Education is the key in improving human resources quality to support country’s development, especially, in facing global challenges. Unfortunately, our nation’s education quality – formal and non formal - is still in a fairly poor state. It is justified by a survey result, which stated that Indonesia’s education quality is at the lowest from 12 countries in Asia (Political and Economic Risk Consultant (PERC)).

In 2009, the Putera Sampoerna Foundation established Sampoerna Academy, a high school with international standard and boarding system for students with excellent academic achievements who come from financially disadvantaged families. Sampoerna Academy is equipped with high-quality curriculum, which is a combination of a national curriculum and International General Certificate for Secondary Education (IGCSE) accredited by the University of Cambridge International Examinations. This combined curriculum is expected to be a strong foundation of a holistic educational system which will shape the right character of future leaders who has the capability to bring this nation toward a better one.

Sampoerna Academy implements boarding school system for its students. The advantage of the system is that it optimizes the school in providing academic learning, character development and social values, such as integrity, mutual respect, empathy, innovation, courageousness, open-minded and nationalism. These values are an important element needed to build prospective future leaders.

Similar to most international schools, Sampoerna Academy also implements Student Centered Learning methodology which encourage students to be more active, stimulate creativity and create fun learning atmosphere, for both teachers and students. This method facilitates students to attain the ability of independent learning equipped with science skills, process skills which support our life skills.

Students will undergo academic education in class for 8-9 hours with 45 minutes duration per lessons. Outside the classroom, students are encouraged to join student clubs activities such as music activities, Science Club, English Club, Community Service and other student clubs which suit with students’ interest.

As an extracurricular activity, Sampoerna Academy also implements Youth Entepreneurship program to help students in developing their interest and entrepreneurial spirit. In this program, students are given the opportunity to choose any business that they are interested in and get the chance to have the first hand experience in working there. Other supporting program is Learning To Live (L2L), a program designed to foster the sense of curiosity, improve students’ confidence, and encourage them to become a good citizens. There are 4 pillars embodied in L2L program: Well Being, Creativity and Art, Community Service and Global Citizenship.

Teachers in Sampoerna Academy are well-selected teachers who have passed the required qualification standards. The main requirement is able to teach in English so that the learning materials based on IGCSE curriculum can be properly delivered. Currently, some of the teachers already have Cambridge certification. In the future, all Sampoerna Academy’s teachers will hold the Cambridge certification through professional development programs. Not only in the classroom, teachers also participate in educational extracurricular activities.

For post-graduates, Sampoerna Academy will provide guidance and motivation to continue their study to higher education. Currently, a number of Sampoerna Academy’s students have undergone selection process in international universities. Fiananda Susi, Christian Timothy, Fitriyanti Fachrudin and Patrick Lagaunne are some of the examples. They have undergone initial student selection process in Harvard University, United States.

Sampoerna Academy has also proven in honing its students’ ability and aptitude to excel in national and international competition, for example, Yusman Ahmad Noor and Anisa Naziha who won gold medals in ‘Dreamline 7th International Olympiad’ in Ankara, Turkey; Nurul Azma who earned a scholarship from Nordic United World College in Norway; and I Made Gita Narendra who won a silver medal at the ‘National Olympics Science’ in Manado on September 11th.

Not only limited to high achiever students from financially disadvantaged families, Sampoerna Academy is now opening wider opportunities for everyone who wants to study in this international standard boarding high school and those who wish to be the next high caliber future leaders with good moral fiber. Click here for more info about Sampoerna Academy.