My name is Raffa. I'm from the Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication).
I love the city of Melbourne and so the fact that RMIT has a good reputation, a degree that was really unique and I actually want to study from and in this amazing city.
I also hear this big word when I think of Melbourne, which is culture. Not just in RMIT, you get to meet lots of people from different cultures around Melbourne.
So I was coming into Australia, really not knowing anyone, but when I first came in, it was just amazing. The student body, all the students, all of the tutors as well. They were just very supportive.
I think I built my support system here from like from the ground up, actually, I would say. Support from my mum, she's been over and beyond, basically. I call her every day.
She's basically the constant support resource that I really need every day. So the fact that I can present to her, kind of and just show her that, oh, you know, I made it and it couldn’t really be achieved without her help as well.
I want to make my mum proud, so yeah, it means the world to me that she'll be there and looking at me.
I think I've changed a lot. The past Raffa that first came into RMIT, it was back in 2018, that was like, forever ago. So yeah, it was a different, it's a different Raffa than who I am now.
People from back home can really see the change. When I first started going abroad to afterwards. When I come back home, they would just say, oh Raffa, you have this new energy buzzing around you and you can actually see it.
So yeah, I would say I'm pretty proud of my personal growth as well. I love being active in university, so in my time at the university, I was, I wanted to try all of these different stuff.
I remember the first year I did mentoring, it's called RMIT Kirrip. So RMIT Kirrip is basically mentoring for new international students.
That was pretty, pretty amazing. Yeah, I met most of my best friends there actually, and I was involved in the RMIT University Student Union as well.
I did volunteering at first, I did volunteering at events, activities like free lunches, free breakfast, the good times.
That was when I first started and I volunteered at the front counter as well. And then in second year I moved on to clubs and societies, so I was a part of the Indonesian Student Association.
I was actually the Vice president, which the position really made me grow as a person I would say, being a leader and all.
And then on the final year, I actually got to work with RMIT. It's for my media and communications internship. So it's part of the degree. So yeah, it's been pretty cool. I'm finally graduating from RMIT, it’ll be like a look back of all my past achievements and see that everything has come to the graduation and to that moment right there.
The energy is so buzzing, there's so many people. The ceremony was beyond amazing, beyond, beyond really amazing.
There are so many performances from various cultures. They were waving the Indonesian flag and other flags as well. When I came up on the stage, I was conscious of my mum and my brother looking at me.
So I was just like looking at the camera and just like waving because I know my mum is out there in the stands and is recording with her phone.
So I did my best to just be like, Oh, mum, I'm here and look I made it. So yeah, it means the world. So what's next for me? So actually I have got a new job, which actually RMIT helped facilitate. So RMIT created this event, It's called like a speed interviews event, kind of. It's like straight from employers to students and you can just talk for like 15 minutes.
I remember just like talking to a lot of the employers and putting my resume and then, yeah, one called me back and now I'm starting next week.
So yeah, that's what's next for me.
