IPB Students Attend a Summer Session in Korea
Knowledge is not solely obtained from campus activities alone. Students can join extracurriculer activities outside of campus such as student exchange programs to other countries. Such as the one that was attended by a student of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture (Dept. AGH), Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agriculutral University (Faperta IPB), Rifa Fadhilah Munifah Hasibuan which took an exchange program to South Korea.
For as long as 26 days starting from the 26 of June until the 24th of July 2018, Rifa took part in an exchange program called Chonnam National University International Summer Session along with 176 other students from 27 different countries. This program could also be considered as a short semester course to fill in her summer holiday in Korea. “In this program, every student is allowed to choose one until two subjects. But I myself chose only one subject which was speaking in english korean so that I could be able to learn more about Hangul or the Korean alphabet,” Rifa explained.
To be able to participate in this exchange program Rifa got information from the Directorate of International Programmes IPB and also took part in the selection process.
The selection process started by sending in her personal documents such as curriculum vitae (CV), grade transcript, TOEFL certificate, and motivation letter and an interview.
Next was the interview.
The activities done by Rifa during the exchange program were classroom studies as many as 14 times in a month and extracurriculer activities or fieldtrips along with the other participants of the program such as visiting cultural sites in South Korea. “The benefits I obtained in this program were things such as more networks with students from other countries, not limited to only Korean students but also students from countries such as Australia and America. Other than that I got to know more about how Korean people are, their history, even on how we should face culture shock during our time in foreign countries,” added Rifa.
Through this exchange program, Rifa felt that she got more experience and learned many new things especially about the habits of Korean people. Starting from their bus schedule which was always on time, neat, clean, and disciplined environment, until their top notch facilities. “The most unforgettable moments during the exchange program were being able to become friends with people from other cultures, and also have home visits to a family in Korea which made me able to understand the daily lives of Korean people,” she continued.
Through this program, Rifa shared her tips to other students about ways of obtaining exchange programs like the one she participated in. “You have to often check the information updates about exchange programs which you can access thorugh social media of the Directorate of International Programs IPB such as their Instagram (@ico_ipb) or Facebook because they have many information about exchange programs, summer courses, conferences, and many more Besides that, you have to prepare your TOEFL, a neat CV, and also a passport for travelling abroad,” Rifa finished her tips as a closing statement on how to obtain an exchange program. (AVR)
