Paska B. Darmawan, a final year International Relations student at Universitas Gadjah Mada, is ACICIS’ second Lestari Widyatsuti Scholarship recipient. This scholarship honours the commitment, hard work and passion for building people-to-people relations between young Australian and Indonesian students by former ACICIS staff member, Lestari Widyastuti, who sadly passed away in 2007. ACICIS thanks all our alumni who have generously supported this scholarship over the years.

Paska has written the following on receiving the scholarship:

“To be a recipient of this scholarhip is an honour for me. This scholarship will help me a lot in my journey as a learner. I do not come from a well-off family, so this scholarship will help to fund my studies. But most importantly, through this scholarship I will have an opportunity to work directly with the professional staff at ACICIS to interact with Australian students. I will be able to learn how to organise events and how to handle problems professionally.”

“I am also grateful to be able to broaden my networks through receiving this scholarship. I will be able to meet a lot of new friends with different backgrounds and personalities. As an International Relations student, I love getting to know different kinds of cultures and I also realise that, in order to become a global citizen in the future, I need to immerse myself with the diversity of this work. ACICIS in this case provides a great platform for me to fully develop myself socially and professionally.”

“This scholarship will help me a lot, both financially and professionally. Hopefully many other students will be afforded the same opportunity that I have right now, as this scholarship will not only assist me financially, but also open up new doors professionally and academically.”