Cares For Education, Scholarships To Support Food Security To Students Of The Faculty Of Agriculture

Scholarship award (Ist)

JAKARTA - The Red and White Foundation (JHL Foundation) has again shown its concern for the world of education and agriculture in the country. The foundation, which was founded by agro-industry entrepreneur Jerry Hermawan Lo, again provided scholarship assistance to hundreds of students of the Faculty of Agriculture.

This time the JHL Foundation provides Coconut Scholarships for students of the Faculty of Agriculture, Sam Ratulangi University (Unsrat) Manado, on Thursday (18/9/2025).

The Kelapa Scholarship from Jerry Hermawan Lo was given to 100 students of the Unsrat Faculty of Agriculture until they graduated later.

"I focus on agriculture so we want to score a thousand agricultural students in five years. Hopefully in the next few years we will add 2 thousand to 3 thousand more students," said Jerry in his statement.

As previously known, Jerry through the JHL Foundation has given scholarships to nearly 1,000 agricultural faculty students at many universities.

For example, the University of Lampung (Unila), North Sumatra University (USU), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Nusa Nipa NTT University (Unipa), Riau University, Jambi University, Agricultural and Entrepreneurship College (STPK) Banau Halmahera Barat

Meanwhile, Tirtayasa University of Banten, Jogjakarta Plantation Science College, and Lambung Mangkurat University of Banjarmasin will be the next university to receive scholarships, currently still in the administrative process.

Students in agriculture who get Coconut Scholarships from the JHL Foundation to graduate are expected to be able to use it so that later they will be born as experts in the agricultural industry.

Jerry Hermawan Lo, who is now focusing on this coconut agroindustry, said that the agricultural industry in Indonesia has good potential. One of them is in the field of coconut management.

Jerry admitted that in recent years he has focused on building royal agroindustry.

"If agribusiness means I plant and then sell the harvest. But if I focus on agroindustry. So, I processed the agricultural products first until I produced finished or semi-finished goods, then I sold them. So that downstreaming occurs and absorbs a lot of labor, "explained Jerry.

Indonesia's agricultural potential, continued Jerry, is extraordinary. Where Indonesia has abundant natural resources that can be managed properly.

In addition, infrastructure in Indonesia has also been very good. "So there are no more agricultural products that cannot be sold because there is no road access," he said.

Another thing that is very important to support agriculture is legal certainty. The fourth is the improvement of human resources. "Well, I dedicate this Coconut Scholarship to improving the quality of human resources in agriculture," said Jerry.

In addition, this Coconut Scholarship is a form of support for Jerry Hermawan Lo for the food security program promoted by President Prabowo Subianto.

Now Jerry already has several coconut processing plants. Namely in North Halmahera, Manado and Sampit.

"This means that we are one of the largest coconut producers," said Jerry, greeted by the applause of the students.

Jerry believes that agricultural students have the potential to work better than other fields.

"Extraordinary farming, the first day in straight lectures he could make even production. Meanwhile, in fields and others he had to graduate first," said Jerry

He also hopes that these agricultural students will not only pursue diplomas.

"We are thinking about how to create our own jobs," explained Jerry, who is known to have many business fields such as hotels, properties and automotives.

Jerry said that the provision of this scholarship assistance was because he felt that life should be useful for others.

"We live not for ourselves but live to share. I love talking here because I share knowledge of life and what I learned," added Jerry, who also shared 10 computers for Sam Ratulangi University.

At the end of his speech, Jerry emphasized that in the future, scholarship recipients will become independent farmers and breeders from an early age and develop into agricultural entrepreneurs.

"In the agricultural sector, it is our advantage that other countries cannot compete with it," concluded Jerry.

Meanwhile, Director of the JHL Red and White Foundation Scholarship Johan Sembiring appreciated Sam Ratulangi University for providing a way for JHL to carry out a sharing mission for all.

Johan explained that this scholarship assistance was not the first.

He revealed that there are already 16 universities connected to the foundation he leads.

"Until yesterday we distributed more than 800 scholarships every month," said Johan.

The scholarships given to Unsrat agricultural students came from 8 study programs, with details of 71 students coming from the 3rd semester; 26th semester 5 students; and 3rd semester 7th.

He said that the agricultural faculty was the focus of providing scholarships. One of them is because in agriculture there is growth which is the main feature of life.

Meanwhile, Virginia Rumuat, one of the students at Sam Ratulangi University who received the Kelapa Scholarship, admitted that he was greatly helped. He thanked the JHL Foundation for giving him the Kelapa Scholarship.

"My parents no longer think a lot about college fees and living expenses because they have been assisted," Virginia said.

"I am also very motivated by what Mr. Jerry Hermawan Lo has done. Hopefully I can become an entrepreneur in agriculture, so that later I can help many people like what Mr. Jerry Hermawan Lo is doing now to us," he said again.