UNAIR NEWS – Aisyah Putri Rahvy, Student of Faculty of Public Health class 2017, Universitas Airlangga attended an international conference, International Conference of Public Health (ICOPH) 2018. The event was held from 19 to 21 July 2018 at Windsor Suites and Convention, Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand.

Students who are familiarly called Aisyah explained that her participation at the conference was from an accident when she talked to her PKM lecturer in the beginning of the academic year. In the conversation, Aisyah expressed her wish to attend a conference abroad and, surprisingly, received a positive response from her mentor.

“My mentor began to invite me to help him with his paper. So, my research is not purely my own research but also assisted by my mentor, and my senior, ” she explained.

It is to realize the initial target in college, and also of her own passion, to deepen Public Health, and see the comparison between Public Health overseas and in Indonesia.

In the conference, Aisyah presented a paper entitled Women Counseling towards the Mother of Malnourished Children as Effective Way to Promote Nutritional Conscious Families. It is a counseling event for mothers with malnourished toddlers so they improve knowledge, attitude values, intentions, husband support, behavioral control, and other variables. From the counseling, the mothers are expected to have the ability to implement nutritional levels better.

Aisyah’s journey in following ICOPH 2018 was not without obstacles. There are several obstacles such as how to manage time between lectures, preparing papers, also an exam. In addition, as a freshman, Aisyah also faced some administrative obstacles, such as for permit application and fund application.

“Alhamdulillah, a lot of friends support me. They could be involved in this. I was assisted by BEM FKM, especially from Research and Achievement division. My guidance lecturer, Mr. Trias also greatly support. He was willing to train me for presentation and give me lots of feedback, ” she explained.

The most memorable thing according to Aisyah was when she finished the presentation, some of the audience came to her because she was the youngest presenter at ICOPH event, they were quite surprised at Aisyah’s short description, Aisha mentioned her age, 16 years old. Before the closing of ICOPH 2018, it was also discussed by one of ICOPH chairman who mentioned Aisyah as the youngest student who follow ICOPH 2018.

“I felt inferior initially, with no confidence, because the other participants have S2, S3 degree and even professorship,” she concluded.

Author: Galuh Mega Kurnia

Editor: Nuri Hermawan