended SMA Negeri 1 Sleman often participated in poetry and short stories writing competitions. Several times Hilman managed to get a champion and from the event and made his alma mater proud.
Hilman still maintains this hobby of writing when he enters college. The second of three children born in 2001, he continues to improve his skills by regularly practicing writing. Hilman also diligently reads national newspapers to learn the style and structure of an article’s writing.
“I prefer (read) national news newspapers, for example, Kompas and Tempo, which focus on highlighting actual cases, such as the Covid-19 pandemic,” Hilman explained when asked how to find his writing style.
On the sidelines of a busy study schedule, Hilman always took the time to take part in a writing competition. Several writing events that Hilman participated in and managed to win were the Unsika LPM Editorial Competition in 2020, the STIE Yasa Anggana Opinion Competition, the second winner in the article competition held by the DPW Faculty of Education, Hasyim Asy’ari University, and opinion essay competition organized by the Faculty Student Association. Muhammadiyah University Educational Sciences Prof. Dr. Hamka, and the last one was an essay competition at the national level for the Ganto Campus Newspaper, Padang State University, where Hilman won first place.
Regarding the opinion article that won first place in the Ganto Campus Newspaper, Hilman said that from the beginning he got information about the competition through Instagram. When he found out that the theme of the competition was free, Hilman registered to take part in the competition. By raising the theme of the dilemma of distance learning during the pandemic, Hilman puts his ideas into an essay article.
“Distance learning is actually a dilemma, isn’t it. On the one side, it can break the chain of spread of Covid-19, but on the other side, there are many students who are not ready to implement this distance learning model,” explained Hilman.
From that article, Hilman highlights the dynamics that occur when distance learning is implemented. Not only explaining the pros and cons of distance learning, Hilman also provides solutions that can be implemented.
Apart from writing, Hilman is also active in organizing. The student receiving the Bidik Misi Scholarship is now a member of the Jama’ah Salahuddin UGM organization, where Hilman is a member of the Syiar Gadjah Mada Menghafal of the Qur’an (GMMQ) division. In it, Hilman actively participates in several activities.
“The activities that I have participated in include the Raja Bandar UGM 2020-2021 training and competitions,” said Hilman.
Writing is Hilman’s main hobby. This makes Hilman want to continue working and intend to participate in writing events that will be in the future. With his writings, Hilman wants to make the name of the Faculty of Psychology Universitas Gadjah Mada proud and at the same time spread the knowledge of psychology to the public.