After graduating from IDEC, I was fortunate enough to be selected as a foreign language instructor at a unique and innovative public JHS/SHS that has adopted the international curriculum of a world-renowned organization that specializes in international project-based learning and education.  This is a first-of-its-kind institution in all of Japan and it is exciting to be working here.  It involves a lot of patience, creativity, experimentation and perseverance.

While struggling through the tedious research process at IDEC, I found a quote that got me though the most difficult times following my amazing G.ecbo internship in Indonesia, and it came from the great African leader, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.  He stated that, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”  I thought that finishing my data collection, analysis and eventual write-up of my graduate thesis was going to be absolutely impossible given the amount of time I had remaining before my graduation, however, when I felt lost or frustrated, I always referred to Nelson Mandela’s quote.  It reminded me that even the most impossible task can and will be accomplished with unwavering courage and effort.

Through the friendships that I have made in Japan and in Indonesia, I have been working on trying to create and promote international exchanges with the purpose of cultivating intercultural understanding, cooperation and the development of global competence or skills needed for the younger generation of students here in Japan and hopefully with other countries around Southeast Asia.  Also, with the experiences that I have gained at IDEC and through G.ecbo, I hope to inspire the students I work with to take an interest in the research process and to develop a curiosity for learning how to help and serve the local community around them and also for betterment of the world community as well.  I will never forget the opportunity and experiences that the G.ecbo program afforded me while at Brawijaya University.

Terima Kasih Banyak, and a major thank you to my former advisor for her hard work and advice throughout the G.ecbo internship.  It could not have been a success without her leadership and guidance.  Also, I would like to owe a debt of gratitude to all the professors and staff at IDEC and who organize the G.ecbo program.  Finally, thank you to the professors, staff, students at Brawijaya University, and also to the Senior student advisors in IDEC.  Through this program, we made one part of the world closer and a little more peaceful. The only advice for those who will be graduating in the near future, comes from the words of the late Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and lead a trail.”  As you begin your graduate school journey, or if you are near the end of it, don’t be passive and don’t take the safe road that everyone has already walked down.  Be adventurous, take risks, fail, fail again, fail once more, then find success at the end of that failure.  Create a new path towards success that others may follow in your footsteps, and someday they too may create their own path of success.  どうもありがとうございました。