How these 20 students from Indonesia could be selected?

     We didn’t bribe or pay anything so that we could join this wonderful program, nope! These 20 students were chosen after U.S State Department read our essays and selectively chose 20 persons among other applicants. This is the specific qualification for the applicants : The participants are expected to be highly motivated and exemplary undergraduate students from colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education.  While all candidates will have a strong interest in religious pluralism, their fields of study might vary and can include disciplines such as Anthropology, Government, History, International Affairs, Law, Political Science, Religion, and Sociology. But when you see our profile, you will know that some of us are majoring engineering and IT.

                Indonesia is a diverse country. This program really represents the diversity of Indonesia, for instance the diversity of regions where these participants come from (from eastern part through western part), and also the diversity of the religions. Indonesia acknowledges 6 religions, and these 20 participants represented the 5 religions (Islam, Christianity ( Protestant) , Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism), well yes unfortunately we didn’t have participant from Confucian.

           These 20 young people are extraordinary people. They are independent and represent the characteristic of a leader. I dare to say this because they are brave enough to travel to different continent together with people whom they never know before, and they have to depart from Indonesia by themselves, no adult who accompanied them. Most of them just experienced the first time going abroad on this occasion, so could you imagine how this program required bravery? They dare to feel the winter, which they never experienced at all. Indonesia is well known of the tropical climate, and they had to be in very cold and dry weather.

              

  If you go to a place that you never been to with very different climate, situation, and atmosphere (with time difference is 12 hours) and you don’t know anyone at that place and you also don’t know people whom you go travel with for 2 days, you will need a lot of bravery, trust, and independence. So, what do you think about these 20 students?