Two students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) joined Speech Contest Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP) conducted on Thursday and Friday (11-19/8) in Daegu Health College (DHC), Republic of Korea. They were Widya Puspitasati, an International Relations student of batch 2014, and Emir Gemilang Jayaringga, a Medical student of batch 2014.
Widya and Emir were successfully included in best 20 of 37 participants from ten Asia Pacific countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Republic of Korea, Japan, Canada, and Australia.
The speech competition was secondly organized by the AUAP that the first competition was held in 2015 in Thailand. Besides, there were annual programs by DHC, namely Youth Leadership Program, Korean cultural orientation, and community service.
A speech coach of UMY as well as a staff of Cooperation Office of UMY, Atina Rosydiana, S.IP., told that, in the Youth Leadership Program, participants were divided into several groups and they made a project presentation. “The participants learned team leading and how to work in a team. One of the provided topics was self-understanding,” Atina stated.
In the community service session, the participants visit a disabled institution in Daegu. “The participants were acquainted that government of Republic of Korea cooperates with a private institution for the disabled. They provided not only primary needs but also training such as how to make tissues and market them,” she inserted.
In the Korean cultural orientation session, the participants learned how to make Korean traditional food such as kimbab. “They also learned K-Pop (Korean Pop-ed.) dance,” she informed.
Additionally, UMY is a member of the AUAP as well as an Indonesian representative with University of Surabaya. UMY will attempt to always send the students to join the speech competition. “May UMY always be able to participate the competition and gain higher achievement. I wish that UMY can be top 3 of the next competition,” she ended.
