Just two days before her graduation ceremony, Anjar Windarsih was still actively teaching her students to read Al-Quran at TPA Miftahul Falah, Pajangan, Bantul. She has been teaching there since 2008. There were about 40 students there, and the amount usually increases up to 50 students during Ramadhan. Not only did she teach her students to read Al-Quran, she also taught personal hygiene to her students.
She usually teaches every Sunday and Thursday, sometimes it can also be on Tuesday. Unlike any other Thursday, on Thursday 19 July 2018 Anjar couldn’t teach her students as she had to attend her Master degree graduation ceremony. She managed to graduate from Master Program of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology with a GPA of 4.00 with the total study of 1 year 10 months and 13 days, allowing her to get the best graduate title.
She enjoys teaching Al-Quran as it became her stress relieve from campus and research activity. Although sometimes she has to deal with a naughty or a cry-baby student, she embraces that experience as a way to train her patience.
“Some of the students are hard to manage, but I just need to be more patience.” She said.
Anjar who is also keen on cycling worked on her thesis entitled “Application of TLC and 1H-NMR Spectra Based Metabolite Fingerprinting Combined with Chemo metrics as An Integrated Study for The Authentication of Curcuma Longa”. Her research is useful for the field of pharmacy as it makes the quality control process a lot easier. Also, it can be used to analyze the authenticity of the ingredients in a product, especially for herb products.
Work on Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Anjar’s interest in pharmaceutical chemistry and chemical analysis has begun since she was studying for her bachelor degree. Her lecture was the reason she pursued the field. She was also inspired by her advisor Dr. Abdul Rohman, S.F., M.Sc., Apt. who often encouraged her to conduct pharmaceutical chemistry research.
The thesis itself is titled “Application of Infrared Spectroscopy Method Combined with Cemometric for Avocado Fruit Oil Authentication (Persea Americana Mill)”.
Years on working on pharmaceutical chemistry world was not always pleasant for her. She once had an embarrassing experience when doing a practicum during her freshman year. She and her team, which consist of six students, miscalculated the material when weighting it. Not only that her team didn’t get the desirable result, they also needed to pay a compensation as the material was quite pricey.
“It cost us more than one million rupiah, but our classmates were more than happy to help us to pay. Fortunately, we didn’t get our score affected. The important thing was about knowing the mistake and learnt from it.” Continued Anjar who was also a LPDP awardee.
Researcher Pharmacist
For Anjar, pharmacy is a vast and interesting world to be explored. She wants to be a researcher pharmacist who develops analytical methods. This field of work may make her invisible from the society, but she believes that researcher also have a big contribution for the industry and the society.
Working behind the scene as a pharmacist doesn’t mean that she shows no care with the health problem around her. In fact, some of her neighbors often meet her to consult about health problem and to ask for the medicine.
“When I am at the mosque, for example, an old lady will approach me and tell about her health problem, mostly backache. Here, I have to answer directly. People in the village also know me as a pharmacist, so I have to know a lot of things.” She explained.
Looking ahead, Anjar wants to work as a lecture and continue for the doctoral study. She wants still to teach her students to read Koran even though she becomes a lecture in the future. She believes that teaching religious values to children from early age is an important matter.
“Don’t ever stop it (TPA-red). This place is also where people gather and meet while learning the Koran,” she said.
Her parents always advises her to be kind to others. To add that, she believes that yardwork, pray, and smile are also the key to her success. She believes in simple life as she writes “Simple but beautiful” on her social media.
“Life just needs to be simple. It doesn’t need to be luxurious. It’s simple but still focus and work hard. Therefore, it will end beautifully.” She concluded