BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – In last July 2021, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Literature Universitas Pasundan, Dr. Hj. Senny Suzanna Alwasilah, S.S., M.Pd travelled to the United States of America as Visiting Scholar by using Fullbright Scholarship funded by the United States government through AMINEF (American-Indonesian Exchange Foundation).
She has been staying for three months to carry out the research in fall semester at School of Education, Indiana University. Currently, she herself has met the Dean of School of Education Indiana University, Dr. Anastasia S. Morrone. One of her agendas is to hold a collaboration, especially in developing the journal, webinar speakers, as well as teacher and student exchange.
“The making of MoU usually takes several months, even more than a year, since it needs the approval from the Rector and Board of Trustees. In nearest future, I also want to explore the scholarship for teacher and student through the United States Embassy,” she explained, on Friday, 15 October 2021.
Not only for carrying out research, her visit to Bloomington was also for making close acquaintance to the university. This was optimized to make teachers in Unpas able to do the research in the United States as well, since the opportunity is huge, even if it will be still competitive.
Mentioned about the update of education in the United States during Covid-19 pandemic, she said the learning system applied is not much different from Indonesia. The effect of Covid-19 pandemic required the students to study online.
“Starting from this semester, Indiana University is re-opening face-to-face class. It is still online class, though, for students who live outside the city or the country,” she continued.
Not willing to wasting her time, she made her schedule tight by making few works on literature. Although it was not her first time visiting the United States, she also wrote a feature collection book about her experience during her stay in Bloomington.
“Apart from writing features, I will also write a book of poetry along with my college friends from China, Zixi Lia and write Haiku (a 5-7-5-syllable-structured Japanese poem) with Dr. Sharon Pugh, teacher who became my husband’s supervisor when he studied in Indiana University,” she said.
The Haiku book collection has even been completely finished and still need to be edited. She thought that writing Haiku needed persistence and regular practice, since the content and conclusion must be delivered thoroughly only on three brief stanzas. Even more, Haiku should contain Kigo (words that represent nature or season)
“I hope this acquaintance and collaboration could lead to the best result for the improvement of FISS especially and Universitas Pasundan generally,” she concluded. (Reta)*
