When Students Teach Diplomats

How can Senior Diplomats create #Wanderlust in Indonesia’s youth to visit destination treasures, such as the not (yet) very well-known Derawan?

Jakarta, Thursday 10th March 2016 – it is 7:30am and after a sleepless night two Binus International’s Communications students, Elsa Clarinda and Yana Dewi Kirana, have managed to gather all their courage to stand in front of Sesparlu Batch 54 to talk to them about Travel in Social Media.

The students were co-presenting with IT Center for the Blind representative, Aris Yohanes, whom shared about accessibility for the blind and Brava Radio announcer and voice coach Leonardo Ringo.

In an attempt to create social media savvy representatives of Indonesia, Elsa shares her success in how she managed to receive 2500 views on her Youtube Channel for her first semester’s worth of ‘homework’ about her passion in travel. Her session is accompanied by the listener’s many ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’. THIS is how it is done. She talks about determination, repetition, sincerity and a lot of practice until she is happy with her short videos.“It is an honor for me to be able to share my passion to others. I felt all people in the room were engaged in every piece of content that I gave. They were all amazing,” she says.

Yana Dewi Kirana showcased how the Youth would communicate an interesting holiday account. This includes considerations, such as highlighting how much things might cost, or whether there is anything else special about the area, such as extraordinary (small) adventure activities. Later she admits: “I initially thought presenting in front of senior diplomats would be very intimidating. But 20 seconds into my presentation, I was very relaxed , because they were engaging and attentive. I was smiling the whole time.”

Aris Yohanes, Founder of the IT Center for the Blind (ITCFB) explained about important issues to the visually impaired, when it comes to traveling, so the Sepsparlu Batch54 members can see virtual destination marketing from a different angle. Proper labeling and clear explanations (at least in the written description part in YouTube) is essential for an audience that relies on their ears alone. Accessibility can be provided by mobile apps which communicate with Screen Reader (a program that reads back the buttons of a site or application). To get a better picture, please view a video that Elsa made on a trip of Communications students with the ITCFB community to the Monas.

The session was closed with a final set  with Leonardo Ringo, whom coached participants through their ‘real’ voice potential. If you walked in at the right moment you could have observed grown participants with their hands on their bellies trying to find their ‘sleeping breath’, one of the diaphragm exercises they were walked through. Amongst much laughter and a trying tourism script-reading, participants found themselves in deep thought on how they may tackle their upcoming challenges.

“It was a very inspiring session with remarkable speakers. Everyone was so inspired by Mr Aris and his story,” says Ryan, a Sesparlu representative, he adds:“As for Elsa and Yana, their presentations on travelling have brought a fresh air of enthusiasm to us.”

We are all curious to see the works of Batch54 and hope we can all take away something special from Thursday morning’s session.

After a successful session with Ministry of Foreign Affairs Senior Diplomats, Sesparlu Batch 54

Aris Yohanes, IT Center for the Blind (ITCFB)

ITCFB is an organization in Jakarta, where visually impaired people teach, coach and consult on how to use and produce technology, which makes every day life issues accessible to the blind.

 Yana Dewi Kirana, Binus International Communications Student