SAIMS Program - Autumn Semester 2016-2017 ~ Dinalomy's Rumblings

I feel so grateful and honored to had chance to study as an exchange student in SAIMS Program. The opportunity to join this exchange program has become one of the most influential aspect in my academic process. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia for the financial support given to me in joining this program, to the Department Food and Technology, IPB and also the lecturers for trust me to take this once in a lifetime opportunity, to Sophia University International Office and lecturers for the generous support during my short-term study, and also to my friends in Sophia University for the unforgettable memories.

Study in Japan, is one of my dream since I was in high school. After I graduate from high school, I was planning to enroll in one of university in Japan. Of course, my family couldn't send me to study there without any scholarship. At that time, I was afraid to apply for any scholarship, because I had worried about everything before I even tried. It's had been my biggest regret in life. Since then, I've been praying to Allah SWT about my longing to study in Japan.

Time passed by, now I am as an almost graduate student from Food Science and Technology Department that had came back from Tokyo, Japan as an exchange student in Sophia University for one semester. I was accepted at my second try after I got rejected in previous year.

You never know when God will answer your pray. If you're sure it's good thing, just keep praying and trying.

Why Japan?

Why Sophia University?

It's one of top-private university in Japan, located in the heart of Tokyo. It has been a pioneer of international education in Japan. It has a lot of exchange student from all over the world, not only from SEA, but also America, Europe! You can live in their International co-ed Dormitory, you can build your international networking connection! You can learn not only Japanese culture because you have international friend!

Not only that, the courses offered for SAIMS Students are really interesting! The lecturers are amazing person, they have unique personality and always motivating.

To be honest, I didn't choose this university because I was know nothing about it. My lecturer placed me there. I was afraid. But now, I'm the most grateful person because I decided to take the challenge.

What courses you took?

I took five courses. All courses delivered in English. Below are the courses taken during the program:

1. Introduction to Trans-disciplinary Human Development (TDHD) : 2 credits

The purpose of this class was to make an academic platform for students from Sophia University and the ASEAN universities to find out challenging points of global issues. The topics related with environment will be dealt with from the various perspectives of social, human and natural sciences; namely, Anthropology and Nature, Science and Culture, Food and Agriculture, Political Ecology, Urbanization and its impacts on Water Environment, Aquatic Ecosystem, Chemical Ecology, Environment Science, Environmental Conservation, Education for Sustainable Development and Environment Education. The class was conducted in English focusing on students’ participation, which includes discussion and presentation. (From the syllabus)

Every week in this class we had different lecturer who expert in their field. The topics were always new so I never felt bored in this class. Sometimes this class also have lecturer came from other university in Japan. I enjoyed this class a lot because I could have new knowledge every week. Broaden my perspectives. Mostly, the lectures new to me. Different lecturer with different background gave me new findings and viewpoint.

2. Environmental Science: 2 credits

Environmental Science, which is relatively young academic field as a trans-disciplinary approach, provides us a unique perspective for environmental issues. Based on the understanding of the general framework of Environmental Science, this class is designed to provide students with opportunities to shift their frame of reference, to see environment from a cross-cutting perspective, and to think holistically. (From the syllabus)

I had learned almost everything in my first year of college, sometimes I got bored and lost concentration but the assignment and the field work giving me new experiences to apply the lectures to real-world situations.

3. Sustainable Development: 2 credits

This course provide students with opportunities for thinking over what the future development we really want. “Sustainable Development” is one of the controversial issues these days. It needs for global efforts and we all have been included without exceptions. How can we approach to achieving such goal? In order to find some clue for solutions, we need to know what we really need and need not, what the historical background, what the environmental carrying capacity as our limits, and how to balance environment and human society. (From the syllabus)

4. Environmental Change Human Development-City, Continuity and Change: 2 credits

The course provides the basic historical and theoretical background to understand the interaction between humans and environment. The key components are historical approach to development, evolution of human settlements, attitudes towards nature, urbanization and environmental impacts. We explore cities from ancient to contemporary. The relationship between people and the built environment and theories related to cities will be discussed. Themes such as climate change, environmental justice, urbanity, impacts of globalization, human dimension and urban space will be elaborated. Students will be guided to experience the real urban space and discuss its quality and identity. The course was designed as an interactive learning environment for trans-disciplinary exchanges. Guided field research, group project and individual study were required. (From the syllabus)

I was struggling in this class. It was hard. It was tough. It had a lot assignment that required a lot of reading and site visiting along with presentation and presentation. I didn't expect that this lectures giving me so much to learn about new things. Mostly the lectures is about the history and how human develop since human start to do agriculture from hunting. How Prof. Davisi taught was really eyed opening, gave me new way to think about something and so meaningful. Although she gave a lot of assignment I enjoyed doing it.

5. Japanese 1: 4 credits

This course was designed for students with no or little background in Japanese and aims at developing communication skills in Japanese, integrating four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The emphasis was putted on thorough mastery of basic functional grammar of Japanese through oral practice. (From the syllabus)

It was also hard and tough. Quizzes and homework every day! What made it more hard was I should struggle with morning rush hour train to get to the class, I dare myself to push me to the train so I won't late to the class. Such a really memorable one :")

Overall comment about the lectures that I took:
The lectures gives me many new things to learn. The assignment given made me think more critically toward the lecture. Furthermore, the guest lecturer from some classes are really inspiring and well-explained the actual problem that we face nowadays that young people should aware.

Some photos from Japan :)