Thursday, July 5, 2007

Thank you AIESEC

"There is an inch different between success and failure, what we need to jump from failure to success is just a tiny grain of will"

This is the statement that I really believe in.

I was a teaching assistant a year ago and in the same time I also was AIESEC Local Committee President in one of government university in Indonesia for one year. One year-experience has taught utter perspectives of the learning process, when the different methods of learnings had hit me in the same time.

When I was selected as teaching assistant I had big pride, because that what I wanted when I just entered university. It's a dream of dream from every students in the university.

I was trying the best for creating something new in the team because I was the coordinator for 4 other teaching assistants. I was overwhelmed with the title that I was a teaching assistant and I just follow what my lectures & the senior assistants said because they are the persons who had chosen me. I follow their methods because I was too busy with the new position, fill the bulletin board with teaching assistant profile, too busy with technical things. Thus the preparation was over and finally I had my first class with the most important thing was overlooked and I still didn't know what was it.

At the same time as President in AIESEC I really glad had a nice team but we face many challenges and obstacles, pretty different with the teaching assistant condition where we were supported with proper infrastructure and guidance. Apparently University support the lab with more infrastructure rather than AIESEC as student organization under university. In AIESEC as executive board team, we did many derelictions in trial error process and we evaluated them in weekly meetings. In the reality, I hadn't had ponderous feeling about them and we took them as personal & team learning process. Together along with the time I realize that everybody in the team try to share our experiences to all members and took it to the fore.

The different methods were in me and I didn't notice in the first 6 months why I got stressed when I had a class to teach or had teaching assistant meeting, even though I was being paid by university. I tried to reflect what I were doing and still didn't find the answer. It was really an intricate feeling.

By the time I realized that the method I followed in form of curriculum from lecturers and senior teaching assistant, had replaced all my ideas and creativity to learn from teaching process. It has changed the perspective of learning from willingness to be an obligation. Suddenly I got shocked because unconsciously I transferred all that negative perspective to university students that I responsible with, but it's an irrevocable moment. It's totally mundane but unforgivable because I handled more than 400 students under my coordination. I can't believe I did that huge dereliction.

I really thankful that I'm an AIESEC member that's why I write this essay as my dedication and try to reach that inch for being successful person by being responsible with the learning experience that I had.

This is the beginning for better education when every obligation become a will and not the vice versa.

Thank you AIESEC.

Label: reflection