Riswanda Himawan, a UAD student from Indonesian Language and Literature Education Department (PBSI), bagged first after competing with students all over Indonesia in the virtual national speech contest among all higher education institutions.

Not only have competence in delivering a speech and following the contest, but the former activist of the Student Executive Board (BEM) of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) also persevere Javanese culture. He inserted Macapat’s song entitled ‘Gambuh’ in his speech with the theme “Exemplify Indonesian Heroes in Millennial Era”. Moreover, the UAD students also wore a blangkon (a traditional Javanese headgear made of batik) when delivering his speech. Undoubtedly, his speech competence was supported by his experience in following various organizations and communities, including BEM UAD in 2018, HIV and AIDS Ambassador in Yogyakarta 2018, Education Ambassador Yogyakarta, Gendhing Bahana UAD Community, and youth organization in the village.

“The speech is beneficial for our life. Undoubtedly, as a student, by delivering a speech, we can develop our rhetoric competence and deliver values to others. We illustrate something extraordinary in the speech or in every competition to be a winner,” said Riswanda.

“Let’s go! Let us pursue achievement and balance the study life with the achievement. There are so many competencies that we can follow to develop ourselves,” he added. The national competition was conducted by the Student and Alumni Affairs Beraue (Bimawa) UAD. It was followed by students all over Indonesia.