Pembangunan Jaya’s annual research competition, “Holistic” just ended on Monday, March 4th 2024 – and the students admit to it being intense in terms of challenge. Every year, Pembangunan Jaya challenged their students ranging from kindergartener to high-schooler to do a research and then write a paper about a new product that they invent based on the research and theme – this year’s was : “Creativity and Innovations of Pembangunan Jaya students on eco-friendly technology”.
Syakira ’25, “Before Holistic, I would never imagine looking at an eggshell and thought I would make a toothpaste out of it, but that’s exactly what I did this year! I guess it is the point of this competition after all”. Through this competition it is hoped, that students learned how to make the most of their surrounding resources. Every year, Holistic constantly pushed the students limit through various of challenges. From inviting judges from the country’s top universities professors, to the limited given time frame of research, experiments, trials, and errors. Rasya ’26 stated, “I guess the scheduling & deadline is a little tight, but everything works fine at the end of the day. But for this Holistic itself, is pretty fun and challenging”.
The Arc asked a few participants that made it on to the final round this year to share their experience, here is what they have to say :
Althea ’25, “Holistic was pretty fun overall, we (Althea’s team) got to learn how the skincare that we usually use are made. We were also able to explore about chemicals and how they react to each other. But because of the extremely limited work time and we also had all the mid-term projects going on, the pressure was on. And we ended up not be able to fully enjoy the process because it feels like we’re racing with time. More over, there are not that many chemical stores around, so a few days were chopped collecting those chemical ingredients.”
Chelsia ’26, “This Holistic Competition was very exciting because it was my first experience making props and competing. It was fun because we changed the title 4x, and made props that failed and then tried again. “Because this Holistic competition also trains time management and reasoning to solve existing problems.”
This year’s winners composition is a diverse and fresh look. The third place is won by a back-to-back winning team from last year, consisting of three members : Syakira ’25, Aurellia ’25, and Descha ’25. Second place in the competition is a tenth-grader duo : Kalila ’26 and Rasya ’26. And unlike years before, the first prize is won solo by Jasmine ’25. As for their struggles in their journey of receiving this impressive achievements, here is what Kalila ’26 and Jasmine ’25 shared to The Arc. “I really didn’t expect to get in to the final round, let alone winning the competition. I am really grateful for my family, friends, and teachers’s support from the research paper making all the way to the presentation. The main struggle I think, came when I started doing the programming. Because, I haven’t fully understand a complex programming myself. Time management was also a difficult part, because there was also other things going on that needed my attention.”, said Kalila. On the other hand, Jasmine shared a thrilling experience as a solo, “In the beginning of Holistic I always got questions like, “are you sure you’re going to do solo?”, “aren’t you going to just join this team?” and many other. But considering my major, and how it would be difficult to match if I team up with others, I decided to go solo. “okay, if all I need to do is write this research paper it’s still doable, as long as I won’t get to the final round and have to actually make the product, I think I’m good”, that’s what I thought while writing the paper, not knowing that reality had other plans. Alhamdulillah I got in to the final, but the real pain has begun. I started feeling the pressure because I have to finish the game (Jasmine’s research product invention) in about one and a half week. And just a little fun fact, I have cried over this project more than 10 times. The pressure was really intense, especially there were tons of other projects that went on the same time. But big thanks to Fabiano and Mr. Gigih as my mentor, finally at last, game “Open it !” was finished. I don’t think I could’ve done it without them. If I tell you the full story then it would be too long, but I want to say thank you to my friends that has been a huge support for me to get through holistic. Without you, I don’t think I’ll manage. Standing alone doesn’t mean you won’t succeed as long as you’re strong enough to do it. This is Jasmine, signing out from Holistic 2024.”, Jasmine stated.
Those statements were a testament to the goals of this annual competition. It is that, everyone that managed to even simply participate in Holistic has proven themselves that they are capable of things more than what they believed.
Editor in Chief : Syakira Azzah K.S.
Journalist : Syakira Azzah K.S.
Editor & Translator : Syakira Azzah K.S.
Documentation : Mr. Muhid
English 
Indonesian
Leave a Reply