Yale University Conducted a First Visit to BINUS INTERNATIONAL
Yale University Conducted a First Visit to BINUS INTERNATIONAL
On Thursday, 3 January 2019, BINUS INTERNATIONAL received a visit from a special guest, a United States’ Ivy League university, Yale University. For half a day, a group of students from Yale University walked around the campus as well as interacted with BINUS INTERNATIONAL’s lecturers, staff, and students who were appointed to welcome them.
This visit was considered special because it was the first Yale visit to BINUS. Moreover, this visit was facilitated by the BINUS INTERNATIONAL Student, Alumni, and Global Employability (SAGE) and Overseas Program and it was hoped to strengthen BINUS INTERNATIONAL’s position as a prominent Indonesian international campus, especially in business, media, and computing.
A Part of YIRA Program
This Yale’s visit to BINUS INTERNATIONAL was a part the annual activities by Yale International Relations Association (YIRA). Every year, YIRA funds various international visits for its students. The purpose is to give opportunities for the students to obtain direct experience in international relationships and global affairs.
This year, BINUS INTERNATIONAL became one of the international visit destination. The students attended the presentation session about Indonesia by BINUS INTERNATIONAL academic staff. The activity was followed with a discussion session about the current issues in Indonesia.
An Opportunity to Introduce Indonesia’s Culture
Each student from Yale had different expectations for this visit. However, all of them had one similarity: an interest to further understand the Indonesian culture.
One of them was Stella Xu, a second year student of East Asian Studies and Linguistic Program of Yale University. Stella hoped that through this visit, she could learn more about the language differences, arts, culture, and traditions, as well as how those aspects can affect the group identity in the Indonesian society.
Meanwhile, Sana Aslam, a third year student from the Anthropology and Psychology program, had interest in learning how the languages, religions, and personal relationship affects ones’ identity, especially for the young generation. “For our Indonesia trip, I’m interested in how these things pertain to Indonesia conceptualizations of identity and the role pop culture as it relates to language, religion, and relationships plays in Indonesian identities,” Aslam explained.
