Indonesian Youth Trip in US
2008

IYLP 2008 Participants and Staff

2008 is the fourth year for Indonesian Youth Leadership Program. This year, 17 students and 3 teachers have been selected from Sukabumi (West Java), Bandung (West Java), Bengkulu city (Bengkulu), and Pontianak (West Kalimantan). Students were selected from 4 provinces across Indonesia and reflect the diversity of Indonesia in their ethnic backgrounds, races and religions.

IYLP 2008 was managed by Legacy International (http://www.legacyintl.org/) which does all The US Program in cooperation with Center for Civic Education Indonesia which does all Indonesian recruitment, selection and management. It is funded and supported by U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the U.S. Embassy, Jakarta.

The Indonesia Youth Leadership Program gives 20 participants a chance to spend a month in The US. The purpose of this program is to raise understanding and friendship between Indonesia and America and to learn more about cultures and communities. This year’s program theme was Civic Education, Respect for Diversity & Community Activism, that’s why there are three phases of IYLP: Community Immersion, Leadership Training, and Washington, DC.

Workshops & weekends with Host Family

After we arrived in Roanoke, all the participants stayed in a hotel to have a one-day brief orientation about the program and living in host family. We visited Smith Mountain Lake in the evening. On the next 13 days, during the Community Immersion Phase all the students stayed and spent their weekends with host families in Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg area. While the students stayed in host families, all teachers were stay in Global Youth Village, Bedford. During the day all participants did activities together and during the evenings and on the weekends they spent their time with their host families. Most of the student said, “Staying and spending weekends, doing different activities everyday with my host family, it was my first and best experiences that I won’t forget.” They went hiking, swimming, visited historical places and tourism sites, watched movies, went shopping, gardening, cooked Indonesian food, and the most exciting part was watching fireworks on 4th of July - The US Independence day. Even though they only stayed for a short time, not only the students but also the host family felt like they are all a real family, “I feel like I have new child/children in my family.” Indonesian students also impressed by the hospitality that their host family gave to them, “First I thought all American families are like in TV, but it’s totally different! They are kind, friendly, care, and are warm-hearted persons.”

Visit WDBJ-TV, Hidden Valley High School and Community Service Activities

During the day in Community Immersion phase, we had workshops about many subjects such as US Democracy & Governmental System by Atefeh Leavitt, Islam & Democracy by JE Rash, Action Teams by Shanti Thompson & Lorraine Warren, Mass Media by Dr. Harry L. Wilson, Entrepreneurship by Dr. Ira Kauffman, US Public Education System (for teachers) by Amy Cummings and met Sam Rasoul, candidate for US Representative from Virginia's 6th Congressional District. Besides that, we also visited many places related to the workshops such as the Education Sector – Hidden Valley Public School & Roanoke Collage, Media & Business –  WDBJ-TV & Roanoke Times newspaper, NGO’s that make difference – Good Will Industries & Big Brother/ Big Sister, and NGO’s & Community service – students and teachers separated into 4 groups and did community service in different places such as a Soup Kitchen (a place where we served food for homeless people), Senior Center/ Adult Day Care, Public Park, and Children’s Center/ Head Start. And the end of this phase – last day with host families, all participants and host families had a farewell dinner.  All students performed Indonesian traditional dance & traditional martial arts, sang Indonesian songs, and they closed their farewell dinner by asking their host families to do “Poco Poco“ - Indonesian traditional dance.

Having Workshops, Action Teams, and Farewell Dinner with Host Family

The next ten days – Leadership Training Phase, we stayed at the Global Youth Village (GYV). It is a summer camp which is managed by Legacy International. At GYV, IYLP students had two-day workshop about Public Policy by Dr. Steve Bragaw, and learned about leadership, planed their follow-on projects, met and stayed with other youth from all over the world, and had lots of fun.  In the mornings, IYLP students had workshops. Action teams and electives - where they can choose one activity like basketball, American football, soccer, swimming, traditional dances, pottery, art studio, etc that they could do in the afternoons together with all youth.  In the evenings, there were cultural and sharing activities. On the Indonesian focused day, IYLP teachers cooked Indonesian foods for dinner and IYLP students showed a slide show about Indonesia and presented a traditional fashion show and sang Indonesian songs. After that, students from Pontianak performed a Dayak traditional dance, followed by students from Sukabumi and Bandung performed the Jaipong dance, Pencak Silat – traditional martial arts, and Suling – traditional flute performance. Bengkulu students also performed the Bekawan Dance. Beside dancing, IYLP students also created a quiz about Indonesia, and asked all the audience to dance together. They closed their cultural presentation by played a traditional games called “ular naga panjangnya”. It was great and successful 90 minutes presentation. All audience in GYV very excited and amazed while they were watching the Indonesian Cultural Presentation, they also very enthusiastic in learning some of Indonesian songs, dances, and games. Before we left GYV, all IYLP students and 1 teacher had a presentation of their follow-on projects plan to get $50 mini-grant. It was one of the goals of the program, make the students to be a future leader by doing a small thing but can make a big change in their communities.

Making new friends and activities in Global Youth Village

Indonesian Cultural Presentation

The last 5 days of our US trip was The Washington, DC Phase. In this phase we learned about US history by visiting many museums, historical buildings, and tourism sites like Jefferson Memorial, Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, White House, Washington - DC Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War  Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Japanese-American Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Old Town Alexandria, US Capitol. We had the opportunity to visit Indonesia Embassy. On the last day in Washington, DC, all IYLP participants were invited to the Department of State - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. We had a chance to tell them about our experiences during our stay in US and students’ follow-on projects plan. Our last evening in DC, we had wonderful time to experience the grandeur of DC at night by cruising on the Potomac River. (Femmi Tsanita)

Visiting Museums and historical Place in D.C