03 June 2008

About Daisy

Greetings,

My name is B. I am writing this letter as a personal testimonial statement for Daisy D who has been a personal friend as well as a peer model that I respect for many years.

I came to know her in our undergraduate years as students at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. In the midst of our busy college studies and lifestyle, we managed to form an intellectual discussion group with an eclectic group of Indonesian students who have same interest in social and political issues on Indonesia. We met regularly in coffee shops to discuss the larger and historical purpose of Indonesian students in America. Without any practical or technical knowledge in journalism or web publishing, we pulled together a website and self-published a magazine that featured articles and creative works from fellow students in the United States and Indonesia. The fruits of those days can be seen 6 years later now in which many of the former members are dispersed to different part of the globe. They continue to pursue their social passions that were first ignited in that humble group ranging from a journalist in a major news network in Jakarta, a well-known political commentator in Jakarta, an architect practicing in China, to a Phd student in Sociology in the United Kingdoms.

Meanwhile, my respect to her continue to grow in our graduate school years as I pursued my graduate studies in Architecture at the Ohio State University and Daisy went to get her Master in Management at Devry University, one of the top business and management schools in the State of Ohio. She cleverly used her on-going professional management training to lead and organize various events that related to Indonesian students as well as many city-wide events.

Daisy was very active in organizing fellow students through the Indonesian Student Association or known as PERMIAS, a 300-member strong organization and is one of the largest foreign student bodies at the Ohio State University. She was the creator of Indigo or Indonesians On the Go that basically turned the predictable PERMIAS annual parties into something more noble and became city-wide Indonesian cultural event for the general public in Ohio. That is a testimony of the combination her vision and handy leadership skill at work. Moreover, she never contained nor limited herself in term of her roles and responsibilities to one area or the other. I have seen and been asked to volunteer in many of the social events that she was part of. Those events range from a biking event for a social cause to a martial arts booth in Asian Festival, one of the largest events in the city with 50.000 attendances annually.

Many of us have known or interact with many talented and distinguished leaders through our life. We know and recognize them immediately through our interactions and not so much by their titles or assigned roles. So, through out my personal, academic, and professional years of learning and interacting with influential characters, I can assure you, Daisy certainly belongs to that breed of talented and distinguished leaders. She is trained not just with formal or professional educations but also full loaded with a positive spirit and practical experiences that some people would call street leadership as opposed to theoretical leadership. She is obviously a natural team player and will always energize and motivate fellow team members. Like what she has been doing early on, she will again bring any enterprise to a notch better than it is before. If given the right opportunity and mentorship she is the type of a person that will bring a good organization to the next level.

Last but not least, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share with you about a friend, a comrade, and above all, a character that I look up too. Please feel free to contact me at my number or email below if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,
B
June 4th, 2008

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