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Novriana Sumarti (MSt. Mathematics, 2000) reflects on her experience as Lucy's first Indonesian student.

Among four siblings from a Javanese family in Indonesia, I was the third child and the only girl. I was a simple little girl and far from being an ambitious person. However, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. My late mother, Rr Soeharti, was a former college lecturer who had given up her career to be with her family, so my late father, R Aliman S Dipodiwirjo, a pharmacist and a military officer, was the sole breadwinner. We lived in an official military residence without any luxury belongings. My upbringing made me less complaining about life and willing to be responsible for consequences of all the choices I have made.

As a little girl, I used to be kicked by my younger brother when we were in a quarrel, for example, as to who would be the first reader of our weekly children’s magazine. One day, we visited an 824 AD Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java, which is still a place of worship for Buddhist disciples. My brothers climbed up the temple’s walls, on which at that time there were no warnings of its danger. Tempted by the fun of it, I also climbed up one of the three-metre walls. At the top, I heard a guard from the base floor shouted telling me to come down. Suddenly I realised that this was an activity that normal boys could do but was considered to be inappropriate for a girl, especially as we lived in a culture where boys and girls were given different treatment and expectations.

When I was getting into my adolescence, our parents began to differentiate the treatment between me and my three brothers. When they graduated from high school, both of my older brothers went to the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), one of top universities in Indonesia. Every day, they had to travel from Cimahi to Bandung, which was around 15 km or about 45-50 minutes using motorbikes. When I planned to study at ITB, my parents decided to buy a small house not far from ITB campus, which cost them a fortune, and they moved the entire family into this house. My parents had to give up their quite large military house, which was free of charge, to move into a small house for their daughter’s convenience.

After obtaining Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mathematics at ITB, I was accepted as a lecturer. In 1998 I was married to Basuki Suhardiman, and in the same year, my mother passed away at the age of 65. In order to pursue a doctoral degree, my senior tutor advised me to study abroad, so my husband suggested that I should try applying a place at the best university in the world, the University of Cambridge. I sent an e-mail about my interest in Numerical Analysis to Prof. Arieh Iserles, of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. Unexpectedly, Prof Iserles replied to my e-mail about six hours later. After several communications via e-mail, Prof Iserles advised me to take Part III Mathematics in his department.

Having confirmation of acceptance as a student of Lucy Cavendish College, I began to experience anxiety and doubt. My husband fully supported my study but he could not accompany me in my move to Cambridge. All my life I had never been out of Indonesia, and had never lived apart from my family. It was definitely out of my comfort zone. I could not get cold feet because I had to fulfil my obligation to study abroad. While flying from the airport in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, to Gatwick airport, which took around 21 hours, I felt that there was an imaginary high wall in front of me, because I could not imagine my life ahead.

Starting from 1st of October, 2000, I stayed at Oldham Hall. Having room number 212, it reminded me of Wiro Sableng (the Whacky Wiro), a fictional character from an Indonesian tale, set in the 16th century. Having number 212 tattooed on his chest, he was famous of his martial arts skill and amusing actions when he interacted with his friends or enemies. I felt related to this character, not because I was good at martial arts or in entertaining, but his courage to face danger was like my bold decision to fly, crossing oceans and continents to come to this foreign country.

A year in Cambridge was onerous and drained my energy mentally. Even though my husband's younger sister was also in London, I could not meet her often. I was from a country whose education was behind this more developed country. My decision was to work harder than others to catch up with this. Luckily, I had a Malaysian friend, Shamarina Shohaimi, who often invited me to have dinner in her kitchen at Bertram Hall, and Dr. Orsola Rath-Spivack, who helped me with matters relating to the College and the University. On one of my down days, I was very frustrated and unsure about an exam so in desperation I decided not to turn up, but with Orsola's help, I finally got the chance to re-sit the exam.

Having a passion for science, I volunteered at the 2001 Cambridge Science Festival in the "Painting the Sound" section. I also gained work experience by doing a temporary job at Cambridge International Examinations at Hills Road. Eventually I passed Part III Mathematics but unfortunately, I could not be accepted as a PhD student. On the day of the announcement, I learned that some of my friends did not pass, even though they came from developed countries like America and Portugal. Moreover, there was a friend of mine from Germany who decided from the beginning not to take all the exams. So, I, the first Indonesian student of Lucy Cavendish, proved brave enough to face the challenges and thank God I succeeded. This success was a guarantee to be accepted by all other universities in the UK that I applied to, so I did not need to worry. Finally, I chose Imperial College London (ICL) because it is also one of best universities, and there would be a number of opportunities to get temporary jobs in London to finance the additional years of study not covered by my scholarships from the university.

There were interesting stories during my study at ICL. Almost all of my good female friends, from non-European countries, experienced quite serious mental shocks. Frankly I had experienced it also when I was at Lucy, but thankfully it was not as bad as my friends had. Mature women taking further studies usually get a mental challenge and one of those friends dedicated her doctoral dissertation to all women in Science.

Now I am very grateful for my experience. My current research field is Numerical Analysis and Financial Mathematics. One of my concentrations in Financial Mathematics is Islamic Finance. Why Islamic Finance? One of the objectives of the Islamic economic system is to ensure the economic development and social justice in the society. This field has not been developed either in science or application, even though Indonesia is a country with 80% Muslim population. This is a new challenge for me, to always think out of the box, a thought that I got from my experience studying at Cambridge.