When Dreams Come True

A kid who lives in the village in Indonesia and is a son of a farmer, unable to go to college because they do not have much money. With the help of Mimi finally he managed to go to college, get a college scholarship in the USA and now he becomes a lecturer in one famous polytechnic in Indonesia. 

This a story about the first starfish

The first Starfish is Dwi Susanto. He first met Mimi in 2001. At that time he has not graduated from high school. He met Mimi at Borobudur Central Java Indonesia when he was practicing his English by speaking to Native speaker. It is a program from an English Course where he study. Then they exchanged emails to stay in touch.
Around 2003, Mimi return visit to Indonesia to see the anniversary event of Ponorogo city located in East Java Indonesia. The city is the home of a famous cultural named Reog. In this city Dwi Susanto live and they met again.
On a night they chatted and Mimi asks about Dwi’s plan. Dwi said that actually he really wanted to go to college and even he had registered at one of the top universities in Indonesia, ITS. However, he did not have the money for college tuition. After calculating the amount of money needed for tuition fees and living costs, Mimi finally agreed to help him.

The next day they went to the city of Surabaya where the campus of ITS is to complete the registration payment. Then Mimi returned to USA and Dwi happily began to begin his class. Each end of the semester, Dwi send the result of his study via email and Mimi send the required fees for next semester. This continues until Dwi graduate.

At the graduation ceremony, Mimi came to Surabaya to attend the event. Dwi and her family are grateful for the assistance of Mimi. Mimi so proud of what Dwi achieved  which he managed to graduate with the GPA more than 3.5 in scale 10.  Even Mimi interviewed by local journalists and the next day, their story published on some local news paper. They become Rock Star!!!

Mimi, Dwi and his mother at Graduation Ceremony

In 2007, Dwi Susanto won a scholarship to study one semester in a Community College in Neosho Missouri. How happy Mimi and Dwi that day. September 2007 Dwi fly to the United States, something he has long dreamed of. He had dreamed of USA since  high school. And now his dream come true.

First landed in America, he landed in Minnessota to stay with Mimi for 1 week and then fly to Missouri for college programs. January 2008 he flew to Minnessota and stay for 1 month at Mimi's house. During one month he visited California and NASA base centers in Florida. And that same month he returned to Indonesia.

Dwi shoveling snow at Mimi's House, Minnessota

 one of Dwi's activity in Missouri when visiting Community College in Springfield MO

Dwi at Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Currently Dwi Susanto become one lecturer in Electronic Engineering Polytechnic of Surabaya and is preparing  for his Master Degree programs. Dwi also running his own website at www.kangtanto.com. You can find him on facebook at www.facebook.com/kangtanto. Mimi’s message that he always  remembers is pay forward, which means that one day he had to send other children to college, to encourage more Indonesian children who could attend college and achieve their dreams