Yoga Rivaldi, Environment Ambassador of IPB 2017
IPB Green Environmental Ambassador (IGEA) is an annual event of the Ministry of Environment of the Student Executive Board of Student Family (BEM KM) of the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB). It is a contest to elect an IPB Environmental Ambassador. Unlike other competitions, IGEA is filled with useful activities of the environment. For two months, participants are presented with knowledge and experience in the field of environment, such as seminars by environmental ambassadors, essay writing course, green campaign, and undertaking projects involving the public.
After going through a very tight selection with a long series of activities, finally Rivaldi Yoga is elected as the ambassador, a student of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) of IPB in batch 52 who managed to set aside 19 other finalists. Remarkably he won two titles: apart from being the Environment Ambassador 2017 or the 1st Winner of IGEA 2017, he also won the Best Project 2017.
Yoga’s winning of IGEA and Best Project is not without a hard work, he says that beating the other 20 is not an easy thing. "At that time, I got information about IPB Green Environmental Ambassador's open recruitment (IGEA) 2017 through the IGAF (Indonesia Green Forum Action) Line group, a Student Activity Unit (UKM)," he said.
The support of the IGAF colleagues encourages him to try to participate in the election and further strengthens his steps to contribute to the environment through IGEA. "Honestly, I am not ambitious to pursue the winning title because the goal I follow IGEA is just for learning. Finally, I decided to enroll in the training of environmental activist cadres," he said.
Yoga said his love for the environment is not by any chance born in the heart recently. His interest in the environment has been around since he was a child. This started from the neighborhood around the forest area which is very green. His direct emotional attachment to environmental changes and their immediate impacts makes the current environmental issues even a greater concern to him.
One of his concerns is the waste management and cleanliness management issues. Both are two important interconnected elements as the basis for every human to be aware of the environment.
Currently Yoga stays in the Boarding House of Bogor Regional Leadership, not far from IPB’s campus. Every day he usually goes to college by bicycle or on foot from this dorm.
"When I was walking along the faculty corridors in IPB, I often felt concerned. Why not, while walking through these corridors, my eyes also moved to see a lot of garbage. There I usually picked it up. When I hold some garbage in my hand, again my concern arose, for the far distant location of the waste bin. I thought this might be the reason why fellow students do not throw the garbage in the right place. Moreover, I saw the fact that the waste volume exceeds the volume of garbage bins provided," he explained.
He explained, the first phase that I must take in taking part in IGEA election was the file examination. This phase is among others writing an essay on the theme "Green Awareness Forerunner" of 500 words. Then, in the second phase, of the registered applicants, 30 eligible applicants were selected for the interview. This interview involves testing the background and contributions of applicants so far in the field of environment, motivation and goal to follow the IGEA election, and finally a foreign language proficiency test.
Next, Yoga was given training, such as Public Speaking, Personal, and Cyber ??Branding training, and training of Volunteerism and Green Campaign. "Further, after such trainings we conducted a field trip together to the Final Disposal Area (TPA) in the Village of Galuga, Bogor. We discussed with the TPA officials and got a lot of information about the trash amount from Bogor City and its processing. Then we also had various complaints and hopes of these employees to us, as one of the waste contributor in the landfill," he said.
Yoga said that after a series of training and field trips they were given the challenge to make a Green Project concept that can be put into practice in IPB to make IPB Garbage-Free in Year 2020. Then every finalist including Yoga must present it in front of three juries, who are experts in the field.
On this occasion, Yoga offered a Green Project concept called CF2 (Clean for Free). CF2 is a green project of seven series of programs: 1) Revitalization of garbage bin at IPB, 2) Social Media Campaign with the hashtag #ThrowYourRubbishChallenge, 3) MPKMB (New Student Campus Introduction) to Green Socialization, 4) Change Plastic with Wi-fi Password, 5) IPB Green Environmental Faculty, 6) IPB Free Zone of Plastic Bags, 7) Recycle plastic bottles into waste bins to increase the distributed waste bins in IPB.
The concept of ??this project was then presented in a creative form of posters and displayed in the Green Expo held at Node Media Center of IPB for two days. This Green Expo is the last series before the IGEA Awarding Night. On the awarding night, each finalist was required to wear recycled costumes made from used materials with the purpose of introducing the recycle method to IPB students.
"I myself made a suit and pant from old newspapers. The IGEA awarding night, this time, besides announcing IPB’s Environment Ambassador 2017 and other appreciations to the IGEA finalists, was also a test of knowledge and insight about the environment, especially in IPB related to the Green Campus program," he said.
This gentleman, born in Blitar, April 18, 1998, is very grateful for this achievement and determines his commitment that this is a new responsibility to move to realize the planned programs, to campaign for green life style, to invite IPB students to care for the environment, and in the future, will synergize with various parties and activities in IPB in the environmental field, primarily the Green Campus policies. (Mtd)
