UNAIR NEWS – To broaden students’ horizons on scholarship programs, particularly international scholarships, the Department of English Language and Literature of UNAIR Faculty of Humanities featured Rania Fauzia Djustin, a student and awardee of the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) 2021. The talk show was held virtually at Zoom Meeting on Wednesday, July 13, 2022.
IISMA is a scholarship program under the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry for students in the 4th or 6th semester to various countries worldwide. “Last year, I studied Live Sociology, Digital Media and Everyday Life, and Production News courses at University of Leicester, UK,” Rania said.
Some expenses were paid by IISMA, including tuition fees, transportation costs, living expenses, health insurance, visas, and tests for COVID-19. She was truly grateful that UNAIR and the faculty helped refund the cost to the scholarship recipients.
“As UNAIR students, it is one of the privileges we have. Not all universities provide that. As for English Proficiency Test and return quarantine can be refunded on the condition that you organize an international-scale event featuring the guest lecturers from the university you attended,” she said.
Just like the scholarship program in general, IISMA uses the registration stage, from the administration, interview, and announcement. Interestingly, the interview stage will be conducted for 10 minutes, essay presentation included.
Furthermore, Rania suggested the dos and don’ts of writing the essay. Some things that should be avoided in writing are using out-of-context sentences, writing too general topics, and aggrandizing personal stuff. Instead, she suggested writing relevant information, contributing more, and using specific and effective sentences to describe themselves.
Last, Rania encouraged the audience to pursue the IISMA program with its abundant benefit. “In general, we will learn the local culture, get to know other awardee’s cultures from across the world, learn about World Class Universities, practice fluency, and the last but not least, traveling,” she said.
Author: Leivina Ariani Sugiharto Putri
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
