InsideHow We Measure Success as One of the Largest Bi-National Fulbright Commissions in the World: Message from the Executive Director.

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Page 1Message from the Executive Director

Page 2Fulbright Experience: Keeping the Fire (and Network) Burning

Page 2The Remark that Forever Dwells in memory

Page 3Engaging with America

Page 5My Diary of April 2, 2004 at Duke University

Page 6Indonesia Fulbright student grantees received the International Fulbright Science & Technology Award for three years in a row

Page 7 NELL: a computer system that seeks to read and to learn like humans

Page 8English Teaching Assistant report

Vol 1 No. 1 August 2011

Engaging with America page 3

I remember in 2006 when I became Ex-ecutive Director of AMINEF, I was tasked by the Board of AMINEF to try to accom-plish several important things during my tenure.

One was to build balance into the Fulbright program in Indonesia. Fulbright around the world is a program that pro-motes mutual understanding, but often times the Fulbright program is viewed and measured by the number of grantees from host countries that study, lecture or do re-search in the United States of America.

However, first and foremost Fulbright is an exchange program-and a program that places equal importance on giving Americans the opportunity to lecture, do research, or study in some 130 different countries that have Fulbright Programs. This is one of the most important aspects of the Fulbright Program in Indonesia. So many Americans know very little about the 14,000 plus islands that comprise the In-donesian archipelago, and the wonderful diversity of culture and language that are what make Indonesia such an amazing country. In 2011, we anticipate bringing some 70 Americans to experience Indone-sia in various capacities. Considering the small numbers of Americans who study in Indonesia annually (estimated at far less than 300), AMINEF and Fulbright in 2011 are making a very positive contribution to American students and scholars to learn

about Indonesia and to take that experi-ence back to the US and to share that ex-perience with other Americans.

I believe strongly that in the coming years we will see a revitalization of Indo-nesian study programs, the development of study abroad programs in Indonesia offered by US Universities and more and more collaboration and cooperation of US university departments and scholars with Indonesian counterpart universities and scholars. Both the Indonesian Ministry of National Education and the Bureau of Edu-cation and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. De-partment of State and other ROI and USG ministries and agencies, believe that this type of cooperation is a key to the compre-hensive partnership in Higher Education that has been developing between the Re-public of Indonesia and the United States of America.

Proof of this can be seen in the increased number of grantees, both In-donesians and Americans, that will be sponsored by Fulbright in each of the re-spective countries in 2011. This will occur in very important fields and we will see an expansion related to science and technol-ogy. STEM fields (Science, Technology, En-gineering, and Mathematics) are key fields that drive development and collaboration in many areas of mutual interest to Ameri-cans and Indonesians alike. But increased numbers of grants is not the measure of success. Success is measured one grant-ee at a time and through the experiences they have had-and most importantly what they do after their Fulbright or exchange experience. Through our grantees and alumni, with their voices, we see the the power of education and educational ex-change and Senator Fulbright’s vision of education as a slow moving but powerful force. Only through our grantees experi-ences and lives can we really know how successful our exchange programs are.

matically handled by the mailing list ap-plication. However it is a difficult task in terms of maintaining the interests of its members to keep talking to one another. “Keeping the fire burning” turns out to be not an easy task after all. It needs all the “fuel” we can get. We – the alumni – are that “fuel”.

So … let’s contribute our “fuel” to keep our Fulbright experience and net-works alive. Let’s network … network … and network. Congratulation for AMINEF for launching this e-News for its alumni. Pak Piet, thank you for always thinking and taking care of us. I do appreciate it.

(Liauw Toong Tjiek or Aditya Nugraha - anu-graha@petra.ac.id is Head of Library at Pe-tra Christian University (PCU) in Surabaya, East Java. He was a Fulbright 2001 alumn in Library and Information Science earning his graduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His interests are in dig-ital libraries, institutional repositories, digital collections, digital heritage, and library tech-nologies. He initiated a project called Desa Informasi (Information Village) in 2005. It is a digital library that contains digitized works of PCU communities. Another project is called Surabaya Memory, was initiated just before his departure to the US in 2001. He is cur-rently working on a project called DIVo (Desa Informasi teleVision), a digital signage media that will integrate digital collections at Desa Informasi into the campus communication sys-tems)

Experience in studying abroad is a privi-lege not many Indonesians have. It’s even rarer to get a great opportunity to study under the Fulbright scholarship program.

Not only that we got the chance to study abroad under a very prestigious scholarship program, we also benefited from the “Fulbright connections”. Many opportunities are available to us due to these networks. Thus it is essential for us to maintain – and even broaden – these networks, either for our personal and pro-fessional growth, as well as for facilitating us to contribute more to the society.

I appreciate AMINEF for its continu-ous efforts to maintain the networks of alumni from various different programs. The idea to create an e-Newsletter is a great idea that we all should support in light of the importance of networks among us. I be-lieve that this e-News will provide a better platform to enable us to know one another better since it will enable the sharing of pic-tures and other more expressive contents than merely email (text) messages.

However publishing an e-News is not an easy task that it is crucial that AMINEF gets all the supports it can get. I myself maintain a mailing list for the Fulbright 2001 alumni. I can say that it is an easy task technically since everything is auto-

The Fulbright Experience: Keeping the Fire (and Network) Burning

Aditya Nugraha

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It is true that the number of grant-ees and programs that AMINEF now ad-ministers has grown exponentially the past 5 years. There are many people who have made this growth possible and the names are too numerous to mention. How-ever, I think it is important to thank all who have made our programs available and all those who are involved daily in adminis-tering these programs. We owe thanks to the AMINEF Board which includes equal numbers of Americans and Indonesians who provide the vision and mission of our Commission and Fulbright and related programs, The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, The Directorate General of Higher Educa-tion-Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia, KEMLU, and many other Indonesian government agencies. We also would thank our partners and col-leagues at the U. S. Embassy in Jakarta, IIE in New York, CIES in Washington DC. It takes the cooperation of hundreds of uni-versities in both Indonesia and the United States, their faculty and administrators, Indonesian high schools and madrasah,

and their teachers and administrators, to make our programs a success. This list goes on and on and if I have not men-tioned some, it is only because the list is so prolific. We thank you all.

Least I forget, there is one particular and very professional group of people who every day of the week make Fulbright and related programs and our EducationUSA offices, second to none and who keep Yayasan AMINEF operating with dedication and hard work that often goes unnoticed. The AMINEF Secretariat staff is without question, the most professional and hardworking team that I have ever had the honor to work with. It is their hard work, that makes AMINEF number one and in turn through our grantees and the public we serve, unequalled in our desire to be sure our grantees and students and scholars, are successful in their endeavors.

Michael E. McCoyExecutive Director American Indonesian Exchange FoundationFulbright Indonesia/EductionUSA

Page 9 Fulbright Global Food Security Seminar University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL)

Page 10The Differential Effects of Online Lectures and Collaborative Learning on Academic Achievement of First-Time Online learners at Ganesha University of Education

Page 11Reflection on my experience as ILEP Fellow

Page 13We Are All Part of the Circle

Page 14Alumni News

Page 15How I live and Learn in the U.S.

Page 172011 Fulbright Award DInner

Page 17Our ILEP Experience

Henry Wijaya

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On the first day of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants Confer-ence, held December 9 this year, 418 language teaching assistants from 50 countries met with the Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Clin-ton, at the Dean Acheson Auditorium of the State Department building in Wash-ington D.C.

During her 10-minute speech that warmed the audience, Secretary Clinton reminded all FLTA scholars about Senator James William Fulbright’s dream when he first established the Fulbright program, the importance of mutual understanding between the countries that this program helps to develop, and the contribution that FLTA have given during their service in the United States.

Secretary Clinton recalled for the FLTA some of Senator Fulbright’s ideas, which became the foundation of this pro-gram. While telling us about joys that we can experience during the program, she also brought to our mind Fulbright’s mis-sion of promoting understanding of each other’s differences that will help create lasting peace. She emphasized the impor-tance of educational exchanges, which gives people a chance to see the common humanity that connects each other.

“Educational exchanges turn nations into people,” said Secretary Clinton, quot-ing the words of Senator Fulbright. She also reminded all of us to put ourselves in each other’s shoes so that we develop mutual understanding and break the bar-rier that exists. Her remarks that day were filled with a call to understanding and peace.

Secretary Clinton mentioned sever-al of FLTA’s past achievements that have helped the society at large. She also re-vealed her hope that all FLTA scholars will continue to develop themselves and reach their highest dreams.

This special occasion was truly a sur-prise for all of us. During the bus trip to the Department State building and the long waiting on the line in the freezing weather, none of us had anticipated it. Questions and confusions were all in our minds when we had to sit impatiently on our seats wait-ing for the special guest, which the Inter-

national Institute of Education (IIE) staffs kept as a secret for us. However, clapping hands and cheers were what came up next when Secretary Clinton entered the room, introduced by Mrs. Ann Stock, the Assistant Secretary of Educational and Cultural Af-fairs. Not until she stood up in front of the podium and started talking to us that some of the FLTA could believe it was really her.

When asked about the reason why it was kept a secret, Ms. Mary Kirk, the IIE’s Vice President for Student Exchanges, told me and the other FLTA during the lunch that IIE staffs did not want to disappoint the FLTAs. She explained that as a Secre-tary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton always has a busy schedule and the schedule may change at the last moment. She also told us that it was the first time FLTA were given such a chance, making us all in the table feel grateful.

All FLTAs were very excited about this special event. This event was men-tioned almost in everyone’s Facebook ac-count, whether in the status update, link to the videos, or link to the remark text. The cheers and clasps that welcomed Secre-tary Clinton that day have ended and soon the event mentioned in our social media will be replaced by something else. Yet, I have a big hope that along with the pride and excitement, the message delivered to us that day will dwell in our memory, en-couraging all of us to contribute more and spread to everyone who knows us, here in the States and back home.

New York, December 14, 2010

Henr y Wi jaya, who is a Faculty Member at Satya Wacana Chr ist ian Univers i ty in Salat iga, is a Fulbr ight Indonesian Lan-guage Teaching Assistant to Columbia Uni -vers i ty.

The Remark that Forever Dwells in My Memory: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Meets Fulbright Teaching Assistants

When President Barrack Obama, in his speech at the University of Indonesia said, in well articulated Indonesian lan-guage, that “Indonesia is a part of me”, he won the hearts of many Indonesian people.

The same expression, reversed, would apply to majority of Indonesian, though not many would openly acknowl-edge it. Many might not even realize it. In-donesian youth consume American popular culture, especially film and popular music while munching popcorn and carrying the McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken’s take away bags. Especially in today’s globalized world, cultural boundaries are seamless, with heightened cross cultural

exchanges. A country of immigrants, what is American today and before is made up of the world’s cultural contributions, and as American culture is globalized, it is inter-nalized as part of modern urban life style.

As Indonesia is part of President Barrack Obama, America is definitely an inseparable part of Indonesian Fulbright Program Alumni. How much more then, it is for me, who had spent 6 years doing MA and Ph.D in American literature/stud-ies and have taught the subject since the 1980s up to the present? Yet, as we all know, our affective, intellectual and cul-tural affinity with our own as well as other nations, ethnic or social groups can be very complex, sometimes ambiguous and conflicting. It is not an easy either or as what President Bush one said, “If you are not with us, you are against us.” Being an Indonesian intellectual studying America, you can be caught in the middle ground – a tricky and not safe ground. Gloria Anza-ludia in aptly captures this feeling being at the “borderlands”:To live in the Borderlands means knowing that the india in you, betrayed for 500 years, is no longer speaking to you, that mexicanas call you rajetas, that denying the Anglo inside you is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black;….

The first difference is the plurality within.

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In the Borderlands you are the battleground where enemies are kin to each other; you are at home, a stranger,….To survive the Borderlands you must live sin fronteras be a crossroads.

Many Indonesian Fulbright alumni have experienced this difficult position during the New Order time, when launching critical voice against the New Order gov-ernment could be interpreted as being un-patriotic, betraying your own country. The same way, being critical against U.S. for-eign policy during the Iraqi War can be in-terpreted by the local anti-American group as siding with their negative campaign, which is neither your wish nor your agenda.

What I find most helpful in these dif-ficult moments as an Indonesian scholar studying America, is American literature, as it is in this wealth of human inspiration that I can find not only the diverse voices of American people, but also what makes Americans and Indonesian similar as hu-man beings. Since returning from my MA program in 1980s, I have taught American literature to Indonesian students at the University of Indonesia. One of my favorite subjects in the 1980s and 1990s was mul-ticulturalism in American Literature, where we discussed issues of cultural identity (race, ethnicity, gender, religion, class etc) in Toni Morrison’s, Louis Edrich’s, Alice Walker’s, Maxine Hong Kingston and other novels. This was the time when discussion of such topics in Indonesian context was considered ‘sensitive’ (according to the

policy issued by the New Order government called SARA, censorship regarding issues on ethnicity, religion, race, and social divi-sion). Now the list includes more recent works of contemporary writers.1 From the 1 Younger generation of Indonesian students sometimes suggest to me their choice of reading from the youth popular literature, and reading new texts with them has enriched my horizon.

“Melani posed with her spouse Eka Budianta who is also a Fulbright program alumn, teaching Indonesian language and literature at the

SEASSI program at Cornell University”

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Engaging with AmericaMelani Budianta (Fulbright Alumni, 1981 & 1992)

Melani Budianta

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discussion of American texts we actually engage not only with American psyche and American issues but also eventually with issues related to Indonesia. This is what call ‘double mirror”: American literature serves as a ‘mirror’ through which we re-flect comparatively, not only on American and Indonesian issues, but on the root of our humanity.2 There are ample readings for different contexts. In the time when In-donesia and American seems to be in the opposite sides in terms of their foreign policy, we read through Mark Twain’s satir-ic critique on colonialism (“To the Person Sitting in Darkness”). American writers have served as the conscience of democ-racy, and they are always the toughest crit-ic of racism, discrimination, violence done by the State and by the dominant power structure in American life without losing faith in American dream.

To engage with America, through literature and the social-political context from which it grew, is also to see differ-ence. The first difference is the plurality within. By reading the multifaceted Ameri-can literature we can see that American is not one, not the one represented by its for-eign policy, not by the global expansion of its capitalist ventures. Reading the voice of American Muslim writers, from Amiri Baraka, Malcom X to the newer generation mentioned by Kahf (2010),3 we see that the dichotomy of the West vs. Islam in the so called the ‘Clash of Civilization’ theory does not hold. Islam is in America, and at the same time, literature written by newer immigrants from all over the globe help us to see that America has always been transformed by the cultures of the world. The second difference is the contradiction and ambiguities, which has been there since the beginning of American history. Michael Kammen in his classic historical work names it as “The People of Paradox”; while Whalt Whitman celebrates this com-plexity: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” America is the home of pro-choice as well as pro-life activists, pro and anti gun con-trol adherents, the home of Martin Luther King as well as the KKK fanatics. America is still and will always grapple with this in-ternal difference, as it is the basic founda-tion of democracy, a system now spread-ing all over the globe.

As much as we see common human-ity which binds us, however, the study of American literature and society also make us see that Indonesians and Americans are indeed separated by different historical forces and socio-cultural contexts, which shaped the two countries. It is therefore particularly important and crucial that we

2 I have discussed this earlier in an article published by American Studies International, October 2000, Vol. 37.33 See the list prepared by Mohja Kahf, “Teaching Diaspora Litearture: Muslim American Liteature as an Emerging Field, The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol 4,no2, December 2010: 163-167.

examine the ‘translation’, mistranslation, adaptation, and transformation of Ameri-can values, cultures, concepts in our vari-ous localities. American fast food chains underwent their cultural value as an af-fordable eating place to prestigious hang out centers in Jakarta’s upper class malls. To engage with difference from America, in the logic of double mirror, is also to re-flect on our own position, to understand our own country – in its own complexity. Engaging in America is engaging in this comparative examination. For example, we can start with the concept of “separation of Church and State”, which lays at the foundation of the American concept of de-mocracy. How is such concept practiced and understood in America? Historically what made the concept crucial for Ameri-can? How do we understand the concept of ‘civic religion’? What contradiction and ambiguities blurs the division in everyday life and political discourse? How do we translate this understanding of democra-cy, in a country, which underlines belief in God as its first principle? From what socio-historical contexts grounds this concep-tion? What complexities and challenges does Indonesia confront in experimenting with various forms of democracy?

This is the plight of Fulbright alumni, who by default, are situated in the cross-road and in the borderlands of the two countries. How could we use this difficult but strategic position to raise a better cross-cultural understanding? One of the biggest challenges of Indonesian schol-ars at large is the gap between what we know and have learned, and the popular knowledge of the public at large. While we realize the complexity of what makes America as well as Indonesia, we are con-fronted with misleading stereotypes, or re-ductive image of Indonesia and America in the mass media and public discourse of respective countries. As public intellectu-als, how can we translate our understand-ing of both America and Indonesia for the public at large?

Another not less intimidating is the socio-economic gaps which separates the two nations. Can a real understanding, true dialogue and cross-cultural engage-ment emerge from two countries, which stood unequally in terms of their bargain-ing positions? To engage with America is to confront this problem of unequal power relations, and to help prevent it from being wider. It is therefore crucial, to find ways to protect the marginalized people from being crushed by global capitalism. To engage with America is to empower local communi-ties, to help them realize the value of their culture and to equip them with the ability to participate in global dialogue.

We cannot but make the best of what we can conceptualize from our local

Fulbright S&T is designed to be the most prestigious international scholarship in science and technology and to demon-strate the United States’ commitment to welcoming top-notch future researchers and leaders to pursue serious scientific study and research at U.S. institutions.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State sponsors the International Ful-bright Science & Technology Award for Outstanding Foreign Students (Fulbright S&T) to provide exceptional foreign stu-dents with an opportunity to pursue Ph.D. study at top U.S. universities.

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My Japanese roommate is a generous soul and a good cook. Today, he cooked noodles and beef.

This story was like magic to me. It has inspired my life at Duke. Subsequently, I regard my academic assignments as the required path toward the wisdom to which I aspire. While there is no one to remind me to follow my ritualistic practices, the independent behavior of Hayy bin Yaqzān in attaining the wisdom, keeps inspiring me to do my ritual practices as well as my studies at Duke although the devotional aspects have diminished somewhat.

Thus, I have come to realize that my religious ideals are reflected and influ-enced through the ideas and writings of Ibn Tufayl specifically in the pages of his Islamic novel of Hayy bin Yaqzān.

Indonesian practices and customs directed me into a restricted, conserva-tive environment with little incentive to read anything but selected religious pub-lications including, of course, the Qur’an and its associated books of the Prophetic dicta. The pressures toward conformity in Jakarta in general and my father’s village in particular, were great to say the least.

At Duke, I feel more academic, ratio-nal, systematic, and effective. Here, I have my academic advisers who introduced me novels and other readings of secular cir-cles as well as Islamic texts. They also ad-vise me in getting to know and understand non-Muslim students. I also have my great professor in sociology, Prof. Lisa, who has introduced me to a vast repository of read-ings dealing with Western concepts of so-ciety like Durkheim, Marx, and Weber. The curricula of my courses at Duke also play important role in heightening my intellec-tuality. Readings and assignments that my professors have scheduled tightly and in-tensively, have encouraged me to be more rational than emotional. I could not obtain this wonderful academic experience with-out the financial support of Fulbright. For this, I am indebted to the American-Indo-nesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF) in Jakarta.

(Usep Abdul Matin earned his Master’s degree from Duke University under the sponsorship of the Fulbright program. He is currently pur-suing his PhD degree at the School of Politi-cal and Social Inquiry of the Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia)

Indonesia Fulbright student grantees received the International Fulbright Science & Technology Award for three years in a row

My Diary of April 2, 2004 at Duke University

Usep Abdul Matin

histories and realities as well as from what we have learned from America to confront all those issues and problems. It is only when we can be true to ourselves and voice our concerns and conscience as a critical scholar can we truly engage with America, a country which lies not outside but wi thin us .

Melani Budianta is Professor of Literature at the University of Indonesia. She is a Fulbright student grantee who earned her M.A. in American Studies from the University of Southern California and Ph.D. in English literature from Cornell University.

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that we have on these words and phrases. For example, in the sentence: ‘He feeds the monkeys the bananas because they were hungry’; although it is obvious to a human reader that it is the monkeys (and not the bananas) that are hungry, it is not obvious to a computer. A human reader understands from his background knowl-edge that a monkey is more likely to get hungry than a banana. A lot of human un-derstanding of a language is thus based on background knowledge accumulated over time. Imagine teaching a child how to read, but instead of a child, teaching a computer how to read.

Since January 2010, my research team at Carnegie Mellon University with supports from Defense Advanced Re-search Projects Agency, Google, and Ya-hoo has been developing a computer sys-tem called NELL (Never-Ending Language Learning) that tries to “read” or extract facts found in the Web by learning cumula-tively, like a human. The facts are grouped into categories: cities, companies, ac-tors, universities, emotions and 274 oth-ers, and relations: play for, acquired by, coached by, capital of, and 330 others. Category facts are things like ‘Chicago is a city’, ‘sad is an emotion’, and ‘Abhishek

Imagine knowing everything you ever want to know about a particular company, a particular country, or a par-ticular person at the click of a button.

In a world where having information is key, yet pieces of information are scat-tered over hundreds of millions of Web pag-es in various formats, styles, and languag-es; extracting these pieces of information, organizing them, piecing them together, and actually understanding them become an important task. Doing this manually will be nearly impossible since a human would need to scan hundreds of millions of Web documents to read, extract facts, organize them, and piece them together in an un-derstandable manner.

Unfortunately, computers which are usually more suited to such a computa-tionally extensive task than humans (due to their massive computing and storage powers) are no match for human intelli-gence in this task, particularly due to the language understanding aspect of the task. Understanding language, the mean-ing of words and phrases, is more than un-derstanding their semantics or dictionary definitions, since meaning also depends on context and background knowledge

NELL: a Computer System that Seeks to Read and to Learn Like Humans

Derry T. Wijaya

Since the inception of the program in 2008, Indonesia has three grantees selected as principal candidates for this prestigious program where only 40 grant-ees are selected annually worldwide from a pool of applicants coming from 140 countries. The first year grantee, Poet-ro L. Sambegoro of Bandung Institute of Technology Surya Laboratory, is now pur-suing his Ph.D. degree in Nanotechnology at the MIT. In 2010, Derry T. Wijaya, a new graduate from NUS who is a native from Malang, is the second grantee who is now at Carnegie Mellon pursuing her Ph.D. de-

gree in Computer Science. In 2011, Wasti Nurani, a teacher of Penabur High School in Bandung, was selected as a principal candidate for the program and will pursue her Ph.D. program at the University of Cali-fornia, Los Angeles.

Another Indonesian, Sidrotun Naim, was selected as an alternate candidate in 2009, but she didn’t get funded by the Fulbright S&T program. Being a teaching assistant at Bandung Institute of Technol-ogy School of Life Sciences and Technol-ogy, she was then funded by the Fulbright Presidential Scholarship program, another program initiative which AMINEF adminis-ters targetting faculty members and schol-ars committed to be faculty members, to pursue her Ph.D. degree in Biology (shrimp pathology) at the University of Arizona. She is one of the 2009 recipients of the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science award in Indonesia and will represent In-donesia for a similar competition at the international level. She is also the 2010 recipient of the Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future award.

AMINEF and Fulbright will expand with even more opportunities for both Indonesians and Americans in Science and Technology related fields.

ty I lived in was a just an overall fantastic experience. Despite moving from New York City to an agricultural town in the moun-tains, the students and teachers were so welcoming and hospitable that I felt as-similation into the community and lifestyle was quite smooth.

Moreover, my students were so eager to learn that it made my job as a teacher much more engaging and fruitful. I taught English in various levels, from grammati-cal issues to colloquial sayings. There was also this tremendous cultural exchange between myself and the people I worked with, that we were all constantly learning something and at the same time becoming more interested in what we were teaching each other. Because of my presence there

After I finished my service as a Teach For America Corps Member in New York City, I was really interested in an opportunity to impact the education of students out-side of America.

I wanted an opportunity to experi-ence the education systems in a dynamic and culturally rich foreign country. The Ful-bright English Teaching Assistant program in Indonesia afforded me that opportunity and more.

Through the Fulbright Grant, I was not only able to teach English and Ameri-can culture but also able to learn so much about the incredible country. I taught at a Pesantren in rural East Java and my inter-action with my students and the communi-

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Report

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Bachchan is an actor’. Relation facts are things like ‘Peyton Manning plays for In-dianapolis Colts’, ‘Good Fellas is directed by Martin Scorsese’, and ‘Pixar Animation Studios is acquired by Disney’. Each cate-gory and relation is seeded with a dozen or so examples that are true for the category or relation. In the category for ‘actor’ for example: ‘Al Pacino is an actor’, ‘Bruce Wil-lis is an actor’, and a dozen or so others.

Starting from these seeds of catego-ries and relations, NELL scans hundreds of millions of Web pages with its tools that look for patterns and correlations to indicate that other words or phrases may be positive examples of the categories or relations. For a category ‘baked goods’ for example, a phrase in the form of ‘XXX cookie’ could indicate that the phrase is a baked good; for example ‘chocolate chip cookie’, ‘raisin cookie’ or ‘ginger cookie’.

To resolve ambiguity, NELL is de-signed to learn many things at once. For example, in the future, for the sentence ‘He gives the monkeys the bananas be-cause they were hungry’, if NELL has previously learned with great confidence that ‘hungry’ is a property of ‘an animate thing’, as it learns more that ‘the monkeys’ is ‘an animate thing’ and ‘the bananas’ is not, it will be able to understand that it is the monkeys that are hungry in the sen-tence and not the bananas. Therefore as NELL learns more, it improves its reading competence and all while being highly au-tomated. As of October 2010, NELL has extracted nearly 500,000 facts with an estimated accuracy of at least 87%.

However, NELL is not without its fault. As it exercises its curiosity on its own and finds more examples of catego-

ries and relations using what it already knows, it may go astray. For example, for the category ‘baked goods’ things went awry when NELL decided that ‘internet cookie’ is also a baked good. Reading many a sentence ‘I deleted my internet cookies’ led NELL to decide next that ‘files’ in the sentence ‘I deleted my files’ is probably a baked good too! Since then, NELL is given about five minutes of human supervision for each category and each relation every two weeks. When an error is found, it is la-beled as negative examples by its human buddy, putting NELL back on its track. My task is now to automate this process, to enable NELL to reflect, to ponder upon its gathered facts, and to discover errors on its own by automatically querying indepen-dent sources of information such as Web Search Engines on its gathered facts.

NELL is not yet perfect, but we are working on it. For now, it happily tweets every new fact it finds at http://twitter.com/cmunell. For more fun facts, you can read a New York Times article on NELL at ht tp://www.ny t imes.com/2010/10/05/science/05compute.html?_r=1. NELL had also the honor to be mentioned in the report submitted to the US President and Congress in 2010: http://www.white-house.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-nitrd-report-2010.pdf. For more in-depth look into NELL, to give your feedback, or simply to browse its knowl-edge base of facts, you can visit our team website at http://rtw.ml.cmu.edu/rtw/.

Derry Tanti Wijaya (dwijaya@andrew.cmu.edu) 2010 Fulbright Science and Technology Grantee , School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University

Taylor Smith

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as an American and this exchange we had, it inspired the students and teachers to seek out opportunities on how they could experience the United States firsthand.

Therefore, two teachers I worked with very closely, Tutik Mariani and Dewa Ratri applied for and received grants from AMINEF to learn and teach in America. Tu-tik received the Education Leaders grant and spent time at the University of North-ern Kentucky and Dewa is now a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the Uni-versity of Georgia. When I met up with them in America and saw how excited and happy they were to be studying and teach-ing in America, it was great to see that the

Fulbright Global Food Security Seminar, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), October 20-24, 2010Attending the Fulbright Global Food Se-curity Seminar in Nebraska was a worth-while experience for us. We met other fellow Fulbrighters from different coun-tries.

The participants came from different field of studies related to the food secu-rity issues, such as agronomy, agriculture economy, water resources policy and man-agement, food science, plant biotechnol-ogy, parasitology, and public health.

During our meeting with the host uni-versity (UNL) speakers and the profession-als, we were given important information concerning the recent science and tech-nology development in agriculture. Each speaker gave a very interesting approach in providing ideas to solve the global food

security problems. The discussions on the food security problems involved various food and agricultural current issues and covered technical aspects (e.g. molecular biology, food safety, nutraceuticals, water

value of cultural exchange went both ways.The Fulbright grant provided me with

an experience and global perspective that I find invaluable and it was rewarding to see that these funds provide incredible opportunities for all of us. The experience I had as a Fulbright ETA also inspired me to continue working with foreign countries on some level, so I currently live in New York City with my wife and work at Cove-nant House International, a large NGO that operates crisis shelters and rehabilitation centers for homeless youth and victims of human trafficking in North and Central America.

Widya AgustinahEni Hidayati

Edi Dwi Cahyono

The Differential Effects of Online Lectures and Collaborative Learning on Academic Achievement of First-Time Online Learners at Ganesha University of Education

Luh Putu Putrini Mahadewi

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Luh Putu Putrini Mahadewi, 2008 Ful-bright student grantee who is faculty member at Ganesha University of Edu-cation in Singaraja, Bali, successfully defended her master’s thesis in October 2010 at Western Illinois University Col-lege of Education and Human Services.

Her thesis is on The Differential Ef-fects of Online Lectures and Collabora-tive Learning on Academic Achievement of First-Time Online Learners at Ganesha University of Education.

There were three reasons why she

management, and socio-economic poli-cies for agricultural development) as well as practical applications (e.g. environmen-tally and economically sustainable farm-ing practices and irrigation and cropping system). There was a remarkable presen-tation from a leading company in the US which engaged in the innovation of crop field irrigation system. Their irrigation technology had been utilized in some de-veloping countries, such as in Africa and South Asia, and we noticed that this sys-tem might be useful to be applied in Indo-nesia, particularly in the regions outside Java.

In the workshop session, the stu-dents were grouped into five different fields and facilitated by a project specialist to create a proposal addressing food secu-rity challenges around the globe through a project, product, or service. In constraint timeline, the groups had learned and ex-perienced how to design project propos-als involving other students from differ-ent countries and field of studies. It was indubitable that sharing knowledge and technologies could be a powerful tool to address global food security problems.

While seminar and workshop were the main activities, we also had field trips to several interesting places around UNL. We visited a big biotechnology building namely Beadle Center (UNL laboratory and research center for biotechnology); UNL Extension Center where we observed how

the extension expertise helped the local farmers utilize the precise application of water for farming using a developed tech-nology; and Agriculture and Research Center at Mead (UNL experimental farm) and Gustafson’s farm (medium-sized, fam-ily-owned farm) where we witnessed the practical application of an extended agri-culture system. It was a fascinating and eyes-opening trip to look at the agricultur-al development in the US, particularly in UNL, which could give all the participants insights and perspectives to improve food security in their countries.

In addition to the workshop, within five days of interacting internationally with other Fulbrighters, the speakers, and the professionals, we were able to exchange knowledge, share some experiences, and obtain new perspectives on how the prob-lems arose in different countries as well as how the problem solving approaches should be designed. We had learned to de-velop social networking that could be use ful in the future. We also enjoyed our fine dining session at a high end local restau-rant, which was hosted by UNL students, and the closing dinner and dance party at a pumpkin ranch.

We definitely gained new knowledge, friends, understandings, and of course, we had fun!

Widya Agustinah, who is a Faculty Member at Atma Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta, is a Fulbright student grantee currently pursuing her Master’s in Food Science at the University of Massachusettes, Amherst. Eni Hidayati, who is a Faculty Member at the University of Samawa, Sumbawa, is a Fulbright student grantee pursuing her Master’s in Water Re-sources Management at SUNY, Syracuse. Edi Dwi Cahyono, who is a Faculty Member at Brawijaya University in Malang, is a Fulbright student grantee pursuing his Ph.D. in Rural Sociology at the Ohio State University.

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chose to write on the design, the develop-ment, the implementation, and the evalu-ation of online instruction for her thesis. They are: (1) the topic met with her study objective to deepen her knowledge and gain an experience in conducting research in the field of Instructional Design and Technology (IDT); (2) the future use of in-novative online instruction to facilitate students in Indonesia, particularly at her home institution, would be very promis-ing to ensure sustainable development in the education sector; and (3) the current study provided a foundation for her future research at the Ph.D. level.

Following is the summary of her the-sis: Today, the expanding adoption of on-line learning has been a trend in higher education. Online learning is believed to be able to solve educational problems in terms of distance, time, instructor avail-ability and learner’s access to the course. Bliuc, Ellis, Goodyear and Piggott (2010) stated that currently online learning has been a significant part of the learning ex-perience at the university level, not only in distance education but also in campus-based settings. Despite the concern and excitement produced by many possibilities of online courses, most of the time fac-ulty members have little time to examine the course content and how this content will be presented online (Cuthrell & Lyon, 2007). Therefore, having an online course, especially for the first time, is a challenge for both the instructor and the students. To answer those challenges, effective in-struction that facilitates learners in learn-ing process is one essential factor among many factors that influence learners to be successful in their online learning.

The current study examined the ef-fects of two instructional strategies on the academic achievement of students tak-ing an online course for the first time. The strategies were 1) online lecture only and 2) a combination of online lecture and col-laborative learning. Online lecture format is a common instructional strategy that in-cludes text, slide presentations, narration, and video (Illinois Online Network, 2010; Ko & Rossen, 2001). Collaborative online learning encourages participation through group work, discussions, and shared expe-

riences (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). The partic-ipants in this study were 42 undergraduate students enrolled in a “Seminar: Problems in Educational Technology” online course at Ganesha University of Education. Moo-dle, an open source learning management system, was the online course delivery method. One class section was randomly assigned as a control group and the other as an experiment group. Students in the control group were taught using online lectures only, while students in the ex-periment group were taught using online lectures and collaborative learning strat-egies. Final projects were assessed us-ing a rubric to determine the competency levels of the students. The instructor and the students were interviewed on their perceptions of the factors that influenced the students’ experience as first-time on-line learners and academic performance. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data of students’ academic levels. The inferential statistics that was used to com-pare students’ academic levels were the Wilcoxon test and the sign test. In analyz-ing the interview data, the steps for quali-tative data analysis sequenced by Miles and Huberman (1994) were used.

The quantitative data revealed a significant difference in the academic achievement of first-time online students taught through collaborative online learn-ing compared to those taught through on-line lectures only. The implementation of collaborative online learning resulted in greater academic achievement compared to the one using online lectures only. The following factors contributed to the differ-ences of academic achievement of first-time online students: (1) the opportuni-ties for students to collaborate with their friends and other relevant sources, (2) the use of supportive online tools to collabo-rate online, (3) students had both individ-ual and group responsibilities, and (4) au-thority shared between the instructor and students in the online teaching and learn-ing process.

Today, the ex-panding adoption of online learning has been a trend in higher educa-tion

“

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International Leaders in Education Pro-gram has truly been a transformational experience for me, providing me with the new classroom experience, teach-ing skills and passion to develop and act upon my capacity as teacher.

My experience as an ILEP Fellow has been, without a doubt, the richest and most meaningful experience of my career as an educator. This experience has en-abled me to develop my classroom man-agement skills through my experience ex-plored in American classroom. Being part of American classroom where I can talk with American students and discuss with U.S. teachers in Boone County High School in Florence Kentucky is the unforgettable experience to me. First, I had the fear of being rejected by my American students and teachers, but then I found that wher-ever it is, the heart of teaching remain the same, the students.

Central to cultivating my identity as a teacher were my interactions with other ILEP Fellows. These teachers inspired me through their intelligence, wit, and passion for educating their students. The main thing that I learned from this experience is that effective teachers are similar no matter what country or educational sys-tem they represent. Generally, effective teachers want to give their students the best experiences in learning and trying hard to make it happen. The relationships I formed with the other ILEP Fellows — re-lationships that both were challenging and encouraging — provided me with a com-munity in which my educational philoso-phies and practices could gain depth and breadth. This community of Fellows helped me to embrace my gifts and passions as a teacher and prompted me to think about how I might be able to enact my teaching skills within and beyond the walls of my school.

As an ILEP Fellow, I had the chance

NKU ILEP Fellow ’09 with Kentucky Governor

on my return to invite my U.S. partner teacher, Alice Lambert, to come and visit my school. I live in Sekayu, the capital of Musi Banyuasin Regency in South Suma-tera. It’s such an honor for us to have Miss Lambert in our school, SMAN 2. My stu-dents were so excited preparing the wel-coming party for her. She became guest speaker in all classes at my school. The joy that she gave to members of the school won’t be forgotten. During her short visit, she had also been invited to speak before the students and teachers of some prima-ry and senior high schools in Sekayu. She has also conducted interesting workshops where my colleagues could share their classroom experience.

On my return from the ILEP pro-gram, I have also launched the pen pals project involving students from SMAN 2 Sekayu and Boone County High School. I hope that the relationship of these young fellows would become longlasting friend-ship between the young generation of the two countries. Witnessing my students and U.S. students share their culture has brought me a perspective that we can cre-ate peace through the program.

‘It has been appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humani-ty’, said Einstein. It is so true that although I have back to my country I can still have contact with my U.S teacher friends and other ILEP fellows. The tools like comput-ers and internet can provide me with dis-cussion and sharing about teaching with my friend all over the world.

(2009 ILEP Fellow Sri Maryati)

Alice interview in Radio Swara Smanda

Reflection on my experience as ILEP Fellow

Sri Maryati

We Are All Part of the CirclePrior to my trip to Sekayu, I had trav-eled to over twenty different countries outside the United States- -literally walk-ing back roads, sharing food and conver-sation, working side-by-side with local peoples to arrange scheduling and cul-tural exchange events.

Yet, despite these memorable expe-riences, my visit to Sekayu2 High School in Sekayu, South Sumatra has been the most unique and rewarding.

Luckily, I was able to reconnect with Sri Mariyati- -ILEP fellow who had visited my school the previous year and now host for my visit as an exchange teacher. As I found out later, it was unusual that co-teachers were matched for the teacher ex-change. So, I felt quite fortunate that we were able to work together once again!

When I arrived in Palembang, Sri met me at the airport with her two daugh-ters and husband. The next day, she and her cousin took me on a tour - -visiting the Musi water front, monuments, traditional houses museum and seeing the different faces of the city. Later that afternoon, we headed to Sekayu. Though Sri had ex-plained that it was a small town, I did not realize until later that it was the last com-munity before jungle!

Arriving after dark, we went directly to the Wisma where I was to stay during my visit. Sri, Lydia and others had thought-fully prepared the room with a refrigerator, television, cooking equipment, portable washing machine, and even had provided food for several meals! It was just like be-ing home! (However, I did not spend much time in the Wisma--once the teachers dis-covered I loved to different as well as spicy foods, we were out every night! I would leave at 6:30AM for school and rarely re-turned before 8PM.)

The next morning, I began nine days of visiting schools to meet faculties and students of all ages, while at the same time learning about Indonesian culture, school curriculums, graduation require-ments, class routine, teacher certification, extra-curricular activities, and regulations. I was busy every minute and loved it!

One highlight of my trip was the open-ing ceremony when Sekayu 2 students wel-comed me with a wonderful performance in English of “Titanus,” a student-written parody of the “Titanic”! It was also quite an honor to meet the principal and officials of the community and education department.

Sekayu 2 is unique in the fact that it encourages students to speak English at

every opportunity. As a result, many stu-dents wished to personally talk with me to practice their speaking skills, though others hesitated--shy and self conscious that they did “not know English so well.” Therefore, when making presentations to the classes, I encouraged all students to practice, be courageous, and praised them for their efforts. Another focus was to let them know how much they were like my own students in the United States and that basically, people everywhere are the same with similar hopes, dreams, and needs.

On the weekend, a group of teach-ers arranged a tour of sites in Palmebang, a boat ride on the Musi River to Summer Island, a shopping trip to a traditional mar-ket, rode in a becak, and a lunch of tradi-tional foods. I also visited the homes and met the families of several of these kind women. Always I was welcomed as more of a friend than as a stranger.

Back in Sekayu, I had the opportu-nity to walk along the Musi River and see the traditional ways of fishing and living, enjoyed eating in local restaurants tasting a variety of traditional foods, and meeting people on the street. Even though many did not speak English, we were able to commu-nicate through smiles, facial expressions and gestures. There are no strangers when one offers a smile and nod of the head!

One of my last activities at Sekayu was to conduct a teacher workshop. It was a hot and humid, Friday afternoon--when most teachers just want to go home, forget work for a few hours, cool down, and relax. Instead, twelve dedicated faculty members stayed at school for the seminar which in-cluded methods of engaging students to keep them motivated and alert, classroom teaching strategies, learning games, and steps to building learning communities. Though humid and muggy, we had a mem-orable time sharing and continuing to build lasting friendships.

I am sincerely and humbly grateful

Alice did workshop in meeting room at SMA Negeri 2 Sekayu

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Alice Lambert

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‘3 Hati, 2 Dunia, 1 Cinta’ Wins the Best Picture Award at the 2010 Indonesian Film Festival

Putut Widjanarko is the producer of 3 Hati 2 Dunia 1 Cinta (3 Hearts 2 Worlds 1 Love). The film won the Best Picture Award at the recent 2010 Indonesian Film Festival. Putut received a Fulbright schol-arship for his post-graduate study in media studies at the Ohio University, Athens, in 2001-2002, and later got his Ph.D. in me-dia studies from the same university. He has co-produced other award-winning films such as Laskar Pelangi, Garuda di Dadaku, Emak Ingin Naik Haji and Sang Pemimpi. He is President Director of Mizan Produc-tions, and serves as the Vice President of Mizan Group. On the academic side, he is Chair of Paramadina University Graduate School of Communication.

Haidar Bagir is the producer execu-tive of this film, as well as other films pro-duced by Mizan Productions mentioned above. He is the President of Mizan Group. Under the sponsorship of the Fulbright pro-gram, Haidar earned his Master’s degree at Harvard University, conducted research at Indiana University and taught as a Visit-ing Specialist at University of the Sciences di Philadelphia. He received his doctorate degree in Islamic philosophy from the Uni-versity of Indonesia.

The late Fulbrighter Tuti Indra Malaon Wins the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Indonesian Film Festival

The late Tuti Indra Malaon who won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Film Festival was a senior fac-ulty member at the University of Indonesia Faculty of Letters when she went to How-ard University in 1983 as a Fulbright Visit-ing Research Scholar. Aside from being an academician, she was a renowned actress with the Teater Populer and played in at least 11 films; she won two Best Actress Piala Citra awards in the 1986 and 1989 Indonesian Film Festivals.

Fulbrighter Ahmad Syafii Maarif Re-ceives the Prestigious 2010 Habibie Award

On November 30, 2010, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, Fulbright alumnus, former chair of Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, was recog-nized with the 2010 Habibie Award for his roles in promoting interfaith dialogue and religious harmony.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif earned his Master’s degree in History from the Ohio University in 1978. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Islamic Thought from the Uni-versity of Chicago. He is also recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award for his role in guiding Muslims to embrace tolerance and pluralism as the basis for justice and harmony in Indonesia and the rest of the world.

for the warm welcome, open-hearted ac-ceptance, kindness and caring, and hos-pitality offered by my Sekayu hosts, the students, teachers, school administrators, and government officials.

Prior to leaving Kentucky, I had cre-ated a face book page so that my students could communicate with the students at Sekayu and with me while I was in Indone-sia. Now, there are over 400 students and facue-- creating friendships, hope for the future, cultural awareness, tolerance, and peace. We are all part of the circle.

(Alice Lambert, presently teaches

senior English and drama at Boone County High School, Northern Kentucky. She has eighteen years teaching experience includ-ing working with blind and partially sight-ed students as well as regular education students in grades 7-12 in Kentucky and Florida. Ms. Lambert is also a published author and photographer, was program di-rector for Easter Seals, and co-founded an international/national non-profit organiza-tion also serving as its managing director. In 1991, she was recognized as one of the Northern KY Women of the Year; in 2004, she was included in Who’s Who Among American Teachers.)

Alumni News

15

Dono Sunardi

eth centuries, Worcester was a quite big industrial and manufacturing center. Dur-ing these periods, Worcester enjoyed its better days. But, following the migration and outsourcing of manufacture to coun-tries in Asia and Latin America in 1970s, Worcester faced a great challenge. Un-employment crippled the city, crime rate soared high, old factory buildings were abandoned—making the city looked rus-tic—and the poverty of its community got more severe. Since several years ago, the city government has been launching a series of revitalization program to make Worcester a center of financial and health service in New England area. This pro-gram is more or less successful since, at least according to what the city’s website says, Worcester can now find itself in the list of Ten Most Livable Cities in the US.

I entered Clark University in the Fall Semester, 2009. As suggested earli-er, during two years of my studying there, in retrospect, I had a great and invaluable experience. Classes at Clark University are small: a course usually has only ten to twenty students enroll in it. Classes of 200-level are open only for senior and graduate students. Some seminar classes have even less than ten students, all of who are graduate students. In all those classes, students are required to actively participate in the discussion, panel, and presentation. They do it either personally or in-group of three or more. Students are also required to write a one-page response paper for every reading material they have in class. This response should be posted in the course’s blog, known as “Cicada” which is maintained or administered by Clark’s ITS, to be presented and dis-cussed in the class. The professor and his or her TA, teaching assistant (I was myself a TA for different professor each semes-ter), will also provide their comment and grade on the students’ response paper. The professors at Clark University are very friendly, approachable, and eager to help students and mingle with them. They have their own office hours set in the beginning of the semester, when the students could come to see them in their offices to dis-cuss anything related to the course and beyond. But they are also always reach-able through email. I guess that the ratio between the professors and students at Clark University is around 1:15.

Outside my academic world, my life in Worcester revolved around my friends, who are very international in nature. Clark University, despite the fact that it is a small college with only around 4,000 students in total, is also a cosmopolitan campus. International students at Clark

The experience of studying and living in the US had been for me an invaluable part of my life.

What makes this experience invalu-able is the opportunity that were opened to me to not only study many new aca-demic perspectives at school where I for-mally enrolled for the last two years but to learn many lessons of life outside of school—both through and with my friends of the same university and through and with American community in general. This learning process is a two-way one: I was not only being taught and educated by ex-ternal factors surrounding me, but also I helped shaping the community where I lived and interacted with. I was not only the object of my education, but also was the subject with capacity to influence my surroundings.

While in the US, I studied at Clark University, a private university in Worces-ter, Massachusetts. Clark University was founded in 1887. The only university in North America Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, visited to give his fa-mous “Clark Lectures” in 1909, Clark Uni-versity was originally a research-based university opened only for graduate stu-dents, along with Harvard and Yale uni-versities. Today, proud to be one of the foremost liberal art colleges in the country with its slogan “Change the World, Chal-lenge Convention,” Clark University has 31 majors. It is also featured in the list of 40 Colleges that Change Lives. One aca-demic program at Clark University that is widely acclaimed as a great breakthrough is the so-called “Fifth Year” program. This

program enables Clark undergraduate stu-dents with minimal GPA of B+ to continue his or her study to get a master degree for one year for free in the university.

Worcester, where Clark University is located, is the second biggest city in the state of Massachusetts after Boston, the capital. In the nineteenth and twenti-

How I Lived and Learned in the US

16

come from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Lat-in America. And of course, students from the US comprise the biggest percentage. Strolling down the pathways or greens of Clark University complex, we would eas-ily bump into students from parts of the world we may have never set our feet in. Clark University is, to me, like a “small cosmos” where people speaking different languages, eating different kinds of food, living different cultural inheritances live together in peace and contribute to a com-mon good. A good example of the ways to celebrate this multiculturalism at Clark is the annual International Gala Night, where Clark students (or simply Clarkies) could learn about other students’ cultures and introduce their own cultures to others. This year, Indonesian Clarkies presented “Saman Dance,” originally from Aceh. In-terestingly enough, the dancers are not only Indonesian Clarkies. Students from Thailand, the US, and some other coun-tries happily took part in it.

As mentioned earlier, Clark Univer-sity is an open-campus. Clark University is open not only in its architecture and lay out—Clark is a fenceless university; its buildings spread over and mix with the lo-cal inhabitants’ apartments and houses—but also in its commitment to involve in the community’s issue. Clark University, for example, owns and funds a community school, maintains and revitalizes univer-sity parks that are open to public, and pro-vides assistance and help for members of the immediate community in needs. Sever-al months ago, for instance, Clark Univer-sity provided a shelter for several house-holds in Worcester who lost their homes because of fire. Many of Clark alumni are also active in the revitalization program of the Main South area of Worcester (the area where Clark is located that is renowned for its high crime and unemployment rates). They founded and run a thrift store, a lo-cal bar, and a grocery store selling locally grown produces and dairy products.

Last summer, I volunteered myself in this kind of grocery store as well as in an organic farm initiated by one of my fellow

Clarkies. It is through such involvements that I experienced direct association with American people around me. This direct association in its turn confirmed, revised, and challenged whatever preconceptions I might have had before about American. Be-fore that, most of what I had known about American people came from secondary sources: books, magazines, newspapers, Internet, movies, friends, etc. Americans, as I found out, are people with hopes, de-sires, and dreams but also with challenges, weaknesses, and burdens. They also long for to be approached and acknowledged. They have their own tradition, culture, and value they inherited from their parents, which, although different from tradition, culture, and value I inherit from my com-munity, are very rich and interesting. In short, with and through my experience as a volunteer in those Clarkies-owned-and-run local businesses, I was enabled to learn about American community where I lived as well as to introduce Indonesia and its culture to them. In the end of my study and stay in the US and upon leaving them for my own homeland, I felt a deep feeling of gratitude and sorry at the same time. I felt grateful for all the experiences I might learn; and I felt sorry because I must leave those who have taught me a lot about life and whom I have considered to be friends.

Dono Sunardi, 2009 Fulbright student; faculty member, Mulawarman University, Samarinda

2011 Fulbright Award Dinner

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It is a pleasure for us to share our ex-perience as participant of International Leaders Education Program (ILEP) in 2011.

We were so delighted to hear about our selections for the ILEP fellows 2011 from the AMINEF. We cannot wait to be able to work with other teachers from all over the world in United States of America. Both of us were placed at Kent State Uni-versity.

Our travel from Indonesia to Wash-ington D.C. was a great traveling. We transit in Changi International airport in Singapore and in Frankfurt International airport in Germany, and finally we arrived at Dulles airport in Washington D.C. We were staying in Washington Plaza Hotel in the middle of Washington D.C. only about 20 minutes of walking to Capitol Building. Our accommodation in the hotel was very great, the schedule was very nice, and we have learned a lot there. We were also requested to make poster about our coun-

Novianti MulyanaBetty Rahmawati

It was a big surprise for me when I got an email from One To World to partici-pate in supporting the committee on the 2011 Fulbright Awards Dinner.

The 2011 Fulbright Awards Dinner was held on May 25, 2011 in the Waldrof-Astoria Grand Ballroom, New York. Ful-bright Awards Dinner is an annual event hosted by One To World to encourage the awareness on Fulbright program. This event is also intended to honor those who show their dedication to the International world in the spirit of Senator J. William Fulbright. The audiences of this event are current Fulbright grantees in New York area, Fulbright alumni, and international leaders in business, higher education, the arts, and government. One To World since 1977 brings to both American and International students in the New York the opportunity to interact and share global understanding. One To World is also des-ignated by the U.S. Department of State to support the enrichment program for 800 international Fulbright grantees in New York area.1

It is an honor for me to be able to contribute in this event, and also to have the opportunity to meet Harriet Mayor Ful-bright, wife of the late Senator J. William Fulbright, who serves as the Honorary Chair of the event. In this event, Harriet per-sonally presented the award of Fulbright Award for Citizen Diplomacy to Sherry Lee Mueller, the President of National Coun-cil for International Visitors. There were three more awards which were presented by the current Fulbright grantees on that night. The Fulbright Rising Star Award was presented to Jacob Haar, former Fulbright scholar in Yemen and Co-Founder & Man-1 The detail on one to world and the event is taken from the One To World web page, http://www.one-to-world.org/content/view/8/10/ and http://www.one-to-world.org/content/view/140/209/ and the event booklet.

aging Director on Minlam Asset Manage-ment by Ibrahim Tahri, Fulbright grantee from Morocco. The Fulbright Award for Outstanding Global Achievement was given to Gary G. Mueller, former Fulbright scholar in Germany, Managing Director of Eagle Capital Management, and Founder & Former Chairman & CEO of ISI Emerg-ing Markets. This award was presented by Rose Kiwanuka, Fulbright grantee from Kenya who is pursuing her Ph.D in Rut-gers Business School New Jersey. The last award is Fulbright Award for Global Busi-ness Leadership which was presented to Roelfien Kuijpers, the Managing Director & Global Head, Deutsche Bank Advisor of Deutsche Bank. This award was present-ed by Alma Zadic, Fulbright grantee from Austria.

This event does not only open the opportunity for both the current Ful-bright grantees and the alumni to inter-act to each other, but also to encourage both the current grantee and the alumni to hold on the spirit of Senator J. William Fulbright ad contribute more to the world.

Ni Wayan Swardhani Wiraswastiningrum who is currently pursuing her Master’s program in American Literature at Montclair State Uni-versity related her recent experience to meet with Mrs. Harriet Mayor Fulbright at the 2011 Fulbright Awards Dinner in New York. Wayan is a faculty member at the Brawijaya Univer-sity in Malang.

Ni Wayan Swardhani

Our ILEP Experience

18

tries and we displayed the poster in the Cultural Night held by the IREX Committee. They gave us some questions to be asked to other fellows from different countries related with their poster. For us, it was a very nice way to know each other better. The welcome program was also included the visit to the Capitol Hall and the White house. We were so excited and it was a very great experience for us.

It was also a great surprise and an honor for us to have the Indonesia Am-bassador for United States of America, Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, joined us for the lun-cheon held for the ILEP Fellows 2011 at

Washington Plaza Hotel. We were able to sit together in the same table. We had a good conversation with the Ambassador during the luncheon. He gave his support to all of us and reminded us that to do all things with our best since we are also representing Indonesian Country while we are in the U.S. The conversation with the Ambassador makes us to be more enthusi-astic than ever to do our best while in the program and upon our return so that we can together help Indonesia.

After the welcome program, all fel-lows went to each university placement. It was so lucky that we were placed at the same university, Kent State University. The university provided us with an apart-ment that has separate bathroom in each room for the fellow. It was so blessed to know that we don’t have to share bathroom with other fellows from different countries since we have different culture and habits. They were three fellows lived at one apart-ment. Since there is only one kitchen, a washing machine, and a drying machine in the apartment, we made some discussion at the very beginning to make the arrange-ment in using the machines and avoiding clash among us. By having our own room, we have our own privacy and every fellow have known each other territory in the apartment. For transportation is also so convenient, the bus shelter is very near to our apartment and our campus. We could also maintain our health in the fitness cen-ter that continuously open for 24 hours in

our complex apartment. The Recreational Center in Kent State University also pro-vides gym equipments, tropical tempera-ture swimming pool, whirlpool, and sauna. All facilities provided for the students and ILEP fellows are free of charge.

All ILEP fellows have the opportu-nity to get the courses on the methodol-ogy of education, application technology in learning and multicultural knowledge at the university. Beside taking that courses, we are also allowed to choose two other courses. I take the Seminar Mathematics Class and Improving Teaching Mathemat-ics in the Middle School. Meanwhile, my friend, Betty Rahmawati takes Multicul-tural Education and Multicultural Counsel-ing for her additional courses. We also participate in various seminars relating to education in Kent State University and other places. We are invited to share our countries and cultures with various de-partments at Kent State University. Each ILEP participant at Kent State University is asked to present various themes at Cultural Dialogue Program. I am present-ing “Caring about the Profession”, and my friend, Betty Rahmawati presents “Caring about The Environment”. This program is attended by university leaders, faculty, and students from various major. It was also being released in Kent State Univer-sity News paper.

Beside the activities at the Uni-versity, we also do school internship and work closely with counterpart U.S. teach-er at Kent Roosevelt Senior High School, and my friend Betty at Streetsboro Senior High School Where we conduct some proj-ects such as making a joint project which will involve students from the U.S. and In-donesia as the follow up of this program by using technology access.

In the beginning of March, we par-ticipated at Poster Contest celebrating Women’s day at Kent State University. We had a story about “Ni Reneng a Legend Dancer from Bali” for this contest. We both won and received “The Most Informa-tive Poster of Women’s Day” certificates. We were so happy and excited to get this certificate. Dr. Linda our supervisor from Kent State University always tells us that we are “The cream of the cream”. She said that we are the future leader of every country and with this rich experience we feel and believe that we can be that.

Novianti Mulyana, a Math teacher at Ma-drasah Aliyah Negeri 4, Jakarta, and Betty Rahmawati, a Social Study teacher at Krida Nusantara Integrated Senior High School Bandung,West Java.

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