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span class="inline inline-left">Zivanna Letisha SiregarWhen she finally returned to her campus after a year, some of her friends feared that she would hardly recognize them or even to have changed into a completely different person.

But Zizi, as she is frequently referred to by her peers, completely shattered such preconceptions and remains as low-profile as ever. The 2008 Putri Indonesia winner — who took a two-semester break from her studies at the University of Indonesia (UI) so she could carry out her job as Indonesia’s representative throughout that year — really acts as if nothing ever happened to her.

Despite her current status of media-darling and public figure, as a friend or college student she has not changed a bit: seeing Zizi eating in the campus’s cafeteria or studying together with her friends when exams loom, for example, is a very common sight.

Just like old times she is still the person who is the first to greet and say hello to her friends when she meets them in the cafeteria or campus corridors.

Knowing the fact that she won Indonesia’s foremost beauty competition and later went on to represent her country at the Miss Universe pageant in the Bahamas, many of her classmates have frequently expressed their astonishment at her humble and down-to-earth attitude.

“Everybody would love to have a friend like her,” said Arizhalika, one of her closest friends at UI who has supported Zivanna since the very beginning of her participation in the competition.

“Sometimes I even forget that this woman is actually [the winner of] Putri Indonesia,” she added.

The 22-year old Zivanna vows that there is nothing that could change the way she treats her friends. Her friends and family members, she said, were among the most important people behind her success story in winning the Putri Indonesia crown.

During the Putri Indonesia competition, Zivanna’s high-school and university friends — as well as her family — were known to be her most loyal and fanatic fans. They did many things from garnering massive public support on Facebook and other social media groups, to creating the famous, eye-catching, four gigantic letters of Z-I-Z-I during the pageant’s grand finale in the Jakarta Convention Center.

Zivanna’s powerful support base also helped to magnify her popularity on the world stage. Although she failed to make it to the second round in Miss Universe 2009, she shocked the world by topping the online poll in the competition.

Surprisingly, she finished first in a poll which was mainly dominated by Latina goddesses — at that time, 11 of the 15 most favorite contestants came from Latin-American countries.

But for her, the thing that mattered most during her Miss Universe participation was the fact that she had finally fulfilled her long-forgotten teenage dream.

“I have watched beauty pageant competitions on television since I was 13 or 14,” said Zizi.

“I remember seeing the likes of Lara Dutta [Miss Universe winner in 2000] walking on stage, and I used to ask myself, ‘I want to be like her, could that even be possible?’”

After that her demanding activities in high school and university left her teenage dream submerged and forgotten deep in her unconscious mind; but when she ultimately stood on the stage of Miss Universe two years ago, she realized that her long-hidden teenage dream had finally come true.

Two years have passed since her meteoric, life-changing rise. Now Zizi is currently living life as a final-year college student who has her sights set on a career in broadcasting and journalism the moment she graduates.

Following her ascent in the entertainment business, Zizi took a job as news anchor with national television channel SCTV for almost a year. Even though she said that she loved the job, she eventually decided to depart the company to complete her undergraduate studies in UI.

She turned down several offers to play in sinetron (soap operas) because she was actually more interested in appearing on television as a presenter rather than a TV soap opera actress.

The final-year economics student at UI also has an enormous interest in environmental issues.

In the realm of economics where students are taught to maximize profit with the lowest cost possible, and environmental matters are sometimes perceived as a trade-off, Zizi possesses a somewhat unusual mindset.

She loves spending weekends going to malls just like most of her friends; but lately she prefers to travel out into the wilds to take advantage of Indonesia’s ecotourism potential. “I traveled to many places in Indonesia during my tenure as Putri Indonesia, and fortunately I had the chance to savor the country’s natural beauty,” Zizi said.

“If only the Indonesian government paid more attention [to preserve the environment and promote ecotourism], it could be a massive boon for us.”

Several months ago she officially obtained her diving license, and directly she went to Raja Ampat to test her diving skills in open water during the holiday.

At that time, she was bemused by the fact that Raja Ampat’s infrastructural development remains overlooked by the Indonesian government, despite the islands being extremely famous among foreigners as a top diving destination. “The tourism industry at Raja Ampat should really be developed further by the Indonesian government,” she said.

Her interest in preserving Indonesia’s environment, biodiversity and ecotourism has also led her to become Orangutan Goodwill Ambassador for USAID. As part of the job, she has traveled to Kalimantan to observe the forest conditions there, so she could raise awareness of the importance of protecting Kalimantan’s forest — the Orangutan’s main habitat — among the Indonesian people.