Joining student exchange selection is not easy since it requires students to have good foreign language ability and excellent and Islamic characters as vision and mission of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). Additionally, they also ought to commit to conveying the university vision and mission as the scholarship provider. Those are the bases which participants need possess to be student exchange delegates.
It was stated by Jasmine Alvina Savitri, a student of International Relations (HI) of UMY. Jasmine is one of the six selected student delegates to study at Universitat Jaume I, Castellon de la Plana Primero in Valencia, Spain. Jasmine and the five other students, namely Adhie Putra Perwira (a student of HI), Frida Wihdatul Amirah (a student of English Education Department), Muhammad Haikal (a student of English Education Department), and Robi Jamil R. (a student of Accounting), have been in Spain for eight days since their departure was on 2 February 2015.
“My experience joining the selection to go to Spain was not easy. We firstly should have good foreign language ability, at least English, and if we were eager to be accepted, we have to owe excellent and Islamic characters as UMY. Moreover, we should dare to express our commitment in interview section to inform vision and mission of UMY when we are in Spain and meet people there. I think these three aspects are the most essential,” explained Jasmine when being interviewed via a social media of WhatsApp on Friday (6/2).
Jasmine added that she was interested in Spain since she was willing to perceive life in a country having different culture from Indonesia. Her aim was underlain by her ambition to pursue her master degree in Spain after she accomplished her undergraduate program at UMY. “I am more enthusiastic about Spain because I wish to perceive obviously different culture from Indonesia. Moreover, I also desire to build network in Spain because I dream of continuing my magister here,” she told.
Furthermore, Jasmine uttered that her huge ambition needs huge struggle. She argued that achieving student exchange scholarship to Spain was not as easy as falling off a log. She ought to postpone her graduation for 6 months to gain overseas experience. Jasmine said that as an International Relations student she would not like to have no international experience when she graduated like living abroad with distinctive environment.
“In fact, I attempt to utilize the existing occasion, but it is not as easy as taking candy from a baby. There is a price to pay as my graduation would take any longer for 6 months. Yet, the experience I get must be worth it. Besides, I as an International Relations student do not want to graduate without any experience of living overseas which the environment is different from Indonesia,” she inserted.
Jasmine informed that her five other friends and she would be in Spain for 6 months. These six students of UMY would focus on learning Spanish, culture, and courses dealing with their major taken at UMY.
Jasmine told that the first experience they encounter was different weather. Jasmine and her five friends felt hard to adapt the cold weather. “The cold weather is the hardest part of our adaptation because we did not prepare for extremely cold weather of Castellon. When we arrived, Castellon was in the coldest weather. Based on information we get, this cold weather occurred 15 years ago. It is now snowing heavily,” she explained.
In addition, according to information of International Relation Office (IRO) of UMY via email, the participants departed on 2 February 2015 and would study for a semester at Universitat Jaume I. The scholarship program joined by Jasmine and the five other friends was a partial program offered by UMY to all UMY’s students through selection steps, definitely. Besides studying in Spain, the other available partial scholarship is studying at Universitas Daegu Health Collage in South Korea.
