Bangkit Academy for Reviving the Postponed Dream Due to Limitations



Azzahra Novitri Wulandari (22) never imagined that she could be a UI and UX designer like she had dreamed of before. Coming from the small island of Bangka Belitung, Zahra used to worry if she could make it to her first career. Raised by a strong mother who supports her, her three other siblings often wondered about her future and if she could help to sustain her family. Those fears were Zahra’s past. Let us share with you how she could overcome her doubts and limitations and grow into a more confident talent. Let’s dive into her story below to discover more!

Scholarship as the Beginning of Dream Comes True

After graduating from SMK Farmasi (Vocational High School majoring in Pharmacy), Zahra continued her education with a scholarship, meaning she had to leave her family back in Pangkalpinang. Starting in 2019, she began to pursue her dream by taking Informatics Engineering major at Universitas Teknologi Digital Indonesia (Yogyakarta).

Considering her previous educational background had less to do with technology, she was unsure at the very beginning. Fortunately, her friends were so thoughtful that they organized some small study groups to help boost her understanding of college courses.

Furthermore, Zahra states that her decision to take Informatics Engineering takes a lot of adjustments at the campus. But when the anxiety kicked in, she contemplated a lot and remembered her faraway family, her strongest supporters. At home, her mother and siblings were rooting for her. Thus Zahra found the strength and had no heart to give up on her studies, no matter what.

Another solid reason that keeps her moving on is her pure interest in informatics for her future career. In Zahra's opinion, Informatics Engineering is a promising career path as she is curious to further her hobby in drawing into an increasingly popular job in tech: a UI UX designer. Zahra is very fortunate that she got the university scholarship to finance her tuition and living expenses in Yogyakarta.

How Zahra Struggle in the University Life

While mastering college courses, she worked remotely at companies as a UI and UX designer with contract employee status. She was then responsible for her university's “Student Staff” position. Her role here is to manage social media marketing campus and customer service by helping student administration related.

Studying in college while working wasn’t an easy experience. Unlike her friends, she had almost no free time to play or simply enjoy the day. Despite her busy schedule, Zahra realizes that her UI UX skill is very limited. She’s aware that she’s still miles away from being a proficient UI and UX designer. When she found Bangkit on social media and realized that the program also provides the UI UX lesson, she didn’t think twice about registering.
“Could you gain some knowledge and boost your skills for free? I’m ecstatic about participating as a Bangkit Cohort since I believe this would help me lead a better life for me and my family.”

What Zahra Did During Bangkit

Zahra was excited to participate in Bangkit as she imagined it would affect her career path. However, when half of the learning program had passed, she felt that her understanding of the college courses couldn’t support her to perform well there.

Insecurity made her consider giving up as she thought she couldn’t balance the competitiveness factor among other Cohorts. At this time, she told her mother all of her hardships and surprisingly, it was a significant motivation for her to rise and continue the rest of the learning program period.

After finishing all 900 hours of learning sessions in Bangkit, the Cohorts should engage in the final project. Zahra was thrilled to form a group of six members, including her, to build an application called Obatin.

Obatin is an application that aims to lessen pharmacists’ occupational accidents in prescribing drugs since the users could self-medicate through the help of a comprehensive chatbot.

Zahra says that oftentimes patients misheard pharmacists' instructions on how to consume medication. Based on such experience she really wants to help tackle those issues, especially through her work at Bangkit Capstone Project.
“The final project in Bangkit gave me a glimpse to face the future as it stimulated me to take part in the tech industry. Moreover, the mentors explain the material in a very professional manner and show their strong value.”

AAD Certification and Zahra’s Career Path

Among three choices of learning path, Zahra decided to select Mobile Development that focuses on Android application creation to support her dream to be a UI and UX designer. She emphasizes that Bangkit is a program that could train adolescents as reliable tech people through certification gained after passing the exam.
“Almost all parts of the exam are challenging for me. However, Bangkit prepared me well and I finally got AAD certification.”
After graduating from Bangkit, Zahra encouraged herself to prove that she is a capable tech talent, although she had some moments when she really questioned her skills. Luckily At that time one of the Kampus Merdeka programs opened the chance for Zahra and her fellow students to discover her heir internship position.

The first internship position Zahra matched with her career path regarding upscaling her portfolio. She was a UI and or UX designer in PT. GIT Solution for five months stimulates her to expand the skills she pondered during Bangkit. Besides, another chance came to her without any significant effort. What was that?

Dinas Kesehatan and Poltekes Kemenkes of South Bangka once contacted Zahra to contribute as a team member for creating the community healthcare administration system (puskesmas). This island is considered minor and the services are still manual, so they initiated a collaboration with young and talented individuals there like her.

After finishing the project with Dinas Kesehatan and Poltekes Kemenkes, Zahra received an offer to work in PT. Calty Teknologi Indonesia as a UI and or UX designer, based in Yogyakarta. Surprisingly, one month later, the Amikom Center under Universitas Amikom Yogyakarta management entrusted the UI and UX remote mentor position to her.
“UI and UX and the lay-out materials I got from Bangkit impressed the interviewee, so they gave me a chance as the employee. In addition, they highlighted my design and unraveled the flow in creating it.”
“I’m proud to have completed Bangkit, a program that was seemingly impossible for me to get in and finish, but I made it. Although it’s challenging to follow, perseverance and powerful motivation from my mother could lead to satisfactory results. For now, I’m still in the process of developing my application regarding Pharmaceutical Science.” Zahra closed the interview.

More stories about Bangkit alumni and Cohort:

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