Bandung, Indonesia – The International Student Conference (ISC) 2023 held at Universitas Katolik Parahyangan (Unpar) from the 2nd to 7th of January 2023 was a successful start since the last ISC which was in 2019.
The conference was attended by 20 international students from different nationalities, including students from the United States, Spain, Sweden, Japan, and others. The following 40 local Unpar students are excited to gain an international experience within their home university.
“I’m feeling great, I’m feeling excited to be here. It is my first time out of the United States and everyone has been really great so far, and looking forward to the rest of the conference,” statement from Isabella Santos, one of the international participants from James Madison University, Virginia.
The last Unpar ISC was held in 2019; with the coming COVID-19 pandemic, the event was detained until 2023. A fantastic start to bring an international experience back to Unpar and to introduce the diversity of Indonesia culture to the international participants and speaker
“I’m feeling excited because this event is really interesting, help me like with my research and thesis, the presentation was really interesting in the keynote lecture. Also, I’m excited also to meet the other international students,” a statement from Joseph Abimana, who is pursuing a master’s degree at Parahyangan Catholic University, originally from Rwanda.
Within the ISC 2023, we highlighted three main events of the conference, such as a workshop that was conducted by various speakers and facilitators from a few countries, cultural activities that was organized by local institution to introduce Indonesian culture, and lastly site visit with the main agenda to visit place or location that was align with our main topics of the conference.
The opening day of ISC opened with a Keynote Lecture from Mr. Yulius Purwadi and Mr. Fillipo Gavanezzi. Now, the workshop is divided into nine classes, and each of the workshops was conducted by a fantastic speaker with a different theme. These are the following topics: Solutions to Promote Education and Labour Market Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities in Ordinary Environment with Immaculada Rossel, Inclusivity and Accessibility in Higher Education with Niclas Andersen, The Lockdown of Gender with Andhika Nurwin Maulana, Design Thinking with Johanna Renny, Content Creating with Christian Fredy, A New World Without Covid: Can AI Help? with Hala Nelson, Towards a Greener Future: the green industrial revolution with Daniel Gaffner, and MSME as A Post-pandemic Lifeline with Jimmy Febriady and Ferran Mane.
ISC also offers cultural activities to getting to know with the Indonesian culture, included Indonesian Language Class conducted with Bahasa Indonesia untuk Penutur Asing (BIPA), drawing batik and making batik with Batik Komar, and having fun with some traditional Indonesian music and being taught how to play angklung with Saung Angklung Udjo.
Not only cultural activities, but ISC offers site visits as well. The site visits align with the great topic of ISC, which is inclusivity. There is two specific site visit, which was: visiting Eco Camp, which gives knowledge about how to appreciate nature, how to make a compose, and how to conserve nature itself, next is visiting tab space which introduces people with disabilities that can bring their creativity through art, giving them a chance to make modern art and how people with disabilities can shine with their circumstances.
