Students from the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM), achieved an impressive accomplishment as members of the Sleman Sembada team at the 2026 National Student Cooperative Jamboree. Almayla Taorayudha (Management 2024), Falinkha Nazzara (Economics 2024), and Viola Permata Agita (Industrial Engineering 2024), who are members of the UGM Student Cooperative (Kopma UGM), won third place in the Debate Palagan Gagasan category. The competition was held on August 4–6, 2026, at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta).
The National Student Cooperative Jamboree is an annual event that brings together members of student cooperatives (Kopma) from universities across Indonesia. The event is organized by the National Student Cooperative Communication Forum (FKKMI). In 2026, the event was attended by approximately 180 participants from 40 universities across Indonesia and featured various competitions, including the Business Plan Competition, Essay Competition, Quiz Competition, and Debate Palagan Gagasan.
Almayla shared their journey throughout the competition. She explained that the team initially set its sights on winning the Business Plan Competition, as teams from Kopma UGM had consistently won it for the past three years. However, when the competition took place, they did not advance to the top 10 in the category.
They eventually decided to shift their focus to another competition, the Debate Palagan Gagasan. This decision presented new challenges, one of which was their limited experience in debate competitions. To maximize their preparation, they independently learned debate techniques through videos on the night before the competition. Through these efforts, they ultimately secured third place.
“After the announcement, we decided to shift our target to another category, namely the debate competition. Although we did not have much time to prepare, we were grateful that we were still able to bring home an achievement for Kopma UGM,” said Almayla.
Almayla said that she learned many valuable lessons from the competition. One of the most important lessons was the need always to prepare more than one strategy to achieve a goal.
“We learned not to become complacent with past achievements because they do not guarantee success in the future. Always prepare a Plan B so that you are ready to face any situation,” she concluded.
Report: Najwa Anggi Namira
Editor: Kurnia Ekaptiningrum
Sustainable Development Goals
