HumasUPNVJ - Royal Eden More Silaban has achieved several achievements during his studies at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Jakarta (UPNVJ). He actively participated in various competitions, even winning 37 competitions consisting of regional, national and international levels.

This extraordinary achievement made him one of the recipients of the Bintang Mahardika Award at the 73rd UPNVJ Graduation this year.

Of the total 37 wins, 33 of them were national scientific competitions. For the international level, Royal Eden managed to win one victory in the medical/health and multidisciplinary fields.

"I have also won a handsomeness/beauty contest with health advocacy once at the national level and won 2nd place in the Men's category," said Royal Eden.

In addition, he was also selected as the winner of the Outstanding Student of LL-DIKTI Region 3 (Greater Jakarta) among more than 260 state and private universities in the Greater Jakarta area in 2022 and became the representative of UPNVJ and LL-DIKTI region 3 at the national level.

Last year, Royal Eden won 1st place for outstanding medical students in ISMKI Region 2, which includes all medical faculties, both in state and private universities throughout Banten, West Java, Jakarta, and West Kalimantan.

"Although I am quite active in competitions, I try to balance it by maintaining a GPA >3.5 and have served as the head of a university organization/UKM," said Royal Eden.

The most memorable competition for Royal Eden was when he participated in a national-level scientific competition in USU medicine at the SRF (Scripta Research Festival) competition in January 2023. In this series of competition activities, workshops, symposiums and tours to Lake Toba and Samosir Island were also held.

Struggles During College

Royal Eden went through a hard struggle to the point of 'blood' before and during his studies at FK UPNVJ. He had to fight to get a scholarship and continue working part-time as a private tutor and also a teaching assistant at the Department of Pathology Anatomy FK-UPNVJ so that he could continue his medical studies.

"I was born into a family of small vegetable farmers in Riau. We are 6 siblings. Even though the circumstances are difficult, I still believe that God's hand is always working for me, because I have family and relatives and friends/relations who always try to help me in every difficulty," said Royal Eden.

"Another thing that strengthens me is the motivation and direction from the lecturers/leaders/civitas of UPNVJ and FK-UPNVJ," he continued.

Currently, Royal Eden is taking Professional Education (clinical clerkship). He emphasized that he will continue to fight until he gets a doctor's degree (dr.).

"Thank you to UPNVJ and FK-UPNVJ for conferring the title of Mahardika graduate on me," said Royal Eden.

"I still feel like I don't deserve this, because I'm sure the other graduates are also great in their own ways," he continued.

"For me, this is an extraordinary award for what I and we have fought for together during my undergraduate medical education at UPNVJ," concluded Royal Eden.