Scholarship / Promoting Reading Habit in Indonesia - Erasmus Mundus Scholarship [2]

Supporting Personal Statement

Dear all, please help me developing my personal statement. I am planning to apply Erasmus Mundus International Program Children's Literature, Media and Culture. This is such an important scholarship for me. Any constructive criticism is welcomed especially about the part where I should indicate my topic plan for year 2 dissertation (because I still completely clueless what should I write). Thank you.

These are the prompts:

Please be as precise as you can when writing your Supporting Personal Statement. Do not repeat yourself and do not exceed the word limit (1200 words max). You should make sure that you address the following issues in your personal statement:.

My name is Maria Nirmala. I am university graduate from University of Indonesia with humanities degree I earned in 2013. I would like to express my interest in applying International Erasmus Master Program called Children's Literature, Media and Culture.

There is no doubt that the world has been dominated by the advancement of the internet and social media. Indonesia is one of the country that has been influenced by these phenomenon and even is ranked high for social media users. Not only adults, even for Indonesian children and teenagers are already exposed with the digital media advancement. This has changed society's characteristics, including reading behaviour. According to study conducted by Central Connecticut State University in The United States, Indonesia is the second worst among the world's 61 most literate nations. This is my first motivation to continue my studies to higher level. Five years after I finished my undergraduate studies, I have been working in educational sector. The first two years working as kindergarten teacher assistant in international schools made me realize I really enjoyed working in educational sector. The most favourable activity I have done during my employment as teacher assistant when I was assigned to do story-telling every morning, where I read one of the children's book from the book shelf, before they start learning lessons. From that experience, I realized how children's literature can contribute in children's growth in terms of mental and social development. My goal is to increase the reading habit of Indonesian people, especially for Indonesian children and teenagers, who are currently more addicted staring at their gadgets playing electronic games than reading the actual book. After I finished my studies in this program, I hope I would find better and creative ways in order to increase reading habit for Indonesian children. I believe in order to make Indonesia grow into a developed country, a good reading habit is one of ways to reach the goal and the most importantly it should begin from the young generation.

Indonesia is a diverse country which has different cultures, ethnics, local languages and also religions. Conflicts and terror already occurred in some areas in Indonesia due to these differences. For instance, bombings in Surabaya that occurred on May 13th 2018 in three different churches. There are several elders and children casualties from this incident and many people are traumatized because of this attack. This incident is caused by one family, even their children were involved and was told by their parents to carry this attack, who had been brainwashed by extremists that there is no other religion better or right than what they believe in. This is truly made me concern because the mastermind of this attack was not only adults involved, but also children included. In order to prevent another incident similar to this in the future, in my opinion it is important to teach children and teenagers as earlier as possible related multicultural society, living with tolerance attitude and the freedom of religion. This is my second motivation to apply Children's Literature, Media and Culture program. Indonesia is still lack of children's literature related to multicultural issue. I hope after I finished studies this program, my knowledge and skill in this field would be enhanced and I would like to contribute to write and publish children's books related with social differences and multicultural issue. Therefore, in the future, Indonesia would develop into a better country, where the citizen could live harmoniously regardless of their background differences according to the national motto "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" which means Unity in Diversity.

I believe I am a suitable candidate for this programme because I always have passion for literatures since I was a little. Thus, I decided to take Russian language and literature for my bachelor studies. I believe I have a good academic foundation before I apply this program because throughout my undergraduate studies, I learned various courses, such as linguistics, history, culture and literary studies. Among those four specializations, literary subjects always fascinated me because I learned how literature can reflects the social condition during the time it was made. Studying at CLMC Program would complement of what I have had studied during my bachelor studies. With my academic background in linguistic and literature and my related work experience in educational sector, I find this program would be a great opportunity for me to enhance my knowledge in literature, specifically with the intersection between children's literature, culture and media. Furthermore, with the mobility opportunities given by the consortium, I believe I have good intercultural skills where I can contribute my insights during academic year and collaborate with other international students who have different backgrounds and cultures.

I am planning to produce a master dissertation with the topic of The Importance of Multicultural Value Represented in Indonesian Children's Book. The reason why I chose that topic is because Indonesia consists of citizen with different ethnics, local languages, religion and culture and there has been several conflicts and terrors occurred triggered by these differences in some areas in Indonesia. Therefore, it is important to teach Indonesian young generation regarding multicultural values as earlier as possible, for such things like accepting differences, build a tolerance and the attitude of respect with each other.

Personally, I considered myself as a life-long learner who always curious in learning something new and up for challenge. Thus, during my undergraduate studies, I took several chances to explore opportunities to participate in cultural events held in campus and also tried several internships outside college even though that experience is not something related with my study background. Throughout my academic year in Russian Studies program, I joined organization called Student Association of Slavic Studies, which has aim to unite all students from my department to contribute something in developing the quality of my department in terms of studies support and also to maintain good relationship between lecturers and students through various events. One of the contribution I have made when I propose an idea to make a t-shirt written 'Русский' meaning Russia to worn by students from my department as our identity for the event called Cultural Festival, one of the biggest annual event held by Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. During my employment in EF English First Indonesia, I was appointed as Life Club Coordinator, where I was responsible to held indoor or outdoor activites outside the regular English course program. The activity would give opportunities for EF students to apply their English skills in real life. At that time, I have seen that there were not so much Life Club event held specifically for teenager and adult EF Students in the branch where I was working. Therefore, I took initiative to create a Life Club event called "Barista Wannabe", which gives opportunities for EF Students to learn how to make a latte art in one of coffee shops in Jakarta. Surprisingly, with great collaboration and good team work between EF teachers and staff, the event ran smoothly and got immense enthusiasm from EF students and also their parents. Our target was to reach approximately 25 participants and turned out there were 35 people who attended this event, which was beyond our expectation.

Scholarship / Contribution to Indonesia - Working as an Ambassador of Indonesia Through Teaching [3]

Hi, everyone. My name is Irma, currently I am applying scholarship from Indonesian government. Please kindly review and give constructive feedback on my essay. This is the first time I made an essay and apply scholarship, so I really clueless on what kind of a good essay should be written. To be honest, my essay already reached the world limit and I really need advice on what part should I must and must not put in my essay. Thank you!

So, this is the essay prompt:
Write Statement of Purpose (max 1000 words) which explaining about the contribution that you have been done, currently doing, and your contribution plan for your communities/profession or in your workplace later.

The essay must include:
- Describe about yourself
- What is the contribution you have done, currently doing, and your contribution plan for your communities/profession or in your workplace.
- Your dream about Indonesia in the future
- How to reach that dream.

WORKING AS AN AMBASSADOR OF INDONESIA
THROUGH TEACHING

By: Maria Nirmala

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" My kindergarten teacher asked me. Then I said "I want to be a teacher". I remembered that question was asked to me when I was still in kindergarten school. I have always been fascinated witnessing the process of learning and teaching experience since I was a little girl. In my opinion, teacher has a power in making changes in other people's lives. My very first experience as an educator started when I was helping my chair mate teaching Math for her test. I remembered the rewarding feeling I have had when she told me she got a good score on her test. From that moment I always knew someday I would working in education sector when I grow up.

Besides education, I found another thing I passionate about during my time in high school, which is foreign language. During this time, I have learnt some foreign languages subjects from my high school, such as Germany and Japanese languages. Therefore I decided to pursue a foreign language degree for my undergraduate studies, specifically Russian Studies because at that time I thought there are still not many Indonesian people who have skills speaking Russian and I also admired Russian authors for producing many incredible and fascinating novels.

During my undergraduate studies, I am grateful I was able to make some contributions align with my passion in integration of foreign language and education area through my academic life and extracurricular activities. In the classroom, besides taking compulsory studies, I also took some elective studies in other foreign languages and cultural subjects. Whenever I took another foreign language classes, I always become a tutor for my closest friends, since my grasp of understanding foreign language is always faster than them. Meanwhile, outside the classroom, I joined Student Association of Slavic Studies, where my role in Student Relation Division was actively announce regarding scholarships opportunities to my fellow colleagues, especially for those who came from poor economic backgrounds. I was also became a mentor for Russian students who were doing an exchange program to Indonesia. I had the opportunity to teach them Indonesian language and introduce Indonesian culture through field trips to historical places, like Museum Nasional, Kota Tua and other places in Jakarta.

I am grateful I was able to explore some opportunities working in education sector since 2014, started as teacher assistant in International Schools, educational advisor at EF English First Indonesia and currently as Indonesian Language Teacher for expatriates in SIB School of Language Jakarta. It is truly a self-discovery and I have found a profession that I truly enjoy, which is teaching Indonesian language for expatriates. This is the profession where I truly feel I am doing something valuable to my country, which are introducing and sharing about the language and the culture of Indonesia to the international community.

I was also an active member of Indonesian Heritage Society, a non-profit organization offering the opportunity to promote and learn more about the rich cultural heritage of Indonesia to international community in Jakarta. In this organization, I volunteered as a librarian, where my role was to assist member registrations, inform about upcoming activities held by the organization, and also to assist members who wants to borrowing books and resources in the library. I also participated in study group session where I had the opportunity to study and sharing among international members regarding Indonesian traditional foods. By joining this organization, I have seen how abundantly and enthusiastically international members who came from different countries, to learn more about Indonesia and its culture. This experience made me more motivated to introduce and promote Indonesian language and culture to be known internationally through my profession as Indonesian language teacher for expatriates.

According to PriceWaterhouse Coopers' report, Indonesia is predicted to be among the twenty one nations that have the fastest-growing economies and will be among the world's biggest economies by 2030. One of the factors that can determined this situation would be the number of foreign investors in Indonesia. Moreover, with the trend of ASEAN Economic Community, which officially enacted at the end of 2015, the amount of expatriate workers staying in Indonesia is continuously improving. One of the requirements for them to have an employment in this country is they need to have a certain proficiency speaking Indonesian language so they would be able cooperate well with Indonesian workers. With this condition, my biggest dream Indonesia would continuously grow economically and become one of the fastest developed South East Asian countries in the world and Indonesian language would also be known internationally, just like China.

I would like to be the person who can contribute in making Indonesia to be known to the world by working as Indonesian language teacher for expatriates. From my experience, I realize cultural barriers is one of the obstacles in teaching Indonesian to foreigners. I am expose working in international environment where I met and taught students who came from different nationalities and culture and have their own values, beliefs, and perception of how they see things. This cultural differences could affect the activities of teaching and learning between language teachers and students and it could create a misunderstanding during the lesson. This misunderstanding could lead a failure in lesson delivery for the teachers and consequently, the students could misinterpret in acquiring the language that they learn. Another obstacle I found is the difficulties foreigners have in acquiring and understanding Indonesian language culturally. They often perfectly understand Indonesian language grammatically, but they still made many mistakes on which the right language applied in some certain contexts.

That is why I want to study Master of Intercultural Communication at Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania because it is a perfect program for studying the intersection between communication, culture, and how it applied in language teaching and learning activities. When I have finished my study, I would like to apply the knowledge I have gained to my profession as Indonesian language teacher for expatriates. My plan is to share and train another teachers who specifically interested with this field. Five years after I graduated from my master studies, my plan is to build a language school, which specifically offers Indonesian language and culture course to international community living in Indonesia.