Keatara Bailazahra Khumaira

Information Technology

For much of her childhood, Keatara imagined a future in a laboratory.

She was surrounded by possibility growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her parents placed enormous value on education, making sacrifices to ensure she and her brother could attend international schools and pursue opportunities abroad. They encouraged curiosity and the belief that the world was open to them.

"University was never really an option," Keatara says. "My parents made it very clear that we would go."

Yet university also felt intimidating. Throughout school, it had been presented as the moment life became serious, the point where life became more independent and expectations increased. At just 15, Keatara entered higher education carrying expectations of herself that were already immense.

She had a clear vision of the future: She would study biochemistry and spend her days in laboratories. She had always imagined herself working in science and helping improve people's lives.

Then, midway through her Monash University Foundation Year, everything changed.

Keatara's father passed away unexpectedly.

Alongside the profound personal loss came an uncertainty about her future. The plan to move to Australia and begin studying biochemistry suddenly became far more complicated.

Still grieving, Keatara and her family were determined to continue pursuing the opportunities they had worked so hard towards. Together, they found a new pathway through Monash that would allow her to continue her studies while remaining closer to home before eventually moving to Melbourne.

The pathway, however, required Keatara to begin studying computer science, a discipline she had never imagined for herself.

I went from seeing myself in a lab every day to suddenly studying on a laptop. At first, I couldn't picture myself in that world. ”

For months, she continued studying computer science because it represented a way to keep moving towards her goal of studying at Monash in Australia, while adapting to circumstances that had unexpectedly changed. She did not, however, particularly enjoy the discipline.

Over time, something unexpected happened.

Rather than resisting the path life had placed before her, Keatara found herself beginning to embrace it. She discovered satisfaction in solving complex problems and started to see computer science not as a detour, but as a discipline with its own creativity and potential to make a difference.

When she arrived at Monash in Melbourne as a second-year computer science student, another adjustment awaited.

While many of her classmates had years of prior experience, Keatara had only recently encountered coding. Accustomed to academic success, she suddenly found herself struggling in ways she never had before.

In one algorithms class, she sat staring at a problem she did not know how to begin.

A teaching associate noticed.

Rather than focusing immediately on the task, the educator introduced herself, asked Keatara about her experience and listened. As they spoke, Keatara admitted how overwhelmed she felt.

What happened next stayed with her.

The teaching associate shared that she, too, had once struggled with the same unit. "She told me she'd been in my position before," Keatara says. "That completely changed how I saw myself."

Here was someone who had excelled enough to teach the subject, yet had once stood exactly where she was standing.

The conversation did not instantly make the work easier, but it removed the fear of trying. Instead of seeing difficult problems as evidence that she did not belong, Keatara began approaching them as challenges that could be overcome.

Today, as she prepares to graduate at just 18 years old, Keatara reflects on a journey that looks very different from the one she first planned.

The loss of her father changed her direction, but it did not diminish her future. Instead, it opened doors she never expected.