A debate team of Nursing Department (PSIK), Medical and Nursing Faculty (FKIK), Unviversitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) achieved the second runner-up of National English Debate of Nersvaganza ILMIKI 2015. The debate team of PSIK UMY consisted of Nurdina Whayu Hidayati (batch 2012), Agustina Prihannisa Astiti (2011), and Agus Gunadi (2012). The team was the only one coming from private university (PTS) reaching the best three. In fact, it was the only university from Jogja becoming the champion in the biennial competition.
The competition organized by Indonesia Nursing Student Association (ILMIKI) was a biennial competition for nursing students across Indonesia. In the debate competition of Nersvaganza 2015 took place in Stikes Panakkukang, Makassar, from 6 to 8 March 2015. The winner of the competition was Indonesia University, the first runner up was Brawijaya University, and the second runner up was Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY).
Agus Gunadi, one of the debate team members of PSIK UMY, was interviewed in Public Relations Office of UMY on Monday (9/3). He was glad about the achievement they got in the debate competition. In fact, they prepared and exercised in short time which was two days before going to Makassar. “It was incredible, and we did not expect it. Our preparation and exercise were only two days because one of our members Agustin was preparing LKTI proposal for final assignment. Before departure, Agustin had proposal presentation while Nurdina and I were busy doing events in an organization. Thus, the preparation was very short,” he told.
Moreover, Agus argued what made them proud is that they practiced debate through autodidact and based on their prior experiences. “We have not had an expert debate coach yet in out department. We exercised by ourselves and relied on our previous debate experiences. Agustin and I have joined debate since junior high school, but it finished in province level. While, Nurdina has joined debate since she enrolled at university. What we did for debate practice was learning by ourselves and experiences.
Before going to national level, Agus and his friends had joined debate competition in Regional level IV for area of DIY and Central Java. Passing as the winner, they joined the National English Debate Competition organized by ILMIKI. “In the national debate competition of Nersvaganza we played five rounds. First, we competed against Stikes Surya Global Yogyakarta, and we won. Second, we opposed Brawijaya University, but we lost. Third, we won facing Sriwijaya University. Those three rounds were accumulated and we passed to semifinal. We had a match with Brawijaya University again and we lost. Then, Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and we played off for the second runner-up,” conveyed Agus.
“Agus stated what made his team upper than UGM was that they were good at points of analysis and resources. He thought that they lost against UB since the adjudicator assessed that they were not quite related their argument to the issue. Therefore, learning from the weakness, they attempted to improve in the round against UGM. “In the final round against UGM, our motion was This House Believe That (THBT) WHO Has Failed in the War against Ebola. We acted as affirmative and we quoted a lot of resources, indeed. The adjudicators asserted that our strength in analyzing and providing many resources brought us upper than UGM’s team,” he explained.
Agus expected that his juniors at PSIK UMY could learn from their weaknesses and improve it, so that they could be the winner in national level, or even international level. He also wished that they could have a professional debate coach in order to be able learn a lot and gain enlightenment. “We hope that PSIK’s students could learn debate because in PSIK, in fact, it is difficult to look for those who are willing to join debate. Started from this year, MMSA (Muhammadiyah Medical Student Activities) of UMY established English Debate Club to find PSIK’s students eager to learn debate. Hence, when there is a debate competition, they would be ready and have adequate knowledge to join it,” he uttered.
