10 things of ITS student can do

For students staying in campus for more years or for the freshmen who have no idea about exciting things in ITS, I give you a brief opinion of mine which (I hope) makes you feel grateful to be a part of ITS academica.

1. ITS is one the best universities in Indonesia that concerns about low-middle class development. Compare to its national ranking and its tuition fees, ITS made to be the most affordable technology institution within the country. It described from its admission proportion between self sponsor students and government subsided students, in my enrollment it was 30:70.

2. There are so many students organizations there. Though it wasn't popular enough, I took video-journalism as my extracurricular study. There are plenty like; student association, religions organizations, choirs, robotic extra, cinematography, even diving clubs. You just have to look deeper for what's your passion and talent.
 
3. You can participate in international movements. Since being Indonesian iron stock mean we have many opportunities to represent our country, I suggest you to take some actions to represent ITS and Indonesia. The chance you probably accepted to the selection process are kind of big. People won't look to the vanish or extravagant students, they are looking for next top leader with humble personality. Mostly, they are looking for decent, modest, honest, brave, and smart students.  ITS students have those persona.

4. Invent and achieve something! I didn't do anything related invention in my course study but I knew people who did. Mostly they are student with self learning attitude. They probably the ones who did the code 3 nights in a row without enough of sleep in each or some geeks in the library. But they invent something big!  not just an electronic stuffs that had been popular as ITS specialty but more about analytical kind of stuffs. Join some paper based competition, come to more seminars, and be hungry for knowledge.

5. Be creative. Technology changes the face of the world's today. Indonesian has been known as emerging country with one of the highest population in using blackberry and twitter. Those kind of things wouldn't make me any less proud to be Indonesian, unless you're accepted to be just that typical. Many people become succeed because of their creative thinking in technology, they earn money from it. As an Engineer; to design a website for cheap is a beginning but being a pro is another story of hard-work.

6. Network. it might be least in our course days, but network does matter. Even ITS isn't the biggest university in Indonesia, but it is -of course- a reputable one. Ask for your seniors who are working in this and that company. Share opinions with them, be a helpful to them so you can get some help in the future.

7.  Keep up your GPA. this is very important as competition can be fierce in the future, GPA might not represent your intelligence but it's substantial. You don't have  to be a cum laude student to win the competition, your street smart ability will discover your path, but 3.0 or more is necessary if you want to be equal to 3.5 of private university's alumni. That's the advantage to be a public university student :)

8. Increase your confidence. ITS is sophisticated, why does its students appear to be shy? I always against to student orientation which makes new students become dull and passive. They are not robots for the God sake, they are human with dignity. So, to be an ITS student you have to remember that you're the agent of change, do not stuck with the reformation stuffs, kind of past movement, be future-istic. Meet your friends from other campuses and share ideas! surely you will know that ITS has the best quality, "the best pearl is always in the deepest mud"

9. Read more books. this is funny thing about Surabaya, people tend to buy books in the separate chapter than buy them in a whole. For students who can afford malls but no books, I think you should to be more cautious. The competition will be no longer between graduates inside the country but more graduates outside the country will cherish the battle, and to be sure they were read more updated books. Use wikipedia.org , sciencedirect.com, and join some academic forums.

10. Be inspire and inspired people in your environment. just share your experiences to people near you, give them information they may need, and keep the doors of opportunity wide open :)