2025 – Regional Meeting Manado
Van Deventer-Maas Indonesia held a Manado Regional Meeting on May 22-24, 2025 at the Nicolaus Room, 4th Floor, De La Salle Catholic University, Manado. The activity was attended by 45 grantees from De La Salle Catholic University, Manado and Sam Ratulangi University. This activity aims to prepare for the future by building character and getting to know yourself. The theme of the Manado Regional Meeting 2025: “Forge Your Own Path – Explore Yourself”.
Opening by Vice Rector 1 of De La Salle Catholic University Manado (Debby Paseru, S.T., M.M.S.I., M.Ed.). She emphasized that VDMI grantees who participated in this regional meeting could formulate strategies for themselves from the materials provided for three days. She also said that grantees could take advantage of this opportunity responsibly (study seriously, with integrity and make positive contributions to society). Grantees are the chosen ones and please maintain this trust as best as possible. She advised grantees to shape their characters that could be useful for themselves, their surroundings, their families, society and the nation. Parche Manoto (Executive Director of VDMI) said that this Regional Meeting was a meeting held to get to know each other between grantees, PIC and VDMI (as a family). She reminded participants to prepare themselves for Indonesia Emas 2045.
Different from previous Regional Meetings, every day (beginning and end) participants will receive a Mindfulness session to be able to focus, be aware of one’s existence and give meaning to everything that is done. The body that is trained, over time the body will have memories. Participants experience something that if they want, their whole body will learn. Realizing the unity and wholeness between body and mind. This mindfulness teaches participants to talk to their bodies.
The first session was delivered by Anggoro Mukti regarding: Know Yourself, Adversity Quotient and Forge Your Own Path. Understanding oneself is a profound journey that begins with asking fundamental questions: Who am I, and what am I? This exploration of self-exposure allows participants to delve into their identities, values, and motivations. In today’s fast-paced world, particularly among the Strawberry Generation—often characterized by heightened sensitivity and a desire for instant gratification—developing a robust sense of self becomes crucial. At the heart of this journey lies the skill of resilience. Resilience encompasses participants’ stress tolerance and flexibility in facing life’s challenges. It is often measured by participants’ Adversity Quotient (AQ), which gauges how well they can respond to adversity. Given a role-play of a scoring game that emphasizes persistence and goal achievement. Despite distractions, they should be able to achieve their set goals.
Participants are asked to fill out a test regarding their Adversity Quotient condition in doing something, regarding [1] Leadership, [2] Followership, [3] Work Direction, [4] Work Style, [5] Activity, [6] Social Nature, and [7] Temperament. In addition, Participants are given a method of using picture cards. The reflections that they want to convey in the picture cards are: [1] the picture that represents them is the strength that will be pursued and achieve goals through it; [2] the picture that does not represent them is the area that must be fixed or avoided or developed by the participants (because this is the area that makes participants down and have no energy in achieving something).
Prof. Irfan (YVDMI Board) also gave a sharing session to the participants. He advised that VDMI tries to provide not only scholarships, but also prepare grantees for Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). With HOTS, grantees are expected to win future battles, battles that will be the winner in life (such as job opportunities). HOTS equips grantees with the skills they need to navigate complex situations, make informed decisions, and contribute to society. The Regional Meeting also provides 6C (Communication Skill, Collaboration, Compassion, Critical Thinking, Creative and Computational Thinking) which are needed today and in the future. He hopes that grantees who have graduated will continue to Learn – Share – Encourage (like the VDMI motto).
The second session was delivered by Marsen Sinaga on Mindfulness for Critical Thinking in the Uncertainty Era. Thinking includes 3 activities: [1] Understanding/Concept (knowing something but not yet getting any information/description). [2] Decision (there is information contained in something) and [3] Argument (assessing and concluding). Each participant is given several premises and determines whether it is a Concept, Decision or Argument. This provides understanding to participants because Indonesia is one of the countries with a high hoax rate (low in assessing something/swallowing all information without thinking).
On the final day, participants are divided into five groups, each of which will discuss the problems faced by Regional Manado grantees (Student Monitoring System). Several problems will be given solutions that are applicable and easy to obtain. The Manado Regional Meeting was closed with an art performance from Grantees Manado with the Creative Dance “Uka Kakawkaw” which tells the story of North Sulawesi’s superior commodities, namely Uka or Tempurung and Woka. At the end, the participants sang two songs: [1] “Si Patokaan” and [2] “The City of Manado that I Love”.
Thank you Manado. See you at the Regional Meeting in other cities!
