That afternoon at WRI Indonesia, the office was suddenly packed with junior and senior high school students, visiting from various parts of Indonesia: Papua, Maluku, Nusa Tenggara and Sumatera. They were chatting with their local accents and seemed curious about what they were about to learn. The visit was part of a movement called Lanjut Sekolah that aims to support bright students from remote areas to have access to the better education system. WRI Indonesia hosted the students to share about what research was and the importance of protecting the environment for them and the future generation.

Once the students finished drawing, they were asked to share about any environmental issue in their villages and their recommendations to solve the issues. Persistent and infamous problems such as illegal fishing and forest fires were the most common answers, to which some students recommended that the villages should impose stronger punishments on the perpetrators.

Towards the end of their visit, we shared with the students about our diverse background, in the hope that our stories can motivate them to continue learning so that when they soon take over as leaders in the public, private, and civil society sectors, they understand the importance of sustainable growth for the human being.