EMBRACE - Sekolah Bogor Raya Newsletter Sep. 2020

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Grade 5 carefully crafted wayang for Folk Tales Story Telling in Bahasa Indonesia

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Grade 6: We explored past times to f igure out ways
in overcoming the pandemic issues!

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OPPORTUNITTIES

IN

CHALLENGES

By: Alicia 6A

THE CHALLENGE WE FACE HAS AN OPPORTUNITY

Challenges Opportunities

Education: Education :
Sometimes we need good we can buy the
unlimited wi-fi package
wi-fi for online school and just need to pay
because most use once a month maybe

application that needs
strong wi-fi and its kind of
hard for some people to find

wifi

Education: Education :
Sometimes if students we can ask the
teacher's phone
don't understand number so we can
something, its kind of call or chat from a
hard to contact teacher certain application.
when students want to

ask question.

Physical Health: Physical Health:
Sometimes we don't feel We can use the new
invention which is face
fit and we want to shield that is used but it
exercise and we can can make our breathing
exercise but we need to system more good than
use face mask that can using a face mask.
block our breathing
system sometimes.

Mental health: Mental health:
Our body will feel lazy We can push ourselves to
and not used to do that do the normal things we
daily activity we always do can be indoor (inside
sometimes do and we
house), backyard, or
feel that things we outside the house (In
usually do is not front of house). Because
it we're in Quarantine
necessary anyomore.
now.

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Grade 6: Here are our findings on facts of challenges that people face nowadays!

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“We” Community
of Learners

Learning Together - with SBR Student

Vedie Adhwatsany Wardhana Syahrani (Vedie)
was born on February 3rd, 2010. He has been with
Sekolah Bogor Raya since 2017 at Grade 2 of Primary
level.

His hobbies are playing soccer and taekwondo. He
also joins the competitions related to them.

According to Vedie, there are things that we
need to prepare for achieving the best results in
competitions. They are keeping on practices and
always praying, especially before competing.
Practice will make us ready and it can give us a
strong motivation to compete.

Vedie’s most memorable experience is the moment with Sekolah Bogor Raya’s Soccer
Team (SST) when he was part of the team and won a soccer match at Sekolah Bogor Raya.
It was a great feeling when you and your friends in the team celebrated what you have
practiced for weeks. Especially after putting your effort as a team, working together and
winning the game.

Here are Vedie’s latest achievements in winning competitions both individually and as a
team member.

1st Place Kyorugi Male at Taekwondo International Championship 2019
1st Place at the Menpora Cup- Taekwondo Championship 2019
1st Place at the Indonesia Student Taekwondo Championship (ISTC) 3, 2019
1st Place at the Krakatau Posco Cup 2 Taekwondo Championship, 2019
1st Place at the UPI Challenge Taekwondo Tournament, 2019
The Most Valuable Player in the U-10 Team 2018-2019 Season
1st Place Kyorugi at the Kejuaraan Olympic Champion Taekwondo Festival 2018
The Most Valuable Player for Phenomenal Participation in SST Under - 8 Team
1st Place at the Taekwondo Bharaduta Open Championship 2017
Gold Medal in the Taekwondo Championship - Open Tournament Menhan Cup 2017

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He believes in his motto “practice, pray and win”. He will develop his personality not just
to be resilient, disciplined, but also to keep focus in giving the best that he can do.

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Learning Together - with SBR Teachers

Mr Aditya Rao (Mr Adit/Adi) was born on December 20th,
1984. His educational background is Master of Science,
majoring in Biophysics. He has been with SBR since
2019 and currently he is the coordinator of IB Diploma
Programme in Secondary School of SBR.

He mentioned that it has been a real pleasure for him
to work at SBR. When he first came here he had many
concerns about the challenges that arise from working
in a new country with a very different culture and ethos.
However, almost as soon as he landed, Indonesia made
him feel welcome. This feeling was further reinforced
by the warm and friendly working atmosphere that
he found at SBR. It is a singular pleasure to be able to
interact with such an active, enthusiastic, and curious
set of young people. Interacting with students here is definitely the highlight of my day
and it makes me want to put in more effort into my classes.

Given the supportive senior colleagues and the enthusiastic students, he knew from the
beginning that at SBR he must push himself to do things beyond the classroom. He has
been able to arrange for guest speakers to come and talk to the students about alternative
farming practices, he has started a hiking group, the students f rom his classes have taken
on independent research projects and presented their findings to their junior peers.

Apart from the classroom, he has also been involved in building the IB program at SBR in
his capacity as DP coordinator. He has conducted teacher training sessions, worked on the
systems required to streamline the curriculum implementation, and has also led the effort
to grow the capabilities of staff and infrastructure within the program.

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As an educator and thinker he has participated actively in inter-school conferences and
has facilitated training sessions for educators f rom around the country.
His personal philosophy about teaching is that every student has a latent curiosity within
them and his job as a teacher is to awaken that curiosity. Once that flame of questioning
is lit within a student, he simply has to get out of their way and watch as they master the
subject. This approach lets him pass on his own love for the subject to his students; it lets
him interact with them as intellectual equals; it lets them become partners in their own
education. It is one of the greatest things in life to see that look on a students face when,
after struggling with a concept, they finally “get it”. That moment of discovery should be
planned. Lesson plans should be devised in a way which let the students puzzle over the
concept and finally arrive at the solution.

His personal motto is
“Reach for excellence,
but with compassion
and a sense of joy in the
journey”.

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Learning Together - with SBR Parents

Mr. Charles Choi, we call
him ‘KHotelier CC’, is one of
Sekolah Bogor Raya’s parents
whose children study at the
Primary School level.

Below is our interview with
him that was specially done
for our Embrace Magazine-
September 2020 edition. It’s
about passion, experience,
values and a success story.

Please share to us the reasons for being a hotelier
To be honest, it was not very well planned, and being a hotel manager was not my dream job
when I was little. It all started when I was in my 3rd year of my university back in 1997. Like in
Indonesia, a big f inancial crisis hit the Korean economy, and soon I realized that it wouldn’t
be very easy to f ind a job inside my own country. So, I looked out for a job opportunity, and
I was lucky enough to receive a job offer f rom a hotel located in the United States. It was a
trainee position in a hotel called ‘Hyatt Regency Crown Center’.

Since then, I have spent most of my career abroad, including stints in the United Kingdom
(9 Years), Malaysia (1 Year) & Indonesia (6 Years) so far. So, I can say that the biggest economic
crisis in the Korean history has helped me become a successful hotelier.

What are the things that you like in your position as the hotelier?
I love my job so much and I would love to live my next life as a hotelier again if another life
exists and given to me. From this statement, you can easily see that I have been extremely
satisfied with my own career life for the last 21 years.

There are three good reasons why I want to be a hotelier again in my next life.
The first reason is very simple. It is because I want to secure a successful career again in
my next life!
In my opinion, anybody can make a successful career in the hotel industry if they want to. I
have to admit that being a hotelier is not a very popular job. Your income will be one of the
lowest, especially in the beginning of your career. Your working hours will be longer than
others. Sometimes you need to work in the morning, sometimes in the evening, even at
night times. In the hotel industry, if you have the right attitude towards your job, if you have
a passion for your career, if you are willing to go extra miles to make your career successful,
you have a very good chance to transition your career into the senior positions including

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General Manager. This is the 1st reason I would love to become a hotelier again in my next
life because I want my next life to be a successful one again.

The 2nd reason is more important, and it is because the Hotelier Career will assist you
to become a better person as a human-being. In my opinion, there are many industries
where you must win over other people in order for you to make your own success. In many
cases, you will have to keep f ighting to be a winner by defeating your colleagues, or by
achieving better results than your co-workers. Basically, you are likely to f ind yourself in a
constantly competitive environment. Success as a hotelier is quite different. In the hotel
business, people are our main products and services. Therefore, your success as a hotelier
is coming from your ability of how well you can cooperate with your colleagues, how well
you can sympathize & empathize with others’ feelings, and how well you can collaborate
with others to create maximum levels of synergy. And, you will be able to achieve these
kinds of job competencies and results only when you can obtain genuine trust & respect
from your colleagues, your team members, or your guests. Therefore, you will be constantly
forced to push yourself to become a better colleague, a better manager, a better leader,
and eventually a better person.

The 3rd reason is more fundamental, and it is because I genuinely believe that you have a
better chance to live a happier life if you are a hotelier. In my opinion, “happiness’ is a kind
of emotion like being angry, sad, pleased, lonely and so on. All emotions have a couple of
very distinctive natures. The 1st nature of emotion is the fact that emotions will be created
only when there is “stimulus” given to you. For example, if you are feeling hurt, it means
there should be a negative stimulus which has made you feel hurt. It could be a physical
or verbal abuse from other people, it could be terrible news or stories you have just heard.
The 2nd nature of emotion is more crucial to understand, and it is the fact that emotions
do not last for a long time unless there’s the same stimulus repeatedly given to us. We
need to understand that most stimuli are one-off, and they cannot make us have the same
kind or level of emotions over & over. One of the biggest reasons why many people are not
happy with their life is coming from the fact that they did not notice or understand that
their emotion of “Happiness” can be generated only by a series of positive stimuli.

So, how can we make ourselves happy then? There are two conditions you need to achieve
if you would like to live your life as a happy person. First of all, your today must be better
than your yesterday. It does not matter how humble your current situation is. What’s
important is you need to provide yourself with a sense of achievement and self-satisfaction
by making a small improvement in your life on a regular basis. If I share my own career
development, I started my hotel career as a telephone operator, after 6 months, I got a
promotion to become a Front Office Agent. Then, I tried the Food & Beverage department
as a waiter just for a year. After that, I moved back to the Front Office working as Night
Auditor, responsible for all different kinds of reports and reception operations during the

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night shift. After 1 year, I received my first managerial title as Assistant Night Manager,
and then promoted again to Night Manager after another 6 months. After spending more
than 3 years at night, I got another promotion to be Reservations Manager, the position I
enjoyed a lot for over 3 years. Then, my next mission was Revenue Manager, who is in charge
of the pricing strategy of the hotel. Then, I moved into the Sales & Marketing department
as Director of Sales & Marketing. I carried out my role as DOSM only for 2 years before
becoming Operation Manager. Then, after spending only 1 and half years as Operation
Manager, I found an opportunity to become a General Manager. If I look back, I can see
that I received 10 promotions during my 21 year career as a hotelier. It means I was able to
celebrate small successes at work at least every two years. This is why I believe hotelier is
a perfect career to make your life happy & satisfactory, as it will give you a lot of positive
stimulus on a regular basis.

The 2nd condition is to have a “Hope” or “Great Expectation” about tomorrow. When we can
have a hope “that tomorrow, my life will become better than today”, we can stay positive
about today’s situation and we can start to enjoy dealing with today’s problems, challenges
or unsatisfactory situations. As I mentioned earlier, I had 10 promotions during my 21 year
hotelier career. If we experience a series of repeated successes in our life, success becomes
our habit. Once success becomes our habit, our future becomes something we always look
forward to, not something we need to be worried about or afraid of. In that sense, I feel very
grateful that I was able to develop my career as a hotelier which is just the perfect job to
make success as my habit of life.

According to you, when is the best age to learn about leadership? And why?
There is no minimum age requirement to work on your leadership. It is because leadership
development should start from leading yourself first. Leadership is very different from
management, which is just a simple skill you can always improve by studying ‘management’
theories. However, cultivating leadership requires a lot of time, as you are supposed to work
on the basic value of yourself as a human being.

Leadership is not about your job title or your social status. You will never be able to lead
people successfully if you rely on this kind of external power given to you temporarily.
Leadership is all about gaining other people’s trust, and there is no shortcut when it comes
to ‘trust’.

Do you have any recommended books/movies about management and leadership?
There is one book which has changed my life permanently, and the title of this book is
‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. This book has helped me focus on the life principles
which are supposed to be welcome by any kind of culture, any kinds of religion, any kinds of
races and people. The principles I am talking about are the common values we all learned
f rom our parents when we were very little, something like being kind, f riendly, honest,

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diligent, modest, generous, that kind of thing. There are a couple of huge advantages you
can enjoy if you live your life sticking to those life principles.
First of all, you will be protected solidly by the principles you are following. Once you can
see that you are well protected by your principles, you will be able to stop worrying about
other people’s opinions about you, other people’s evaluations or judgements on you. This
fantastic experience will eventually help you develop a very high level of self-esteem and
conf idence.
Another big benefit you can obtain by sticking to the life principles is the fact that you
will be able to make better decisions for your life. Throughout our life, we encounter a
lot of important decision making moments, and we are supposed to choose the best
options for our own benef it. Most importantly, these decisions will be fully supported by
your confidence and life principles which will eventually have a much better chance to be
turned out as good decisions.

Find more information related to the hotel activities where Mr KHotelier CC leads in:
Novotel Bogor
Facebook: @novotelbogor.indonesia
Instagram: @ibisStylesBogor
Ibis Styles Bogor Raya
Facebook: novotelbogor
Instagram: ibisstylesbogor

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