Leadership is not a gift, but it can be learned and practiced.

I’m Asri Nuraeni. Somehow I grew up to be a bit shy. But nevertheless I always chalenge myself by not rejecting a given belief, like a position in an organisation. I want to become a more fluider, funnier, and friendlier person.

Like when I believed to be the first chairman of the Community Youth Against Corruption (KOMPAK) Paramadina, since September 2011. This community concerns to spread the spirit of integrity among the youth. We see that the importance of young people is to have integrity, because they are going to be the leaders in the future. If the KPK and other law agencies worked on banishing and punishing criminals, hopefully we could supply young people with integrity.

KOMPAK itself had succeeded organizing some visionary programs, such as “Deklarasi Ujian Bersih”. It was about discussion of corruption in the mining sector, social media campaigns, and Anty Corruption Youth Camp. Indeed, KOMPAK as a new community,like any other, has a major obstacle, that is funding. However, this is not a big problem, unless we respond creatively.

KOMPAK does give a special experience for me, giving me the opportunity to learn as a leader. To learn of  how to influence my friends to get a vision and mission in the running community. Because I think that a leader must have vissions and missions to accomplish, and achieve. We must apply a genuine integrity as a leader. After a few times of ups and downs, KOMPAK finally began to show great progress so far.

Throughout some of my experiences in the organization, I am a responsible person. Thinking about the community that I’m leading, led me to be able to manage myself. Before taking care of things outside myself, of course personal matters, such as my study and my internships, I should keep running it smoothly.

Besides my concern in KOMPAK, I have some goals. One is to build my own area. I grew up in Ciamis, a city in West Java which is rather quiet, and the education level of its population is still low. In addition, the economic impact of Ciamis is still low, because there are many  potential areas to be dugg about. My goal after accepting bachelor degree is having a business in Ciamis. A business, which I’m passionate about it, that will surely encourage economic growth of Ciamis. When the economy begin to squirm, hopefully the educational level will increase. In this case, I’ve been participating in some business plan competition as a way of starting my business, but still not happening, yet. Perhaps I’m still lack of experiences and still have to learn more.

To build a business will certainly need leadership skills. As a leader of yourself, lead and empower their employees so that the standard of living increases, to have the vision,to innovate and to have high competitive ability. I remember what Gandhi said, to have dignity, then society should produce. For that, I started with entrepreneurship.

Joining the LIF is certainly interesting for me, being able to improve my ability to lead myrself, the people around me, even to lead Indonesia next few years. Leading Indonesia is not a sudden goal. It needs preparation, and later met with the opportunity.

I'm young, and I'm willing to learn.

*this essay applied for YLI