The hall at Yayasan Cipta Mandiri (YCM) was full that day, filled with the kind of energy that only builds when something important is about to happen. Ten students stood at the front in five pairs, each one carrying a week’s worth of preparation and a night’s worth of nerves. This was the mojang jajaka selection, an event where YCM’s students choose two of their own to represent the values the foundation holds close.
But what made the day meaningful was not only who would win. It was everything the students had to become along the way.
A Week of Becoming
Before any of them stepped onto that stage, they spent about a week being shaped for the moment. They learned how to speak in front of an audience without their voice shaking, how to hold a stage with confidence, how to answer a question without letting nerves take over. These were practical skills, the kind that serve a person long after the event is over.
But alongside communication, something quieter was also being built. The students were pushed to think more critically and to feel more deeply for the people around them. In a place like YCM, where every student carries their own story of hardship, empathy is not a soft skill. It is a survival skill, and a shared one.
Four Segments, One Real Test
The event itself unfolded in four parts, and each one tested something different. In the first segment, every pair introduced themselves and shared what they hoped to do if chosen. In the second, the real challenge began. They had to answer questions together, not as two separate minds giving two separate answers, but as one team thinking with a shared voice. Synergy, not individual brilliance, was what mattered here.
The third segment was where the values of YCM came fully alive. Each pair was given a real, human scenario. They don’t answer. They act. What would you do if a new student felt out of place and refused to mix with others? What would you do if you noticed a student sitting alone, quiet, clearly struggling with something unspoken? There were no simple atctions to these questions. They asked the students to imagine themselves not as performers, but as the kind of people others could turn to.
In the final segment, it was the audience, made up entirely of YCM’s own students, who chose the winners. Not judges from outside, not staff, but the peers who knew these ten students best.
The Names That Were Called
When the results were announced, it was Fatur and Zalfa who were called to the front.
Their win said something the whole day had been building toward. It showed that the values being tested, communication, empathy, the ability to think and act as a team, were not abstract ideas. They were things that could be seen, practiced, and recognized by the very community they served.
Two Stories Behind One Win
Fatur had been part of YCM for three years, joining when he was still in his first year of junior high school. In that time, he had grown from a new and uncertain student into someone twice named Student of the Year. His journey was proof that consistency, built slowly over time, eventually becomes something visible.
Zalfa’s story looked different. She had joined YCM only six months before the selection, still new, still learning her place. But she brought a seriousness to her learning that stood out quickly, along with a clear goal for her future, to continue her education at university. Her win reminded everyone watching that growth is not measured only in years spent, but in the sincerity brought to each day.
Together, their stories showed two different paths arriving at the same result, proving that experience and freshness can complement each other rather than compete.
A Journey Better Walked Together
Their story is a small one in the larger life of YCM, yet it carries a message worth remembering. Real progress often happens not when one person tries to do everything alone, but when different journeys meet, listen to each other, and move forward together. That is the spirit YCM hopes to plant in every student who walks through its doors, and it is a spirit that only grows stronger with the continued support of those who believe in these young people’s potential.