06 Desember 2024
Fenny Julistine Tarigan
Merdeka Belajar – Kampus Merdeka, or MBKM, has been a catalyst for students to fulfill their dreams, take a short dive into the professional world, and experience new things. IISMA, or the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards, is one of them. It is one of the most popular ones due to how life-changing it is. The program manages to amass thousands of registrants from all around the country each year.
Vanness Cantona, a student of Universitas Sumatera Utara, majoring in English Literature at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, managed to become one of nine competent awardees to Michigan State University, United States. Through hard work and hours of practice, he also acquired the highest score on his Duolingo English Test amongst IISMA 2024 applicants in USU, which was 150 out of 160 (equivalent to IELTS 8.0). His dedication brought him to his dream country without paying a single cent. He obtained many experiences he could never have imagined, such as going to Walmart and Target every weekend, talking to Americans about his favorite TV shows, and even taking random videos of squirrels.
All fun things aside, he went out of his comfort zone quite a few times during the IISMA application and in the United States. To ace the interview, he contacted several of his lecturers, including his study program's head of department, to guide him with his interview. This is quite admirable, acknowledging that he used to have quite severe stage fright. He even played a supporting role in a drama held by the IISMA Michigan State University awardees. Hundreds of American and international students witnessed him.
In addition to that, he and the other IISMA Michigan State University awardees also held other events such as traditional games, a Batik workshop, and a treasure hunt to promote the Indonesian culture to the locals and the international audience.
All in all, he is truly grateful for the opportunity that was given to him by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. Without the program, he might not have been able to find out how brave he could become, he might not have been able to visit his favorite and dream country at all, and he might not have become the person he is now. IISMA truly changed him as a person through the fun and educational times he had during the program and the rigorous selection process he had to go through to become one of the IISMA awardees.
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