At the start of 2023, in February, ACICIS welcomed 10 students onto the Flexible Language Immersion Program (FLIP). These students were from The Australian National University, Murdoch University, The University of Western Australia, and The University of Queensland. Two of our participants were provate applicants.  The majority of the students were supported by the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan mobility grants. In this program, students studied Indonesian language classes from the Indonesian Culture and Language Learning Service (INCULS) and other regular immersion classes from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences and the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the Gadjah Mada University (UGM).

In the FLIP, students had an option to undertake a professional placement (internship) with a host organisation alongside their classes or during the semester break. This semester, three students completed their professional placements in many different fields. Chloe Biggerstaff (Murdoch University) interned with Harapan Fian, a child empowerment organisation; Emily O’Dwyer (The University of Queensland) undertook her internship with Women in Tourism while Samara Welbourne (The University of Queensland) interned with PPMK (Pemberdayaan Perempuam Memerangi Kemiskinan or Empowering Women to Fight Poverty), an organisation with a focus on women and underprivileged people.

During her internship at Harapan Fian, Chloe partook in an initiative designing resources and guidelines for identifying children with special needs. She emphasised the significance of having a clear set of instructions while working with children in order to adopt better strategies based on their developmental stage. 

Emily O’Dwyer interned with Women in Tourism Indonesia (WTID). She helped developing content for the organisations website and social media channels during her time at the WTID.

With a focus on women and children empowerment, Samara assisted PPMK in building an English Resource Center for local children in rural areas. She launched a fundraising campaign through many social platforms to raise funds for a learning facility. This place is expected to be the local community’s education hub, where children can easily access resources such as the Internet and English textbooks.

Besides students who did an internship in their FLIP program, one of our FLIP students, Aaron Bronitt (Australian National University) also had a chance to volunteer as a program coordinator in the 2023 CAUSINDY (Conference of Australian and Indonesian Youth) during his semester in Yogyakarta.

INCULS graduation marked the end of their semester at UGM Yogyakarta. At the INCULS graduation ceremony, two FLIP students, Chloe (Murdoch University) and Sienna Ashe (University of Western Australia), performed a traditional Javanese dance called Tari Bongkel that they learned in the Indonesian Traditional Dance class. What a beautiful performance

Congratulations to all the students for their achievements this semester! We hope you had a wonderful semester in Indonesia. Semoga sukses dan Sampai bertemu lagi!