[HEADLINE] IISMA WEEK 2022

Jakarta – LSPR Communication and Business Institute has successfully held the IISMA Week 2022 from Wednesday, 9 March until Friday, 11 March 2022. The Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards or IISMA Week is a series of events to socialise about the program and prepare LSPR Students to be more ready and could compete nationally to be one of the future Indonesian Student Ambassadors.

Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) is the Indonesia Government scholarship scheme to fund Indonesian students for a mobility program at top universities overseas. Undergraduate students could spend one semester at the overseas university partner to study, to experience the host country’s culture and undertake practical assignments to hone their skills. The scheme is centrally managed by Directorate General of Higher Education (DGHE), Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) and is open for undergraduate students from all Indonesian higher education institutions under DGHE. IISMA Program is one of the implementations of the Kampus Merdeka Program and intends to give the students more knowledge and skills from world renowned universities, pursuing their own interests through multidisciplinary courses, Cultivate cross-cultural skills & awareness, and Build international networks.

In the first session, we’re pleased to welcome Dr. Eng. Ir. R. Rachmat A. Sriwijaya, S.T., M.T., D.Eng., IPM., ASEAN Eng., Head of IISMA. He explained thoroughly all about IISMA that the students need to be aware of. Beginning with the tagline of IISMA: Come fly with IISMA, Mr. Rachmat explains about the procedures and requirements of IISMA 2022. Students need to be nominated by each home university by being an active student, with good GPA, and have a good English proficiency. After geting the recommendation letter or nomination by the university, students need to apply through the IISMA platform. Students will be notified if they can proceed to the interview session and get accepted as an IISMA Awardee. Students who get accepted as IISMA Awardee will be going abroad around August – September 2022 and will finish their program around December 2022 to January 2023.

On Thursday, 10 March 2022, Ms. Heidy Isabel from the International Office discussed things to prepare for joining IISMA. Ms. Heidy shared 5 tips: Research (both internal and external), Head start (Prepared the documents needed before hand), Ask a good question (Did you research, jot down your findings, sort out your confusion, and ask a good question to the right person), Enrich Yourself (Add value to yourself by joining more activities, practices, soft skills, and expanding your network), and last but not least is to keep motivated (always remember what is your motivation and intention, finish it with your best within the process). Ms. Heidy also shared the IISMA preparation such as the eligibility of the students, standard to get recommendation letters and get nominated by LSPR, writing motivation letter/essay, taking English proficiency, and other practical matters.

Moving on to the second session featuring Ms. Sue Davies, Head of English Division of LSPR. Ms. Sue Davies explained that students will be having a complete test of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students can choose the test from IELTS, Toefl, and Duolingo for the IISMA Program. Students can actually learn from small things, like reading the English newspaper, trying to have conversations with their friends, watch a movie or listen to new songs. In practising English, we need to be confident, it doesn’t matter if we use unstructured sentences while practising but we can always make it right. Once again, practice makes perfect.

The third day on Friday, 11 March 2022 discussed more about the experiences of studying abroad. In the first session, Amira, an LSPR Mass Communication Students Batch 23 and Genevier, LSPR Performing Arts Communication Students Batch 23 –  the two IISMA Awardee from LSPR shared their experiences after joining the IISMA Program. They shared about their application process, sorting the requirements documents, English Test, Interview, How they deal with the different culture and strict procedure of IISMA Committee, LSPR, and also Host University, about the benefits and fund, How they manage their expenses through the fund. Genivier and Amira shared the unexpected challenges and charms while joining IISMA 2021.

Followed by Ms Cyntia Keliat, Head of Management Study Program in LSPR who got scholarships to pursue the Master Degree in China, She shared her positive culture shocks as well as the beauty of studying abroad; the internationalisation for both academically and also cultured and personal related. Students will learn a lot of things and always will change their personalities on how the students will strive up for their dreams and goals.