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Riana Helmi: Success in the first degree
JP/Slamet Susanto Just under four years ago, unsophisticated, childish Riana Helmi wasn’t brave enough to meet The Jakarta Post alone, and had to be accompanied by her mother Rofiah
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JP/Slamet Susanto
Just under four years ago, unsophisticated, childish Riana Helmi wasn’t brave enough to meet The Jakarta Post alone, and had to be accompanied by her mother Rofiah.
At that time, Riana was just 14 years and five months old. But at that tender age she had become the youngest new student to enter Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.
Riana has just passed her 18th birthday, and has just been crowned as the youngest student to have ever completed a degree at UGM.
She began her studies at UGM on Sept. 1, 2005 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in medicine on May 19, 2009: This teenager was able to complete her studies in three and half years with an IPK score (cumulative achievement index) of 3.67.
Yet despite this milestone, she still gives the impression of being a child – perhaps understandably since most young women her age would just now be celebrating finishing high school, and would most likely spend their time hanging out and shopping.
But that doesn’t seem to bother Riana.
“Yes, praise be to God,” she says. “I’m glad I graduated while I’m still young.”
Riana was born in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam into an educated police family. When she was two years old, her family moved to Sukabumi in West Java, where they have stayed to this day.
Little Riana was happy in the playground at school, often playing there and very keen to learn. Her prodigious talent was soon evident, and she was able to read and write when she was only three years old. But her memories of those days are not of lessons, but games.
“I was happy at school because I had many friends,” she recalls.
At the age of four, Riana entered Sriwedari elementary school in Sukabumi. Even though she was the youngest in her class, she went straight to the top of her class, being ranked first year after year.
After she finished elementary school, her evident intelligence ensured her a place in advanced classes. It took her just two years to finish junior high school, from which she graduated in 2003.
Then she entered State Senior High School III, also in Sukabumi. Her high school studies also she dispensed with in just two years.
Her success at high school saw her accepted into the Talented Student Program (PBS). She enrolled in UGM’s School of Medicine – for which the fees were a hefty Rp 80 million (US$7,600).
Despite her evident prowess in the academic world, Riana says she has no special techniques that helped her to race through school and end up with the title of youngest graduate. She insists it all comes down to interest.
“I have tried to be happy and love all the subjects that I’ve studied,” she says. “If we reject certain information how we can understand that knowledge?”
To enjoy her studies, Riana took a psychological approach. She really engaged with her studies by making them meaningful to her. For example, when studying history, Riana imagined the leaders whom she found interesting and who made her feel proud, “such as Bung Karno” (the nation’s first president Sukarno).
But Riana does admit that, from a young age, she was used to being disciplined about the way she used her spare time.
Nevertheless, the teen, whose IQ of 126 puts her in the top 7 percent of the population, says she was never forced to study or read books over a long period.
Rather, she became accustomed to reading whenever she had spare time, even if it was just a small window of time.
Even though her adolescence has been different to other similar girls her age – she was taking medical exams while they were hanging out in malls – she pragmatically brushes away the notion of any regrets for missing out on that period of her youth.
“I can still go shopping and walking around even during busy study periods,” she points out.
But there is one element of the life of a teenage girl that she hasn’t had – flirting with boys. And that, she says, is something she’s never even considered.
“I just studied and never thought about having a date,” she says. “I have never ever gone on a date.”
Perhaps there is plenty of time for dating later. Now Riana is embarking on her two-year medical training. After qualifying as a doctor she plans to continue her education to become a specialist.
“Ever since I was young, I have wanted to be a doctor especially a gynecologist and obstetrician,”
she says.
“During the time that I’m waiting for a patient to give birth, I feel happy, even if I haven’t slept for the whole night. It’s that feeling of being happy that makes me want to be an obstetrician.”
