Written by: Rachel Emmanuella Marlinang
Edited by: Rumaisha Ghina
Inaugurated by President Deguchi back in 2022, Impactional, is a youth-led organization focusing mostly on skills and ability developments in different fields, notably within education. The organization connects young people with experts to help them grow and prepare themselves for the future and recently has been officially recognized by APU as one of their student organizations.
Impactional members with President Deguchi.
Source: Syafira Fitri Annisa
Syafira Fitri Annisa, who goes by the nickname Tatjana, is a second-year, third-semester student from Indonesia, majoring in International Relations and Peace Studies at APU.
She has been leading this organization with her vice president, Olga from Poland, Sharing a glimpse of her journey leading Impactional to APU Times, Tatjana disclosed where she got her inspiration to start this organization. During her year of studying abroad in the United States when she was in high school, Tatjana came to realize the importance of multicultural collaboration to solve the ongoing issues within our surroundings. With the initial goal of providing "youths opportunities to get connected with people from different parts of the world through our program while also making them more aware of ongoing global issues and ways to solve them," Tatjana and Olga expanded the organization.
Leader and co-founder of Impactional, Tatjana.
Source: Syafira Fitri Annisa
"The journey of taking Impactional to the point that it is now globally recognized," commented Tatjana, "was never easy." Starting with the inspiration and idea of building a bridge for youths from all over the world to meet, discuss, and learn from one another, Tatjana, with the help of Olga, was able to leverage the connections they made while studying abroad. Not only in Indonesia and Poland but all over the world, to help them achieve this goal. Throughout the years, and also as a result of the persistent promotion, more people were able to know about and become a part of this admirable organization, thus explaining the formation of the Impactional team.
A diverse community at Impactional.
Source: Syafira Fitri Annisa
Currently, as Tatjana actively pursues her education while maintaining Impactional, the organization has recently had the idea of making an event specifically in APU called "Change-makers Training Program," where youths from different parts of the world will be gathered to create ideas to solve global issues with "Environment" as its big theme. Other than this, while also having training from professors or trainers from universities such as Stanford, Impactional is also actively moderating their program called "ImpactYou," where forum discussions will be done in order to talk about global issues on certain topics and allow the representatives of the youths to solve the problems.
Taking a whole new step for Impactional, Tatjana decided to make Impactional a student organization here at APU. Following all the "complicated but worth-doing" legal process steps such as applying through the student office, pitching the idea, and sending the proposal, the non-legal process, which includes member recruitment for those who share the same passion and goal as Tatjana. The organization eventually received full recognition from the campus. With the benefits of having a multicultural environment, APU has the qualities to be a starting point for working and collaborating, aiming to make a positive impact in the future. As demonstrated by the concept of the "Change-makers Training Program," the Impactional APU branch has the idea of connecting APU students with people all over the world to gain a better understanding of ongoing global issues and, with different perspectives, solve them step by step.
Together with Isogai Kurisu, Grace Marianne, Aditya Daniswara, Fuka, and Rohini Basunde, commonly working together as fellow students in classes and extracurriculars who share the same vision became the core members of the Impactional APU branch. The organization had the inauguration ceremony with President Deguchi as mentioned earlier in the article. Full of expectation towards Impactional, President Deguchi stated his hope that Impactional actually achieves the goal of creating a big impact by connecting APU students with people from different parts of the world and actively solving global issues.
・doucusing on skills
From left to right; Aditya Daniswara, Tatjana, Grace Marianne, Isogai Kurisu.
Source: Syafira Fitri Annisa
Regarding this, Impactional is looking forward to getting to know and recruiting more APU students with the same passion and desire to change the world for the better. Even though the date of the Impactional APU team's recruitment has not yet been confirmed, Tatjana and the other core members are looking forward to having it soon.
Encouraging people who have the heart to create change but do not know where to start yet, Tatjana remarked that "acknowledging problems that are really concerning to you right now and finding a purpose, interest, passion, and ambition in what you are doing in order to fulfill the purpose that you are trying to find in solving those problems" is the first and a huge step in striving to become change-makers.
Opportunities at APU come and go, and Impactional is opening one more door for APU students to contribute what they have to the real world by giving them a chance to expand their connections, learn from the experts, and get hands-on experience solving global issues. Now, it is our choice whether we are ready to start creating change or let another opportunity pass by.