How Did I Join This Program?

“It is a miracle, indeed,” that was what I said to my friends when they asked me about how come I joined this opportunity studying abroad to a country as marvelous as Japan.

I promised to them to share my background story here. So, here it is.

In the end of November, I received an email from Mr. Fachru, staff for admission in Office of International Education Relation (OIER) UPI. He sent me a link to OIER website which provided information about SEA-Teacher Program Batch 9. Btw, for receiving this kind of information you should apply your email address to OIER newsletter here (UPI students only).

I actually already knew this program from a long time ago. Even in my first year of college, I wrote a wish-list, one of them is to be a part of Teaching Practice Program to other country. Since that, I’ve been searching and researching this kind of information. Luckily, it’s not just me who eager to get this opportunity. There are also Salman, Else, Shobahul, Gito, and Nana. So, six of us (especially Salman, Else, and Nana; I had to give this credit to them) made a plan about this with the help from Ms. Tuszie, lecture in our major who also a stakeholder in OIER UPI. She told us to make a list of university that will be considered as our host-university.

The others decided to go to Malaysia and made a plan to one of the university in Malaysia. When I heard that news, I asked Salman, “Can I go to different country? Japan perhaps?” that question suddenly came out from my mouth. I didn’t even do any research about the host-country and university, lol.

And then you know the rest of the story.

It’s come true. For the first time ever, we had the chance to cooperate with university in Japan for this SEA-Teacher Program (That’s why they called it Pilot Program). And, they specifically provided Japan’s slot for chemistry student.

It feels like a sign. I just knew it! I destined to be the part of this program!

In short, I applied every documents needed for this program. I joined the group with other participants. I made passport and visa, booked a flight, joined BEVI test, joined online training, and also joined briefing and farewell from my university (as you can see in the picture above).

It’s such a privilege to be a part of this program and I hope my journey here will give meaningful values both for myself and you as my reader.