UNAIR NEWS – Mochammad Rizal is Indonesian nutritionist and alumnus of UNAIR Nutrition Undergraduate program in 2018. He is best known as a content creator who shares nutritional education on social media, particularly Instagram. He is pursuing a master’s degree at Cornell University.
Owner of the @Rizalnutritionist account got an LPDP Scholarship from the Ministry of Finance. Rizal is pursuing a Master in Nutritional Science, specializing Human Nutrition Evidence for Policy Making.
He took this major because he believes that education with no policy support will not run optimally. “We need optimal effort from all parties with the same vision to solve the nutritional problems in Indonesia, including overweight and obesity,” he said on his social media platform.
Being awarded the LPDP scholarship, Rizal shared he made mistakes many times, from the admission documents for university and scholarship. Afterward, he decided to take an intensive course for three months before leaving for the United States.
“It was a real struggle even after I got selected and accepted. I had to adapt and adjust to the education very different from Indonesia,” said the man born in Jombang.
Though Rizal passed the language requirement, he could not straight tune in to the lectures. He had to adapt for several months to understand the professors’ lectures.
“Besides, I also had to settle into the surroundings, like food, place of worship, and the subtropical weather with very extreme temperatures,” he said.
Rizal is grateful for passing the challenges after many rejections. The content creator with 115 thousand followers said that the United States is one of the leading countries in higher education. Cornell University is one of the Ivy League universities which is widely known for its students’ diversity.
“The professors are involved with international programs of WHO, World Bank, UNICEF, etc. It is a wonderful opportunity for me as their student as I got in valuable exposure and experience,” he said.
Rizal, who is a member of the Sport Nutritionist Committee of the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) in East Java, aspires to contribute to nutrition programs in Indonesia, but not as the minister of health. He said that the scope is too broad.
“Maybe I could participate in WHO, Nutrition International, Ministry of Health, BAPPENAS, and the likes. After that, I’d like to devote myself to teaching,” he said.
Author: Viradyah Lulut Santosa
Editor: Feri Fenoria
