Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), together with bank partner, handed 87 GAMA Co-Brand Cards to representatives of Universitas Gadjah Mada Alumni Family (KAGAMA) Special Branch of The Netherlands in the Meeting Room of the Board of Trustees of UGM on Monday (26/3).
Kartika Ratna Pertiwi, MD, M.Biomed.Sc., Ph.D. candidate in Cardiovascular Pathology, AMC Universiteit van Amsterdam who became the representative of the special branch of KAGAMA Netherlands stated that she is glad about the issuance of this GAMA Co-Brand Card.
According to her, the presence of this new and banking-service-integrated official alumni identity card is highly anticipated by the UGM alumni who reside in the Land of the Windmills. The issuance of the alumni card is also to facilitate KAGAMA Netherlands in realizing the idea of forming the alumni database in the Netherlands.
“They (UGM alumni in the Netherlands) are very enthusiastic when they hear information about the existence of an integrated with banking services alumni card. They are also eager to strengthen their identity as the alumni of UGM by having an official membership card that is the GAMA Co-Brand Card,” she said during a coordination meeting with UGM and bank partners.
KAGAMA Netherlands is one of the special branches of UGM alumni overseas. Members of KAGAMA Netherlands are mostly students who are continuing their studies at several universities in the Netherlands. However, not a few KAGAMA members of the Netherlands are UGM alumni who have undergone a career or settled in the Netherlands as the diaspora.
Kartika said that the formation of KAGAMA Netherlands was backed by some UGM alumni who like to gather in a restaurant to hang out and chat in free times. “We have the motto ‘KMF: Kumpul, Foto, dan Makan (Gathering, Photos, and Eating), the goal is none other than to build intimacy,” she said.
Starting in 2015, KAGAMA Netherlands was inaugurated as one of KAGAMA’s special branches abroad. KAGAMA Netherlands stewardship was inaugurated directly by Ganjar Pranowo, Chairman of KAGAMA Central Board at the office of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, The Hague. The inauguration also confirmed Hero Marheanto, a Twente University student, as the chairman of the first period of the KAGAMA the Netherlands special branch. [Eggy/Farah]