Endro Kristanto is a #UPEACE alumnus who returned, after 13 years, to enjoy what he calls “the privilege of such a green campus.”
Thanks to one of UPEACE’s programmes, Endro obtained his M.A. from UPEACE in International Peace Studies, as a beneficiary of the Asian Peacebuilders Scholarship (APS) programme.
Currently, he is a monitoring and evaluation consultant, working mainly for the World Bank. Having acquired a great deal of experience, he came back to his beloved campus in El Rodeo to teach a special course on “Monitoring & Evaluation of Development Projects.”
Enzo was happily working as a psychology lecturer at a university in Central Java before he found himself crossing the globe to Costa Rica. So how did Endro end up in Costa Rica? Well, it might have been mere chance. A friend happened to show him the #UPEACE website, and he was immediately interested.
“I like research methodology and statistics, so my professional career has always been related to that, even my thesis in psychology! Later, my final project for UPEACE also included a methodology that surveyed more than 300 people. So after this programme at UPEACE, I started my career in monitoring and evaluation.”
When Endro arrived in Costa Rica, he was quite taken by the green scenery and environmental protection mindset. “That phrase by Federico García Lorca, verde que te quiero verde, stuck to me when I was writing a reflection after a field trip to Sarapiquí, as part of a Water Security and Peace course. Costa Rica, in my opinion, has been doing quite well in managing its environment. That is why I sometimes tell my friends in Indonesia that Costa Rica is one of the steps before heaven.”
His big smile shows he’s not lying; he definitely feels like our campus is closer to paradise.
When I asked him what he remembers the most about his time at UPEACE, he was quick to respond: “Well, the most memorable part was the community: student life, student interaction… and also the professors. The atmosphere was very positive.”
Endro laughs when I ask him to show me photos of his time here: “I only have informal ones, not of classes!” His experience reflects the profound interactions and connections generated at and by UPEACE, which is why he continues meeting with and sharing time and experiences with members of his cohort and other UPEACE Alumni. “Working and collaborating with UPEACERS is amazing. I believe in their capacity; for me, it’s all about the people.”
When asked what advice he would give current students at UPEACE, he responded: “Wel, 80% of what I do today and what I have done in the past is because of networking. Networking is very very important, and part of our responsibility is to try to be a good person everywhere.”
Apart from the UPEACE mindset he adopted during his time in Costa Rica, Endro was infused with a profound love for coffee. Today, this passion has also led him to become an entrepreneur: “I am also a coffee roaster. My brand is Ignite Coffee. I buy coffee from a green bean cellar and then I roast it. This is also why I wanted to come to Costa Rica, to visit Dota and Tarrazú. Costa Rican coffee is one of the reasons I learned to love coffee.”
“So you went from being a psychologist, to a consultant to a coffee roaster!,” I said to him. “It's a bit confusing sometimes,” he responds. “Even the topics of my consultancy are a bit confusing: reduction of poverty, economics, agriculture…but you know, I think it can all be related in the end through networking. People ask me what my specialty is and I always say: I’m a generalist!”
Find out more about Endro and his love of coffee here: https://instagram.com/ignite_coffeeroaster