Nadya Andhita, a student from batch 2017, has a particular fondness towards the art of photography. She has known of photography since she was little, but started taking it more seriously as she entered an extracurricular activity during high school. There, Nadya learned of the theoretical bases and techniques of professional photography. Her skills became better as she practiced, and she proved it by placing second in a Canon Photo Marathon event. She recalled, “the theme of the photo was ‘Appreciating Each Other’, and I submitted a photo of two siblings, with the older one feeding her younger sister.”
Zachranti Abianca “Abin” Hafsari is a student of IUP batch 2017. Ever since she was a child, she has a particular fondness towards the world of visual arts. She told us that it all started when she was a child, “around the age of kindergarten,” she recalled. During that time, her mother used to have a painting teacher come over to hone her artistry. Being a small child, Abin tried to imitate her, to which her mother noticed and had a mini easel placed beside hers. “I vividly remember the moment when I made my first painting. I was painting alongside my mom, who painted a scenery. I, on the other hand, painted a blue and pink house,” she told us. Her interest was brought to school at that time, making arts and crafts as her favorite subject.
This is Matheus Raoul Supriyadi, he is a 2017 student of IUP Psychology who has a particular interest in the classical Yogyakartan dance. He did not realize his fascination until he moved from West Java to Yogyakarta. It all started when Raoul first came to Jogja in 2014 and went for a small trip to the Kraton (Royal Palace), where he saw a male dance performance taken from the epic of Ramayana. “As I saw the dance, strangely my mind did not wander at all. My only thought was that the dance was very masculine and elegant at the same time,” he told us. From there, he was finally able to start learning how to dance in 2017 considering the lack of free time he had in high school. “I prefer to dance the refined male characters as opposed to the coarser ones. My breath can’t catch up with the energetic movements hehehe,” he joked as he explained more about his specialty.
Harera El Muhalla of batch 2017 is also known by his peers as a talented musician. It’s rather rare for them to see Era not listening to music in one day. As musical as he is, Era was not actually born into a family of musicians. He attributed his musical abilities to the interest that he has towards music. “Not one of my family members is a musician. So for me, determination contributes far more to my abilities than talent does,” as he told us. He started out as an autodidactic piano player since elementary school. Having no formal teacher, he turned to tutorials on YouTube as his source of pop-oriented piano knowledge. “Of course, I thought of playing the piano as a fun activity for an elementary student. That’s what kept me going until junior high!”