Alumni

Applying Knowledge and Experience from
IATSS Forum & Paying Forward to Community

Participant's Voices

Monica

  • Country : Indonesia
  • Forum : 55th batch (2016 Spring Forum)
I’m so thrilled to know that the time for me to go to Japan is coming quickly. As a young leader, I always feel the urgency to upgrade myself and improve my leadership skill. So I felt elated at having the chance to go to IATSS Forum this year. By reading all materials that the committee has prepared, I know that this forum is going to be a deep, thorough, and yet wonderful learning opportunity that will drill me to be a better leader. I believe that as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. I’m excited to meet new colleagues from Japan and 8 other ASEAN countries and to learn and think together with them. This is a unique learning opportunity that pushes me to study more of the ASEAN countries current issues, Japan’s success stories and lessons learned, and how I could apply those lessons to improve my own country Indonesia. I’m also eager to explore Japan and learn from its culture. I always perceive Japan as a country that has a calm and modest profile, but at the same time is also super modern and very well developed. So I really want to experience those at first hand. I’m very looking forward to coming to Japan and enjoying the training. Cheers!
As I’ve experienced a number of precious moments in life, my time in Japan was counted as one of them. Those were moments I would never ever experience again in my lifetime and I cherished them with people who once were perfect strangers, but now I have grown to love. Together we learned that if you want to go fast, you go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. This was what I learned about teamwork at the Forum. Like nothing any of us had ever experienced before, being together, working, and learning with 19 people from 10 different countries for 2 months really brought its own unique experience to each of us. For me, it was an eye opening experience to many things. First, that we, ASEAN countries, have tons of similiarities, despite of our wide range of diversity. We shared similar problems as countries and at the same time learned that diversity was also our strength. Through the Forum, I could taste mini multistakeholders works by having wide array of perspectives from the team. Heavy and light discussions had directly and indirectly stimulated me for more and more learning. The Japanese had also set excellent examples in terms of working hard and preparing things at its best. These examples had been shown not only by the IATSS Forum staff, but also all over Japan. Having the chance to see how Japan had developed their cities and suburbs was both great learning and fun experience for me. For those amazing two months, there’s no place I would rather be. Warm wishes, Monica R. Nirmala.

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