February is a month full of surprises. Many competitions and events happened which made the students learn to be gritty to achieve their goals. Petra Acitya Christian Junior High School always supports the students by accommodating their talent development activities, like providing training for competitions and extra classes after school. By having a learning community, students are motivated to develop their talents and strive for achievements. Therefore, competition is not an obstacle for Acityans, but it is an excitement here.

The competitions which Acityans joined were various, not only in the academic field but also in the non-academic field, like creative essay and badminton competitions. Those competitions were some parts of the Sidoarjo Student Festival which were organized by the Sidoarjo Regency Department of Education and Culture. The online essay competition was on 20 February and the badminton competition was on 21 February at MM Bluru Badminton Court. Even though the competitions were short, students learned to socialize with other students from both national and private schools in Sidoarjo.

Another non-academic competition that the Acityans joined was the Art, Science & Charity Event, which was organized by Petra 4 Christian High School. Freya Victoria Alfa Turino was the third winner of the Campaign Speech Competition and Miracle Jonathan was the third winner of the Free Throw Basketball Competition.

Besides the regional competitions, Acityans joined both national and international competitions. One of them was the World Game Coding Competition 2023. Christian Emanuelle Khoswanto won second place in the teenager category. Christian used Stratch for building the game. There were almost 750 participants from all around the world and he was in the top three with one student from Malaysia and one student from Georgia. It was a great opportunity for him, not only for developing his talent but also to build an international friendship.

On the other hand, for joining the competitions, students could register by themselves or pass the school’s selection process. The selection process was conducted as the students’ enthusiasm to join the competition was high. Due to the school’s selective and systematic process, students had better preparation for joining the competitions. By joining all the processes, Petra Acitya Christian Junior High School students could give their best effort and let the results be the glory of God.