Geoscience has an image problem.

The first time that most people encounter geoscience is as a child.

(They got to see dinosaurs, volcanoes, fossils), but then, how relevant are these to most people’s
daily lives?)

Before they know the answer of their question, they saw the geoscience from another bad
perspective (fossil burn, mining sector)

An outreach event about how the society think about geoscience?

Fossil fuel = in general they have been overwhelmingly negative

In stark contrast, many members of public having much more positive words that they associate
with renewable energy.

Whereby people don’t realize that we can’t switch to renewable energy, without a hell of a lot of
mining.

It genuinely amazes people that two-thirds of the elements from the periodic table are contained
within their smartphone.

Combating climate change means geoscientist are going to have to play a huge role because we
need to mine more raw materials than ever before to build these low-carbon technologies

It seems to me that we have a technical image problem, whereby the society so disconnected from
the importance of geoscience to everyday life and a control model image problem

I want to educate school kids, their parents, businesses and politicians about how vital geoscience is
from one society and how it’s the foundation of decarbonizing our economy.

We need geoscience to be seen as part of the solution to combating world problems (climate
change) rather than the problem.

My senior said combating climate change means that geoscientists are going to have a huge role
because they need to mine more raw materials than ever before to build these low-carbon
technologies that mean we can move away from our reliance on fossil fuels.
Just like many people, the first time that I encountered with geoscience is as a child, and at that time
I just read some books of the dinosaurs, volcanoes, and fossils. As I grew older, my curiosity about
the wonders of our planet grew too. At that time, I had a habit of reading National Geographic
magazines at my uncle's secondhand bookstore after school. I also still remember the confused face
of my uncle when he explained why my country has three different time zones. In other case, aware
of his son's curiosity, my father took me to various interesting places on the island of Java. During
the trip, he always taught me about the various flora, fauna, and natural conditions in the places we
visited. Because of that trip, my fascination for geoscience had begun- alongside a passion for
travelling.

Having an interest in scientific things makes me enjoy by liking some science subjects such as
physics, chemistry, and geography. And during high school, I passed the stage as a school
representative to take part in the city-level chemistry Olympiad. Even though I d,id not manage to
get the best ranking, I was quite satisfied to be able to compete with the many smart people there.

One day, I saw a video on YouTube featuring a public outreach event where geoscientists wanted to
know how much knowledge the public had about geoscientific activities and their responses. At the
event, there were two large pieces of paper with the words Mining and Renewable Energy on each
paper. After that, the host asked members of the public to write down whatever the pops into their
heads when they think of that word. For mining, the answers are overwhelmingly negative. In stark
contrast, many members of public having much more positive words that they associate with
renewable energy. From that, there is some real disconnect in society, whereby people do not
realize that we cannot switch to renewable energy without a hell of a lot of mining. In addition, it
still genuinely amazes the people on that video that two-thirds of the elements from the periodic
table are contained within their smartphone. And ironically, those material all come from different
mines all around the world.

So, after seeing that, I began to realize that my goal in studying Geoscience is not just to fulfill my
passion, but I want to educate the general public to participate in knowing how vital geoscience is
for the welfare of humans’ civilization now and in the future.

Knowing that I have big dreams to achieve, I decided to continue to study abroad. Although many
great countries offer good education, I have an interest in going to Japan. The thing that made me
interested in continuing my studies in Japan was when I read an article entitled How green is Japan
by Chris McMorran. He writes about the efforts of the Japanese people and government to restore
environmental protection after experiencing the heyday of the industrial era in the early 60's to 80's
which had an impact on water and air pollution. From that article, I also really admire other
Japanese cultures which greatly contribute to maintaining the balance of the environment and
nature which is certainly very different from what most Indonesians do. Moreover, two other
important reasons that made me decide to study in Japan are because of their rich cultural heritage
which is very interesting to study and the country's conditions are safe for overseas students.

Long story short, I got information from a friend of mine that actually Tsukuba University offers a
geoscience major in the English language program. Since English is my second language, I was very
excited when I found out about it and immediately had the main intention of being accepted as a
student there. After seeing the overview of the majors and activities on the campus website, I was
even more convinced to apply at Tsukuba University.

In addition, prior to learning about the program that University of Tsukuba offered, I had previously
attended Japanese language courses, and I was already at the N3 level for Japanese proficiency
language at the time I was writing this essay, hence I confidently could say that by acquiring
Japanese language skills, I will be able to study various topics outside of my core profession,
strengthen working relationships, and even broaden my career option in the future.

I understand that studying geoscience is not an easy thing, it takes hard work and there is still a long
way to go and certainly not easy. However, I still want to learn more about geoscience, and I feel
that the College of Earth Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, as well as the school's resources, will
prepare me well to achieve my lifelong vision of contributing to geoscience to make more of a good
difference in the future of our planet.

PROBLEM/LONG TERM VISION

- CLIMATE CHANGES, CHALLENGES FROM WORLD

I mean those are not the main vision from me, karena aku harus menghadapi itu semua
sebagai ahli geoscience nantinya. The main reason ya karena aku mau berkontribusi besar di
perkembangan dunia. Dan aku yakin dan percaya dengan mengenal lebih jauh bumi ini, aku
akan