May 2001
Ten years ago, FIC congregation in Indonesia together with the Sisters of St. Carolus
Borromeus and the "Keuskupan Agung Semarang" started to discuss the possibility to open
a Senior High School to replace the Teacher training which was closed by the government.
The purpose of this school is to prepare the youth to be the leader in the society. Now we
celebrate the 10th Anniversary. It's time for us to look back at what we have done to serve
the society through this school.
Below are two articles written by Students of SMU Pangudi Luhur Van Lith Muntilan.
1. A report on the activities around the celebration and
2. A report on the Home stay and Live in two activities to help students to develop their awareness toward the society.
of SMU Pangudi Luhur Van Lith Muntilan
1991-2001
SMU Pangudi Luhur Van Lith held a lot of activities to celebrate the 10th anniversary.
1. May, 4th 2001
- lessons contest
May, 4th-5th 2001
- basketball contest
2. May, 13rd 2001
- Happy Sunday
3. May, 19th 2001
- a seminar on the education world
- a mass for the alumni and an alumni gathering.
4. May, 20th 2001
- social service to the society
- health service
- bazar
- entertainment
5. May, 21st 2001
- a holy mass to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Van Lith.
- including a visit to Pater F. Van Lith's grave.
- a party for all Van Lith members
1. Friday, May 4th 2001
On the first day of the 10th anniversary, our school held :
" The lessons contest and three on three basketball contest "
People were very busy at that time. There were many white and blue uniforms. The contestant who arrived first was form SLTP PIUS Pekalongan. They arrived here at 6.30 p.m. They spent the night at Van Lith.
The activities began at 9.30 a.m. on the basketball field. It was begun with the opening ceremony by Br. Theo as the headmaster of Van Lith. He hit the italics three times and let the balloons and two birds flied.
After the opening ceremony, the activity was continued with the technical meetings. Three on three contest's technical meeting was in the chapel, and the lessons contest's technical meeting was in the hall. Then each of the contestants walked to the place for the contest.
For the lessons contest, the students themselves must do the test, the teacher couldn't accompany their students. So… we just can wait for the result.
OK. Here are for the five finalists :
1. SLTP Bintang Laut Solo
2. SLTP Bintang Laut Solo
3. SLTP PIUS Pekalongan
4. SLTP 1 Muntilan
5. SLTP Kaliduren
And then, the finalists should compete again to decide who was the best. They must do Physic, Mathematics, Biology, and the general knowledge. Then they must have speech contest which the topic was about their school.
After the end of the speech contest, the jury decided the winner.
Eng - ing - eng ----------> one… two… three
dor
Here are the winner :
The 5th winner is
a SLTP PIUS PEKALONGAN
The 4th winner is
aSLTP 1 MUNTILAN
The 3rd winner is
aSLTP KALIDUREN
The 2nd winner is
aSLTP BINTANG LAUT SOLO
The 1st winner is
aSLTP BINTANG LAUT SOLO
The lessons contest was end at 4.30 p.m. For the basketball contest…
Three on three contest
The three on three contest used fall system. It was hold for two days. It was sponsored by Hexos.
Then here are the winner :
for female , the winner is
aSLTP TARAKANITA
for male , the winner is
aSLTP PL I YOGYAKARTA
2) HAPPY SUNDAY
Sunday, may 13rd, 2001
It was for the first time, Van Lith held this kind of activity. Van Lith invited allthe children who became the participants of the Sunday school accompanied by the second graders of Van Lith High.
The activity was begun at 8.30 a.m. with a creative holy mass in the school's capel. There were children who had come at 7.00 a.m. This make the committee looked so busy. When the Eucharist began, the kids were still coming.
Van Lith was flooded by app. 700 kids including their parents or their guardians. The children came from the 28 catechizing area which were invited formally. Besides, thre were children coming from the area around VL (Muntilan parish) who were invited formally by the church's announcement. And don't forget, that there were kids of our teachers at VL.The main purpose of holding this activity was to make better and more friendly relationship between the kids and VL students.
There were also a meeting between the teachers of VL( especially the ones who take care of the catechism) with the representatives of each area. The meeting was facilitated by Priest P. Susanto, Pr. It was aimed to know how good the catechism process.
This Sunday was areal happy Sunday and it was very special, both for the students of VL and the kids. There were colorful balloons and decoration everywhere,. The ice sellers seemed to be so happy, because there were a lot of kids who bought their ice cream.
Well, the activity ran very well and successfully. There wouldn't be a great activity like this if there were no committed committee members who were willing to work all day long to prepare this after school. Congratulations for the committee!
Saturday, May 19th 2001
This was the third part of the whole Van Lith's anniversary activities. In the morning, there were a seminar talking about the Emotional Intelligence and Internet. There were 300 guests coming. They were the headmasters of the Elementary Schools, Junior High and Senior High Schools of Pangudi Luhur Foundation. The speakers were Dr. S. Belen and Drs. Sujatmiko.
In the afternoon, there was a holy mass and a gathering night coordinated by the alumni of SMU PL Van Lith. The Eucharistic mass was symbolized by seven prickly roses forming a circle. It signifies that there were seven generations graduated VL High and now, they still bring the fire and spirit of VL High whenever and wherever they were.
The theme for this creative Eucharist was "The Resurgence of Indonesia". In this Eucharist, there was a guest, Agus S. Malma who delivered the homily. He was an IAIN student.
Here, we could see the unity of the spirit of keeping up the struggle so that this eucharist was filled up with the feeling of nationalism.
In the evening, we meet the alumni. Through this activity, it was hoped that the alumni would keep the close relationship among them who were, in this case, the students inheriting the spirit of Father F. van Lith, Sj.
Sunday, May 20th, 2001.
Van Lith held many activities such as Bazaar, band Parade, Painting Contest, health service, and Barongsai Show. In Bazaar, there were a lot of things sold, such as daily needs: rice, eggs, sandals, clothes, noodles, and many others. Beside that there were a lot of books from Kanisius and grasindo sold . And also there were Lippo bank and BPR service. The other thing which made this celebration became interesting was the recreation stand. In this stand, we could find the bracelet and ball throwing games.
There were also band parade, which was followed a lot of senior high school students like De Britto, Taruna Nusantara, Pius, and many others. All of these activities were held on the basketball and volleyball court. Another activity was a painting contest for play group and elementary school students especially for the first and the second grade.
For the health service, van Lith cooperated with Panti Rapih hospital. There were three rooms used for this activity. One room was for the waiting room and the others were for healthy service.
There was also a Barongsai show to cheer up the celebration of this 10th anniversary. It was held on the volleyball court. There were 600 people coming to this occasion. What a great number of people?
Monday, may 21th 2001
On this day, there was a seminar about the mission of Pater van Lith and education direction for future. This seminar was started at 7.30 a.m. and it was led by Mrs yanti and Mrs wati. A lot of teachers, headmasters, fraters, and priests followed this seminar. The speakers was Father JB. Bana Wiratma , SJ.The problem discussed here was faith, education, and social changing ( education should get Indonesia people free from " stupidity "). Besides, to get a good education, there should be a good relationship between the teachers and the students.
Education was hoped create a good education climate because this variable can influence the education orientation, and the education orientation could influence the students motivation to study. For an example, if in education climate was happened a tight competition between the students, they must study harder to defeat others. So the result will be good. The education should create a high spirit of solidarity between the students.
Beside that , there were also a sharing talking about Pater Van Lith' spirit. this sharing session was brought by Y.B. Marwoto as the leader of Pasca Muntilan and Marsanusi. They were alumni of SPG Van Lith. They shared about the story about the alumni of SPG van Lith who became the motor of this country, like Yos Sudarso, L. Manik, C. Simanjuntak, I.J. Kasimo, Frans Seda, Soegiopranoto, etc. The audience gave good response to the sharing. It was proved by the questions and suggestions given by the audience. An d finally, this seminar was ended at 03.15 p.m.
In the afternoon, when it was at 03.30 p.m., there was a eucharist celebration. It was sacrificed by three of Van Lith's alumni who became priests. They were priest Praptadiharja, SJ, priest Budiharto, SJ and priest Nico Djumari, PR. They told the story of pater van Lith. And also the glory of the alumni who had been educated by pater Van Lith himself, such as Frans Seda, Cornel Simanjuntak, Binsar Sitompul, Soegijopranoto as the first bishop of Semarang, Archbishopric L Manik, and Justinus Cardinal Darmojuwono. All of the them wanted to be God' s hand, because they had principle "If God don't have any hands, we are His hands " . Just like their own teacher, pater van Lith(he said that if Indonesia got its freedom, he would go with the Indonesians. How about us? Education in van Lith's opinion is education which gives freedom to its students and makes the students became the real persons who were critical and creative. An d that kind of education has been continued until now. This eucharist was ended at 06.00 p.m. and continued by 'acara tabur bunga' on van Lith's grave. This eucharist was the top of all of the activities of the 10th anniversary of Van Lith.
For the final celebration, Van Lith celebrated the reception night. There are a lot of important people invited, such as the head of Magelang regency, the head of Muntilan district. Everybody enjoyed that night. At the first time, there were some words from Mr. Sulistyono as the head of the 10th anniversary celebration committee, Br. Theo as the rector and the headmaster of this school, the leader of PL in Muntilan, and, at the last was from the regent of Magelang. then this celebration was continued by the choir sing the " Sigulempong", " Bapak Pucung", and " Edelweis". In the middle of this reception night , there was a dinner for all of the guests and all the students. The guest ate in the conference room and the students in the dinning room. The food was very delicious and everybody liked that. The theatre group performed a drama taking the title " KISS ( Kisah Seputar Sekolah ) ".At least this celebretion was finished by giving some presents and throphies for those winners of basket ball three on three competition and lessons competition which were held for the junior high school students. These celebration and activities of The 10th anniversary were closed by brother Theo before closing prayer, by knocking the "gong" three times. And finally, The 10th anniversary was over. The activities which had been planned long before the days could be done well and fluently.
Now van Lith isn't like the past. We can see it from the physical condition of this school which becomes more complete than before. We just hope …. not only for the physical part that got its development, but also from its students personality became more sensitive to others. So each of the students can make Van Lith's dreams come true. Are you ready to do that ?
(Edi, Antik, Halim: The second year Students of SMU Pangudi Luhur Van Lith Muntilan))
Home Stay & Live In
Van Lith is really a school where we can get much valuable experiences. Some like the home stay and live in activities that followed by the students of 1st and 2-nd grade at the past 1-5 April 2001.
141 1st grade students followed the home stay. The area of home stay included villages in Paroki Sumber, Tumpang, Salam and Muntilan. During the days-, which began from the Sunday morning, they stayed and lived together in the families. They felt various interesting experiences. They must face things like climate, society, and facilities, even the language. They must get used themselves with s sleeping on bamboo bed (bale- bale), took a bath using a simple bathroom (or even at the river!), far from television or electronic media, joined the family to the field, planted chili or corn, or harvest all of it, looked for the grasses for the cattle and much more. Those experiences enriched them. One of the 1st grade students named Arex's (1B), said that he felt happy in his home stay. He lived at Banyuurip Village. At that place, they harvested chili and tomatoes. The foods that he ate was good enough, like fried eggs for the breakfast. Other student, Chris(1D),who got home stay at Gantang Village, said ," My home stay was enjoyable. At first day I actually did nothing. At the second day, I went to the field with my 'father' and work there, We put the tomatoes seeds and planted it. At my home stay house, I was welcomed well. The nice thing that I felt was when I can free from the routines of the boarding school activities. The dislike thing like about the weather which was very cold.
Yes, most of the students who joined this home stay felt happy. After they came back to boarding school, they joined the reflection about home stay. Mr. Suratin and Mr. Wahyu accompanied us. Their activities like sharing, looked for the values that they got, made conclusion. The values they can took were like: The villagers still live in brotherhood or team work. They are not in hurry about time. It's different with the complicated boardinghouse activities.
For the second grade, live in is also became an interesting activities. The places of live in were divided into 4 areas: Yogya 1, Yogya 2, Solo and Semarang. There were various professions that they did. Nervous, worried are the feelings that they felt, especially for the students who had live in at Yogya 1, which seemed little mysterious. These can be seen from the goods that they brought. While others brought their own bags, they must use black plastic as their bag. Others took by themselves the bath tools, students of Yogya 1 had same tools which was prepared by the Tutor in Location. Yes, every location accompaniers - who still study in universities, had their own way in these accompaniments.
In fact, what are the aims of live in? Yap, the aims are: The students can live together with other people, knowing their lives, looking for the important meanings of their lives, etc. And what are the professions? There were various, like: being sand coolie, tailor, house worker, servant at a store, ragman, bricklayers even be a pelleter.
There were various experiences they felt. There were something enjoyable and not. Just look the experiences of Kobo (2A) who had live in at Solo. He worked at batik fabric begin from 08.00 AM until 05.00 PM. His jobs were: folded the batik clothes, arranged and put the batik clothes into plastic, counted the quantity of the clothes, etc. Unfortunately, he wasn't like to live there. For experiences, at the first day, he was given just only some rice that looked almost dished and 2 krupuks. The other students, Ekep(2B), worked as compos maker at Condong Catur, Yogya. At 05.30 AM, he must go round from house to house looking for the rubbish. After that he collected the rubbish which can made compos fertilizer. The enjoyable experience according to him was when he could take arrest at night by playing card game. And the dislike experience when he at the first time went to Mr.Wisnu Wardhana house, the owner of the compos places. He met Mr. Wisnu Wardhana's daughter and he felt peevish, because she was so suspicious and looked rather cruel.
So many values they can take during the live- in. Like Tomy(2D) said that at the residents, he could see that they were easy to received their situation, but not desperate and still enjoyed the job. That impression was also felt by Fel(2D). The mother who received him during live in said that if we work, just do it step by step. The important things was we did it right and we enjoyed it. It' s like what Kahlil Gibran said: "Work is a love that appeared."
After five days live in, the next days, 5-7 of April, there was reflection about the live in they had done. The reflection is filled with activities which was enough fresh and enjoyable, such as: sharing, five opinions about the society problems, made AKSI plan, games, watched film.
Actually, both home stay and live in, had hope too. These are small understanding for VL's students about life. We really study from the experiences and hope that those be useful for our life someday.(@moeba)
(Written by The second year students of SMU Pangudi Luhur Van Lith 2001)