SHARE Scholarship Batch 4 – It’s Your Turn!

Jakarta to Phnom Penh.

“I want to live in a place where my mother tongue is not theirs.”

I could say that my journey began with that simple tweet. On January, 15th 2017 I posted that tweet and pinned it on my profile. That was a wish, a dream, a goal that I should achieve like this year. Be it on studying abroad, traveling that takes more than 2 weeks, doing a volunteering project, or joining an international conference or even competition.

Later that day, I found a post from one of my friend on her social media account about SHARE Scholarship Batch 3. Honestly, I already knew about SHARE Scholarship before and also some of my friends already joined this program. But I wasn’t attracted to at that time since I still had a huge project that couldn’t be left. 

After seeing that post, I asked my friend and she suggested me to go to International Office (IRO) UNDIP first. I still remember that day, the first time I went to IRO, and asked a lot about SHARE Scholarship program to Mr. Dedi, the one who is responsible with this scholarship along with the other staffs. He said that the program wasn’t opened yet and I should wait. So I still have time to decide, whether I should join or not.

First thing first, I discussed my intention regarding joining this program with my family, friends, my academic advisor and my head of communication studies department in my faculty. Was that okay if I joined this SHARE Scholarship program in this semester? Because truthfully, I’m on my last year on campus. I’m afraid something would come up and not let me join this program. But my academic advisor said that it’s okay for me to join. So after that time, I decided to join SHARE Scholarship Batch 3.

Then, what steps did I take in joining SHARE Scholarship Batch 3?

(For those who are interested to take part of SHARE Scholarship Batch 4, you have to pay attention to this!)

1. Coming to a coaching clinic, I could say that my IRO is really helpful to students who are interested in joining SHARE Scholarship program. They provided us coaching clinics before registering ourselves. So, it would make us easy on getting information.

2. Getting the Letter of Endorsement from faculty, I should get the LoE first from my faculty with approval from Vice Dean for Academics and Student Affair. For FISIP UNDIP students, you should fill this form first (download here) and send this to IRO FISIP UNDIP.

3. Collecting all the required documents, such as passport, academic transcript, letter of endorsement from faculty, photo, TOEFL/IELTS certificate. And if you have an academic certificate, you can also put on the documents. Some host universities also require you to have a medical certificate, so you better prepare for that one too. If you are a UNDIP student, you better check our IRO website at io.undip.ac.id or Twitter @IOUndip.

4. Doing an assessment process, yes, there was an assessment in form of forum group discussion and also interview. What for? Well, the purpose of this assessment is to select those who deserve a letter of endorsement from the university.

5. Registering myself on SHARE platform, while waiting for the announcement about my letter of endorsement, I registered myself on SHARE platform first.

6. Applying for host universities, yes finally it’s time to apply for the host universities after we get the LoE from our university! In this part, I will tell you a story how I finally ended up in Phnom Penh International University. Actually, I applied for three universities in that time:

• Thammasat University in Thailand for Journalism and Mass Communication Program.
• De La Salle University in Philippines for Advertising Management Program.
• Phnom Penh International University in Cambodia for English for Business Program.

Then why I ended up in PPIU? Well, of course, the answer is because I didn’t get the letter of acceptance from two other universities! But since I know the reasons why I’m going to tell you the tips. 

Me presenting at SHARE Workshop

I was in Jakarta on September, 12th when SHARE Workshop was held and I also attended that event to give a presentation about my journey in joining SHARE Scholarship program along with Dhila, my friend in UNDIP who also is SHARE alumnae. I met so many people there and the representatives of every IRO of listed universities on SHARE platform. I could say that I was lucky to be there so I can ask and know so many things about SHARE Scholarship, yay! And of course, I also got the answers why I didn't get the LoA from two other universities.

• In Thammasat University, my TOEFL report wasn't produced by an international testing center. Meanwhile, Thammasat only accepts TOEFL scores supplied by TOEFL international testing only. So to all of you who want to apply for universities in Thailand, you better have an international TOEFL report.
• On the other hand, the reason why I didn't get the LoA from De La Salle University (DLSU) was that there was no response at all. No replying emails and so on. Later, I found that the person who was responsible with SHARE Scholarship in that university was no longer there. But, since I already met the new person who will be responsible for SHARE Scholarship Batch 4 in DLSU at SHARE Workshop, I can guarantee this incident will never happen again.

6. Applying for SHARE Scholarship, after getting a letter of acceptance from your desired host university, then it's time to apply for SHARE Scholarship in its platform. Upload your LoE, LoA, and fill everything that should be filled there. After you're done, just wait for the announcement!

The time has come, the announcement came up.

I've chosen to be one of the SHARE Awardee Batch 3. No words could describe my feeling that time when I saw the announcement. My tweet comes true. My wish is granted. Thank God!

So after that, what's next? Here comes the preparation time.

1. Confirming my mobility, this is the first thing you must do after getting the SHARE Scholarship.

2. Preparing and finishing the Learning Agreement, with help from my academic advisor and my head of communication department because I should discuss the courses that I'd take, my IRO, and also discuss with Mrs. Ravikun as Vice Rector IRO in PPIU. This step, filling the learning agreement, was quite hard because of we, as awardees, have to make sure our courses are available and right.

3. Taking care of campus administration, in this step, I have to get admission from my Rector in University so I could be freed with tuition fee for a whole semester. This was a long process and turned out, it went well.

4. Booking flight tickets, my IRO arranged this one for me.

5. Applying for Cambodia visa, I went to Royal Embassy of Cambodia with my Mom and spent IDR 530.000 for a visa. Lucky me, I only need a day to make visa--not wait for three days or more.

6. Packing time! I think this is the most frustrating and confusing step for each awardee (kidding!) Because there are a lot of things we want to bring. But after some suggestion and recommendation from my friends, google and research, I made a list of things that I want to bring.

That's all! Those were my steps and journey to finally can get SHARE Scholarship and be a part of SHARE Awardee. 

Do you also want to have a journey like that--and maybe even better than me? Now, it's your turn to take part of SHARE Scholarship Batch 4. Click this to get more information about SHARE Scholarship.

Last but not least, I can guarantee you that this exchange journey (and also being a SHARE Awardee) will make a better version of yourself, and of course, you will get more than you expected.


Love,
NM.