
The US Embassy of America, Jakarta Visits UIN Antasari to Discuss Student Exchange
Banjarmasin – In order to introduce and discuss programs in education and culture, the US Embassy in Jakarta, which were represented by Mary K. Trechock, Assistant Cultural Attache and Delia Vitananda, US Embassy Jakarta, visited UIN Antasari Banjarmasin, Tuesday (25/02/2022).
This visit was actually a discussion under the theme “Cooperation, Diversity and Prosperity” which audiences were students and lecturers at UIN Antasari Banjarmasin.
The Rector of UIN Antasari Prof. Dr. H. Mujiburrahman, MA warmly welcomed the United States Embassy visit in the Zafry Zamzam Hall of the Rectorate Building, expressed his honor and joy for the visit of the United States Embassy to UIN Antasari Banjarmasin.
“We are very pleased to welcome Madam Mary K. Trechock who has taken the time to visit us and to discuss important issues of partnership, diversity, prosperity and the cooperative relationship between our university and the US embassy.”
The Rector explained that UIN Antasari has a good historical relationship, around two decades ago that UIN Antasari had developed cooperation with the US embassy. For example, UIN Antasari had several lectures from the RELO (Regional English Language Office) program three years ago. There were also skills and management training programs provided by the US embassy.
In addition, Mujiburrahman added that many UIN Antasari lecturers have short courses, study masters and doctoral degrees to the US with scholarships from America, until now there are several lecturers studying in the US with LPDP scholarships.
Regarding the theme of the discussion, the Rector said that this theme fits perfectly with the national motto, namely Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which is different but still one. According to him, meeting and collaborating with people from different cultures and backgrounds is very important.
In the discussion moderated by Siti Muflichah, Ph.D, Mery K Trechock said that her visit to Banjarmasin was to discuss several educational and cultural programs at the US Embassy, including the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI).
Mery explained, YSEALI is a US government program that focuses on 4 things, namely to strengthen partnerships with new leaders in Southeast Asia; to expand their skills as effective civic, economic and non-governmental leaders in the region; and encourage them to work together across borders to solve regional challenges.
Furthermore, this program consists of all ASEAN Member States (Brunai, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and is open to young people aged 18-35 years.
For now, Indonesia is ranked first in the competition as a member of YSEALI with 39,726 members. In the future, he hopes that this will continue and develop. And so far Mary said there are nine YSEALI alumni from South Kalimantan, and it is hoped that in the future there will be more.
“Now there are nine YSEALI alumni from South Kalimantan, we hope there will be more alumni from here,” she said.
In the discussion session, the US Embassy Jakarta also presented Muhammad Iqbal and Anita Fajriani, both from South Kalimantan with experience and alumni of the YSEALI program. Both of them shared their experiences of how their stages from the beginning of registering, following the program until now have enjoyed the fruits of their experiences.