FS2 (From Students for Students)

FS2 (From Students for Students) was held on 8-9 September 2015 at Ruang Sidang Arsitektur (Djelantik). This workshop was arranged in order to provide a sharing session for students who had studied abroad to students of ITS who want to study abroad where the participant also got the knowledge about internationalization in ITS.

On the first day, the workshop was started with an opening speech from the vice coordinator of workshop division of International Office. Then continued with a session by Mrs. Rosita Meitha Surjani, S.T., M.T., a PhD Students of Industrial Engineering ITS. She shared her experience while she was the participant of Joint Workshop for Global Engineers in Asia 2015, Ritsumeikan University, Japan. She shared every single thing happen there and gave some advice to the students who want to join such international event.

The next session by Mr. Jamhari Hidayat Bin Mustofa, an Undergraduate student of Ocean Engineering ITS 2013. He was the participant of Delightful Istanbul Summer Program 2015. He shared about his experience while joining the program and also his effort to be able to join this program. He also shared some tips and trick to get a scholarship for international program.

The last session was from Mrs. Irmasari Hafidz, M.Sc, a lecturer at Information System, FTIF ITS. She was a Full-time Master Degree Student at Business Information Technology at University of Twente (Enschede, the Netherlands) with DIKTI 2015 Program. Some of the participant was from the last-year student that they were so excited with her presentation about studying abroad. She shared her experience about online casino living and studying at a foreign country.

The workshop for the first day was closed by a free sharing session, where the participant could give questions to the three speakers.

The 9^th September 2015 was the second day of FS² be held. There are 3 keynote speakers for this session and they are all coming from ITS. Those speakers shared their experiences while they were abroad participating in a program.

The first keynote speaker was Yvana Sal Sabila from Industrial Engineering department 2013. She was participating in Mobility Program to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka in the past 2014-2015. She shared her experience during 1 semester in the university, such as her courses, residence, and exciting moments. A motivation was delivered by this young lady, “Never underestimate anything that we could achieve easily because it might be our milestone to something higher and bigger.”

The next keynote speaker was Mar’atus Sholihah, apart timer staff in ITS International Office. She joined in Master Mobility Interweave Erasmus Mundus Action 2 program in Universidade do Porto, Portugal, majoring Service Engineering and Management in 2014 for 1 semester. The program itself is a scholarship program from European Council to third party country included in consortium, including Indonesia, to study in a university which is a member of the consortium. To FS² participants, she left a message that we are not able to achieve something big without working hard and be proactive to find the way.

The last but not least was Yabes Davis Losong, a student of Mechanical Engineering department. He became the ITS delegation in Harvard National Model United Nation 2015 and Japan University English Model United Nation 2014. Amazingly, he got an award for both program. The most inspiring words he stated that he did not choose his MUN team based on their English proficiency. He rather to choose someone who has persistence to not easily give up and brave enough to go out from comfort zone as his MUN team.

The participants listened very enthusiastically to the speakers. Laugh and jokes also colored the atmosphere in Djelantik Room at Architecture Engineering department in the afternoon. Many questions that the participants asked showed that they are really interested to try exchange program abroad.

Let’s hope there will be more ITS students have their stepping stone to look for new experiences outside their comfort zone.