In between college classes, Regina Cara Riantoputra spends her time practicing for debates, which she is passionate about.

Cara, with her teammate Alif Azadi Taufik, will compete in the world’s biggest debate tournament, the 2018 World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), which will take place in Mexico at the end of the year.

She has been active in debating since high school and has triumphed in many national tournaments, including the National Universities Debating Championship, during which she became the grand champion, was named second best speaker and received full funding from the government to compete at the WUDC.

“I love debates because it helps us to not just have random opinions but to be able to sustain our opinions with reasoning and logic. Everything that we are saying is held accountable. In terms of public speaking, I’m able to express myself in a way that is compelling and convincing,” she said.

The student of the University of Indonesia’s economic faculty admits that her ability to express herself comes from the fact that she read a lot of classic books growing up.

“For me, books are a way to escape. The books that I always enjoy reading are the ones that I feel like I really know the main character. I feel like I’m living their life through reading their stories.”

“When I’m reading a book, I feel like I’m not just reading a book but that I’m living a different life,” she added.

Harry Potter

by JK Rowling

My favorite series is absolutely Harry Potter. I think the storyline is really clever. I feel that if there was one page of the first book that was removed, any page, the ending of the seventh book would be completely different. Everything is so incredibly linked and overlapping.

The Chronicles of Narnia

by CS Lewis

This book is very biblical. But the biblical ideas were communicated in a very entertaining, childish, fictional kind of way, which is relatable to many people. I think that I understood a lot of religious concepts that I had been thinking about precisely from reading Narnia.

Anne of Green Gable

by Lucy Maud Montgomery

This book is about an orphan girl who is adopted by an old couple. She has a really vivid and crazy imagination. She doesn’t have anything but she gets through by imagining things and that sounds a little bit crazy. Her vivid imagination enables her to be grateful. And I feel like it’s something that I have — not as crazy or vivid as her, but I feel like I’m escaping into a different world. I like imagining beyond what exists and imagining myself to be a different character.

The End of Poverty

by Jeffrey Sachs

It is an economic book that taught me that ending poverty is not impossible. That’s actually my passion — the field of poverty alleviation. This book provides solutions. The money, the capital is already there. It taught me that poverty alleviation efforts are a matter of behavior rather than mathematical strategy. The book is pretty inspiring for me.

The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.