On Wednesday, January 17, 2024, VCD UPH gathered for a modest yet meaningful occasion. The final grades for the Odd Semester of 2023/2024 were disclosed, accompanied by a farewell to the students who successfully completed their Final Projects.
Faculty members took a moment to share well-wishes and words of encouragement for the departing students. The atmosphere was reflective, acknowledging the achievements and challenges that shaped the academic journey. Representatives from the student association expressed congratulations to their peers, recognizing the accomplishment with a nod to the shared experiences.
The day concluded with understated documentation and a casual gathering. Congratulations to the graduating students; be a light and blessing in your own way.
In September, Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) hosted students from Singapore Polytechnic to partner with UPH students in applying design thinking to find innovative solutions to address some lingering problems faced by villages and informal urban settlements in Jakarta. This initiative was executed under LeX, a program initiated by the Singapore Polytechnic International (SPI) and supported by the Asia-Ready Exposure Program (AEP) ― a youth development program by the National Youth Council (NYC) Singapore.
The program saw 30 students and three lecturers from SPI teaming up with 30 students and 13 lecturers from UPH School of Design (SoD) and Faculty of Science and Technology (FAST) to conduct social innovation design in Sukapura RW10 subdistrict, a poor riverbank community in North Jakarta, and Ciakar village in Tangerang regency on September 18-27, 2023.
With the support of the local communities, they devised innovative programs such as riverbank community development and clean river initiatives, tempeh-making workshop, outdoor sportswear and equipment sewing, village school, making natural detergent from fruit peels, and oyster mushroom and worm farming.
On the last day, the students held an exhibition in the form of a gallery walk to gather feedback from the UPH academic community, government officials, and the residents in the two locales. The solutions presented will have a positive impact on the local communities, and in the process, participating students were inspired to employ the knowledge and skills they learned at university to make a big difference in the world around them.