Billy Dimas Anggoro and Fimanda Yudha Nasution, students of USU's Chemical Engineering Study Program and Anas Alfarizi (USU's Legal Studies Study Program), saw this as an opportunity to create products that can increase endurance. The public's need for immune-enhancing products has increased in line with the soaring Covid-19 cases in Indonesia.

Billy Dimas Anggoro, the initiator of this product and his team mentioned the desire to create a product that is simple, but has a broad impact on society. He sees that food products are products that are closest to people's lives. Starting from these thoughts he began to search and read some literatures about natural ingredients that are able to increase endurance.

From many articles, he and his team decided to use ginger (Zingiber Officinale) as the main ingredient of the product. The content of ginger is considered to have high efficacy to increase human endurance. Ginger, which has been used as an ingredient in cooking spices, is processed into food products that are easily consumed by the public, namely turning it into candy.

CoCandy-19, as they called the candy product, which is efficacious in increasing human body resistance. The name is inspired by the outbreak of Covid-19, and it is hoped that this product can help the community in dealing during pagebluk (epidemic) period.

CoCandy-19 is packaged in an attractive display and easy to consume. This team deliberately creates products that are easy to consume and carry everywhere. In addition, the attractive packaging is used as a force to attract public interest. They pack the CoCandy-19 in an ergonomic 75g pack. Each package is priced at IDR 15,000 per pack.

CoCandy-19 is produced on a home scale by using their boarding room as a production center. The three students diligently carry out the production process in the midst of their busy lives in the world of lectures. The entire production process uses the resources they have, showing independence in entrepreneurship. The product is marketed through social media networks and friendship networks. The persistence of Billy, Anas, and Firman, as they are called, made Doli M. Jafar Dalimunthe, SE, M.Si., interested in becoming their supervisor in this product. With Doli's guidance, the product performed even better.

CoCandy-19 was declared to have passed the Indonesian Student Entrepreneurship Program (PKMI) organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. The product passed the funding after going through a series of selections and assessments from various aspects.

Billy and his colleagues said that they were very fortunate that their product received assistance and direction from their supervisor. They mentioned that their mindset has broadened and their sales strategies have also been honed with the guidance. In addition, the existence of structured assistance allows their products to participate in various product innovation events.

In addition, a more specific division of tasks within their team also helps the product development. Billy as the team leader is responsible for production process. Anas, who is also USU's Student Vice President, contribute to opening networks and relationships for product development. Firman's role is to market and packaging the products so that they can be liked by the community.

In their message, the three of them together invite all students especially within USU environment to continue developing themselves. According to them, there is always a way and a way to overcome all obstacles and weaknesses if it is based on a will. Furthermore, they hope that these products can create jobs for many people. (RR/(©ULC))