IELSP Cohort 8 2011 Ended

Getting scholarship definitely makes everyone excited especially to study abroad. Study abroad gives us many chances to experience everything. It also gives us new knowledge than can improve ourselves. Everyone has his/her own impression and that will make us different from the first. For me, getting scholarship through IELSP program to study in the U.S. gave me many experiences and knowledge such as the learning system and personality wise, improved my language skill, and met with international friends.

First of all, living and studying in the U.S gave me a lot of knowledge, for example, the learning system and behavior. I like the way they taught us English. Everything was organized. Before the class began, the teacher had prepared all the materials that they wanted to give to us. They usually put all the materials that we would have in the white board, so we knew what we were going to learn throughout that day. Sometimes, they put what the next homework that we would do tonight, so we knew the agenda. Also, we could easily contact the teacher by an e-mail. We could ask her if we needed an aid and they would help us with pleasure. If we missed the class, the materials would easily to find out in the website where we had registered. The website was updated everyday and all homework and assignment were posted on the website, so we didn’t need to worry. As a student I really enjoyed the class. I could study well. It definitely affected my study habit. I studied happily and understand well. In addition, the teacher appreciated the time. We could ask the teacher in her room before and after the class, but we had to make an appointment. If we had something didn’t understand we just met them and discussed the things. They would teach us gladly. If someday I were a lecturer, I will do that and adopt the teacher personality. I also have changes in my personality such as more focused on studying and more detailed. I followed the learning system, so it affected on my studying. The teacher really did good job in teaching, so it forced me to study hard and well. The teachers gave us a lot of homework. I had to do them perfectly to have a great score. I also learnt from the teacher did and it would be a good learning system as a teacher to adopt. All in all, I have already known the learning system, teacher behavior, and my study habit changed.

Second, through IELSP program as long as two month absolutely improve my English skill. Now, I know how to write an essay in organized paragraphs. I can differentiate where the topic sentence, the main points, and the details are. I learnt to arrange a good content. I easily to write something especially if I brainstorm first and I make the outline. It will guide me to write well with a lot of ideas. I also learnt grammar from writing. The teacher would correct our writing and I could make the better from the correction. My writing skill has increased gradually. In addition, I think my listening and speaking skill has increased. I know approximately 95 % what the native speaker says. All classes were really helpful. Everyday we could listen to English, real English from native speaker. In the class, we also watched and discussed some controversial topics. The teacher invited a guest to talk about one of controversial topics. The teacher brought us to visit the bilingual school for listening to the short lecturing about bilingual education that became one of the controversial topics in the U.S. I also listened to the English news everyday, and I felt I could understand what they talked about. I listened to different kinds of topics from children program, teenagers, and news. My speaking also increases well. I can speak without thinking and translating. Before I studied at the Intensive English Program in CSU, I had bad English speaking. I was so slow and thought before spoke. Gradually, I could speak well because everyday we talked to the native speaker such as my teachers, my dorm mates, and my roommate. Also, I did a lot of things in the speaking class. We made conversation partner. We discussed many things about my culture and their culture. I also joined in conversation group. We met once a week. The leader was native speaker and the members were us, Indonesia and Japanese students. In brief, through this program, I can improve my English well.

Next, the pluses of this program are I could meet and study with international students and absolutely Indonesian friends from different area. I could make friends with Arabic, Japan, Korea, Chinese friends. I could study together with them. I have just known the feeling study with them. We also went together in different beautiful places in Fort Collins even Denver, for example, Rocky Mountain, Coyote Ridge for hiking, Denver Art Museum, Aquarium, Old Town. In addition, I have new family. Through this program all grantees have gotten along together. We are even closer and it will be difficult if we are separated. I am happy because I can meet with all the best students from each area in Indonesia. IELSP has done a great job in selecting the students. They are great and humble. Although we sometimes had a little quarrel, we could manage it and get along anymore. A little quarrel made our groups more memorable. All grantees will remember this one. In summary, IELSP program has a lot of advantages that I will not forget.

In conclusion, Indonesian English Language Study Program is really great scholarship that gives chance to Indonesian students to study in the U.S. I get many experiences and knowledge from this program. I gain different personality especially in learning system, my English skill improves well, and I can meet with international students and get together with the best students throughout Indonesia. Unfortunately, this program is so short. We couldn’t learn English more. Two months was really short for us, all grantees. This program should be a little longer so we can learn more. Also, I hope this program gives another chance to experience the real English class, the native speaker class. It might give a chance to grantees to come in one of classes in the host university depends on the major. Therefore, we can know how the learning system in the university related to our own major. However, overall this program is really great. I am happy to be part of this program. Thank you very much for all the officers that have worked hard for this program and our studying in the United States.