Empowerment of Islamic Boarding School Students Based on the Local Potential in Indonesia

This study aims at mapping the potential of Islamic boarding schools along with the students’ problems and planning the empowerment of the students. This study might benefit the students to live independently and further enrich the treasury of the empowerment model conducted in boarding schools. This qualitative study used the caregivers of Islamic boarding schools, religious teachers, and students as the research participants. The data were collected through observation, FGDs, and interviews. The obtained data were analyzed using Assed Based Community Development technique. Results showed that Ushulul Hikmah Islamic Boarding School in Gresik, East Java Province, had thousand students, a dense environment with a shift from rural to industrial areas, charismatic religious leader, large land areas, big market potentials, and sufficient IT devices. The problems faced by the students included the lack of development of their interests and talents so that the suitable empowerment model was entrepreneurship and makeup training.