Alumni

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

Participant's Voices

Siti

  • Country : Indonesia
  • Forum : 54th batch (2015 Autumn Forum)
What a wonderful dream comes true! It was one of the best moment in my life when committee announced successful participants, yes..it was me, chosen as one of Batch 54 of IATSS Forum. Japan is one of countries that I had ever dream to visit before. And now, I have the opportunity to taste the life of Japan. “If you can dream it, you can achieve” as Zig Ziglar said and it’s definitely true! Participating in IATSS forum through seminars, study tours, and group study, soon will become my next destiny. It is exciting, and at the same time is challenging. I will meet respective professors and youth talented from various background and different countries. The other excitement is cultural exchange. Experiencing Japan culture directly with the Japanese people and also other participants will broaden my understanding on how is their life and culture. And I am sure it will become memorable moments. I believe under the motto “Thinking and Learning Together” I can share ideas, vision, and passion. I hope I can gain more knowledge and experiences that enriched me to become a better individual in the future. According to leadership defined by IATSS forum, that is ability to make maximum use of group power toward the achievement of an objective, I am looking forward to be part of it.
Living in Japan for 59 days was a great experience. It was full package of fantastic journey. I had many experiences: learning many lecture from respective and very humble professors. They share their knowledge and experiences to make us understand what Japan done and its dream to create a sustainable community. Through field study I knew the best practices how government collaborations with NGO and private sector to achieve what that we called a sustainable community .I also met some great artisans who preserves Japanese culture. They trying their best to pass their culture and tradition to the young people. And I experienced Japanese culture from enthusiasm volunteers. From them, I knew how to wear yukata, dancing, playing traditional games, learned to write my name in kanji, prepared tea ceremony and made a delicious sushi and even practice my Japanese language. I also very happy that I can spent time with my host parent. A side of that, the homestay was a wonderful program that I experienced Japanese daily life. And I want to show my appreciation to all very excellent IATSS Forum staffs that 100% facilitate and ensure us enjoy the program. Through this program, I can see how Japanese people very punctual and discipline and highly consider with others and environment. I amazed with their cleanness and how Japanese people segregate the waste. And they said that its part of their life and it start from their family. I understand that in every meeting/seminars the IATSS staff provide different plastic bags for different waste that help us to practice to segregate the waste. And now, I am practicing the waste segregation in my family and I hope this small step can make better for my environment. Meeting new people and spent almost for 2 months was very challenging because of the different background and culture. But with help from IATSS staffs, soon we became a family. We experienced facilitation training. This training helped us how to work with others. Respect, considerate, active listen, active communication and mutual understanding, no one left behind are the effective ways to work together. “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to far go together”. This African proverb inspired our 54th batch that make our bond stronger. It’s been 3 months after the program, in the future, I hope I can do more for my society and my carrier. I do believe that all the experiences has enriched me to become a better person.

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