The Indonesian International Mobility Awards (IISMA) provides tickets for Indonesian students to explore the world. In addition to a letter from Russia, we have stories from other IISMA alumni from Czech. Here is the story of an Applied Foreign Language student who received IISMA in 2023, Jauzia Yusi Hilmi Nabilla.
Studying abroad has been my dream since childhood, and since then I have often asked myself how to make it happen. As they say, “Many roads lead to Rome”. And IISMA is a path that I did not expect to take in the future.
On September 19, 2023, I set foot for the first time on one of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, Czech Republic (Czechia), together with 49 other IISMA awardees. We were warmly welcomed by student buddy from Palacký University Olomouc and representatives of the Indonesian Embassy in Prague.
During the 4 months we lived there, we certainly learned many valuable life lessons and made beautiful memories. I will tell you about some of them in this article.
Participating in IISMA does not mean we only focused on the academic assignments given by the university host. IISMA also gave us special assignments which are usually called challenges. There are individual challenges (article writing), group (social campaign), host university (Batik Challenge, Industrial Exposure, and Heroes Challenge), regional (Tales From Around the World), and class (in the form of class books).
Among all these challenges, in my opinion the most impressive ones were Tales From Around the World and Industrial Exposure. I was a representative from my host university for Tales From Around the World. This program was a “vehicle” for us, the awardees, to share experiences in our respective host countries with non-awardee students. Tales From Around the World was really challenging because it was quite difficult to plan and organize the event when we had activity schedules and were in different time zones.
Industrial Exposure is a special program that differentiates IISMA Vocational Path from IISMA Undergraduate. There are several types of Industrial Exposure: internship, industrial visit, and industrial class. Palacký University Olomouc collaborated with the University of West Bohemia in organizing industrial classes and Škoda Auto for industrial visits. Surprisingly, we got a chance to learn about 3D Printing, Virtual Reality, Machining, Acoustics, E-Textile, and other things related to mechanical engineering. It was unexpected. But, hey, there’s nothing wrong with learning something new, isn’t it?
Apart from academic activities and IISMA challenges, each awardee has their own activities. Some took part in city tours, the Erasmus Student Network program, and even went on trips to other countries. From these activities, awardees could get to know the culture and history of the places they visit, as well as socialize and build relationships with local and international communities.
Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a student organization in Europe. ESN organizes various events: volunteering, trips, national presentations, etc. I participated in one of its programs called Erasmus in Schools at T.G. Masaryka Primary School, Fulnek. The aim of this program was to help students there develop their intercultural communication/understanding and English language skills. This activity was certainly a golden opportunity for us to carry out our main mission as IISMA awardees, namely introducing Indonesia to the international arena.
This is a piece of my story while participating in the IISMA Vocational Path 2023 program in the Czech Republic. I hope that in the future there will be more and more Indonesian students, Undip in particular, who will have the opportunity to study abroad and bring Indonesia’s good name even further.
Recent Comments