Ex-Olympiad Participants in Working World
Several smart students who took part in the Science Olympiad have worked overseas, whether because of a job or because they wanted a better career. What activities have they pursued?
Several smart students who took part in the Science Olympiad have worked overseas, whether because of a job or because they wanted a better career. What activities have they pursued?
Night had fallen in the United States on Wednesday (2/5/2018) when Harun R Sugito, 24, received a video call from Kompas. He looked sleepy. Yet, he enthusiastically explained his studies and research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“In August, I will continue my graduate medical studies,” said Harun, who has enrolled at the Geisel School of Medicine of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
Harun is an alumnus of SMAK BPK Penabur 1 Jakarta high school who won the gold medal during the International Biology Olympiad 2010 in Changwon City, South Korea. He was in the 10th grade then.
After winning the Olympiad, Singaporean universities such as Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) offered Harun full scholarships and a job after graduation.
“They invited me. I needed only to submit my name and biography to enrol. I could choose any major,” he said.
The offers came before Harun finished senior high school. There was also an offer from an Indonesian university. However, this offer was not attractive, because it required Harun to take a major in biology, the subject in which he won during the Science Olympiad. “If I wanted to take a different major, I had to take a placement exam. It was complicated,” he said.
Ultimately, he took neither offer from the Indonesian or Singaporean universities. He flew to Boston, Massachussetts, to study at MIT. He passed the rigid selection process for the biotechnology major and received an 80 percent scholarship.
He made stellar achievements at MIT, including induction to the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. He was one of the top eight students in math, physics, chemistry and biology in the MIT-Sabanci University Freshman Scholar Program.
When he graduated in 2016, his overall GPA was flawless at 5.0 and a 5.0 Science. It was the highest GPA at MIT. Some sources say that less than 10 percent of MIT students got a perfect GPA every year.
He was accepted to research positions at several top institutions such as the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Boston Children’s Hospital, The David H Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Some of his researches in medicone and biotechnology were quite advanced. For example, he studied the behavior of mice under the influence of amphetamines. “Possibly, I will build a career in the US considering the attractive facilities at MIT,” he said.
Aside from Harun, other Indonesian Olympad winners are studying at MIT, such as Jonathan Pradana Mailoa, the gold medalist and overall winner at the International Physics Olympiad in 2006.
Dozen of years
Like Harun, Ainun Najib, 32, a member of the Indonesian team for the International Mathematical Olympiad 2002, also chose to pursue an overseas career. After graduating high school, he expected to get an offer from local universities. “It turned out the offer was to enroll at ITB, but without a scholarship. I was disappointed, because I come from a poor family,” said Ainun.
At that time, representatives from Singaporean institutions offered him an opportunity to study in the Lion City. “I was free to choose my major. But, I still had to take the placement exam,” said Ainun.
Ainun finally chose to study at NTU, majoring in computer technology. Half of the 30 students in his batch that competed in the Math Olympiad continued their higher education at NTU.
Ainun received a scholarship and a three-year contract with a Singaporean company. After graduating, he decided to work at IBM Singapore for seven years. He then joined Traveloka Singapore and four months ago, he joined at Grab’s Singapore headquarters.
“Time flies. I’ve worked 15 years in Singapore. I want to stay in Singapore so my children can get a better education,” said Ainun, who developed the kawalpemilu.org website.
Repatriating
Brian Marshal chose a different career path. The bronze medalist of the 2007 International Informatics Olympiad (IOI) accepted an offer to NTU after graduating high school. After graduating from NTU, he accepted a three-year employment contract.
In 2011, he worked as a data analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Singapore. “One thing that I found is that working at a company is boring. Everything is orderly. Yet, it is good for those seeking stability,” said Brian.
After the contract ended, Brian decided in 2013 to come home and build his career. At that time, there were many startup companies. “In that year, many friends of mine from among the Olympiad contestants returned to Indonesia. Startup companies were booming and they needed IT expertise,” he said.
That year, Brian set up Sirclo, a startup company that focused on developing online retail websites and managing distribution from online shops to consumers. Today, his company has grown from 10 employees at the start to 120 employees, located mostly in Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Bandung.
Initially, the Sirclo office was the rental room where Brian lived. Today, it is in a four-story office building in Central Jakarta. The office looked busy on Wednesday (2/5/2018), with almost all employees busy at their laptops.
Ainun said that with the startup boom in Indonesia, many smart young people, including former Science Olympiad participants who worked overseas, were deciding to come home and build their careers here.
“The opportunities for establishing a startup in Indonesia is big. The opportunities for working at an Indonesian company is also big. However, the Olympiad contestants who want to be academics in Indonesia are not as fortunate. We say that there is ‘no place for them’, these oversea graduates. Local universities do not provide a place for them,” Ainun said, his tone furious.