Ever Not Upgrading to Become a Waiter in High School, This is the Story of Satria who is now a Lecturer at UM Surabaya

The future is a mystery, no one knows one's path to success. Perhaps that sentence is the right one to describe the twists and turns of Satria Unggul Wicaksana's career as a lecturer and director of the Center for Anti-Corruption and Democracy Studies (PUSAD) UM Surabaya.

It seems that before becoming Deputy Dean and at the peak of his career, Satria had a bitter journey in life. As the last of 3 children, his father Mulyadi and Nyoman Sumetriyani work as rags sellers of used clothes in villages. The rags were sold to his home area from Gresik, Lamongan to Tripe.

When he was a junior high school (SMP) student at SMP Negeri 26 Surabaya, it seems that Satria failed to go to grade 3 when he was going to grade 3. This was because he could not buy school books and five teachers did not give him grades.

"At that time the school did not have boss funds, so buying books was an expensive matter. Not to mention buying books, it's hard to even eat," said Satria Tuesday (12/27/22)

Satria said that selling his parents' rags only brought in 5,000-25,000 per day and that was to meet the needs of a family. Born into a poor family, he had to make himself a more independent child because his parents had to work Monday-Sunday.

"So when I didn't go to class, I got frustrated and locked myself in my room for 2 days. At that time there was a lot of bullying. I even wanted to move to Bali because my mother's family was there," he recalls.

After shutting himself in his room, he thought and could not lament his fate for long. Even though he didn't go to class he tried to be a more active student, took part in various Olympiads, was active in organizations and even the following year when he was in grade 3 he was chosen to be class vice president.

The activity at the school continued until Satria Sekolah at Muhammadiyah 8 Surabaya High School. At that school Satria met a teacher named Yusuf Ismail who introduced him to Muhammadiyah, the Muhammadiyah Student Association (IPM) organization, studying the Koran and religion.

“At that time, my knowledge about religion was very poor, my mother converted and her parents worked every day, so there was rarely time to chat. I was grateful to meet Mr. Yusuf Ismail, he taught me many things about religion, including often missing my prayers,” recalled Satria again.

Even though his high school education was free, Satria chose school while working as a waiter in the Pakuwon area, he did this so he wouldn't ask his parents for money and for food.

"So I go to school in the morning, from 2 pm to 11 pm I work as a waiter and the salary is 40 thousand per day. As a consequence, when I go to school, I often get sleepy and sometimes sleep, but I still balance it with studying so that my grades don't drop," said Satria.

He carried out activities as waiters until he became a Law student at UM Surabaya, but this only lasted until semester 3.

Survive by Being a Typist on Campus

His persistence in school brought him luck. Satria was lucky because he met Sudarusman, the man who is now the Principal of SMA Muhammadiyah 10 Surabaya, who was willing to pay for his studies until he graduated. Because it was funded, he didn't want to disappoint, so he continued to study diligently.

When he became a student his life was not easy right away, he had to keep looking for money so he could survive in Surabaya. While in Surabaya Satria did not have a boarding house, he lived in the secretariat of the Muhammadiyah Student Association (IMM). According to his statement, he once had no money for a whole month so he had to join his friend for a meal.

"I'm grateful that someone took pity on me and invited me to eat every day. After that, I thought about making a living by working as a campus journalist, helping lecturers' research until I became a typist. Thanks to being a typist, the lecturer gave me a laptop," said Satria.

It was from writing that his luck began. Since then he has been active in writing scientific papers, the Student Creativity Program (PKM), and even Satria has passed to PIMNAS.

"Fortunately from semester 3 writing PKM passed and was funded, so at that time I intended to write not because of achievement, but to write to survive," added Satria again.

Not only proficient in writing, when he was a student Satria had served as Student Executive President (BEM) of UM Surabaya and became the best graduate by graduating 3.5 years in 2015.

After graduating, Satria was appointed as an assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Law and received a scholarship from UM Surabaya to continue his studies at Airlangga University (UNAIR) majoring in law with a concentration in International Law (HI).

When he became a Lecturer at UM Surabaya Satria never stopped contributing, in 2021 he was named the most implementable Lecturer at the workshop event as a result of learning innovation funding assistance and assistive technology for students with special needs organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

"I mhas the principle that education is the best way to break the chain of poverty and underdevelopment," he concluded.