Joining SEA-Teacher

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and indeed the same thing happens with mine. Whatever I do, wherever I go, whoever I meet, anything starts with my decision. And this is how my journey has been going to be able to join the SEA-Teacher programme.

April 3, 2023, I got a call from my supervisor, Mrs. Weni Dwi Pratiwi, S.Pd., M.Sc. who’s also the head of the mathematics education department. She informed me that I was proposed as a delegate to take part in a student exchange programme to the Philippines (yes, I didn’t know the programme she was talking about was SEA-Teacher). To be honest, I was shocked after hearing what she said to me, especially because I had never thought about going abroad before, and I wasn’t good at speaking English. Even so, I immediately agreed to what she said. I wasn’t sure why I agreed to this, but deep down I felt I wanted to try a new challenge and atmosphere.


Two days passed, I received a new information from Mrs. Weni. She told me that tomorrow, the deputy dean would conduct internal interviews with prospective students for the student exchange programme. I still had one day to practice my English, search for questions that are usually asked during student exchange interview, and convince myself to stay calm and confident. Mrs. Weni also told me to prepare the documents needed for the interview, including curriculum vitae and study result card.

April 6, 2023, the day of the internal interview. The interview was conducted in two stages. The first one was an interview in English with the Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs, Dr. Rita Inderawati, M.Pd. regarding the CV that had been made. The second one was an interview in Indonesian with the Deputy Dean for Student Affairs, Dr. Ismet, S.Pd., M.Si. to see whether the GPA obtained can be accounted for. I passed both of these interviews well, even though I stuttered a bit during the English one. After the interview, Mrs. Rita asked the candidates to make a microteaching video in English which would be collected as one of our assesment (at this point, I already knew the programme was SEA-Teacher)

On the same day in the evening, I made a math microteaching video. I determined what material I would use to teach in the video. After going through a lot of consideration, I finally chose Angles as my teaching material. Of course, we all agree that mathematics is abstract, and in my opinion, it’ll be very easy for students to learn through concrete contexts and examples. So, in this material, I can use a clock as a concrete example to introduce Angles to students. I made a simple PowerPoint from my teaching material to use during teaching, and then I started making microteaching video. The video that I made was about six minutes long, and it covered the important skills that are usually showed during microteaching. I renamed the video file and then submitted it on Google Drive submission link. After that, I waited until the announcement time came.

Finally, on May 5, 2023, the announcement of students who have passed the SEA-Teacher selection program and will represent our faculty in the Philippines had come out. There are three names that passed, and I’m one of them. Those names are me, Nisya, and Wawa. Of course, I was very happy and surprised to hear the results of the announcement, but what surprised me even more was when Mrs. Weni said that I had the highest score among all of the other prospective students. I was shocked considering the preparation I did before the interview was only a few days. However, at the end of the day I was proud of what I had achieved and focused on preparing myself for SEA-Teacher in the future. I also received congratulations from my family, lecturers, and friends. I could feel that my dream of going abroad was coming true.

However, I realized that my journey was not over yet. I still had a lot to prepare, starting from documents, files, as well as my English skills and educational knowledge which had to be improved. I also had to prepare myself for an interview with the receiving university where I will carry out this SEA-Teacher programme. At that time, I didn’t know when the interview would take place, so I just focused on practicing and developing my skills until the day of the interview arrived.

On August 8, 2023, Mrs. Rita informed the three of us that Capiz State University (CAPSU) would conduct an interview on August 14, 2023. I was a little worried reading this news, but not as anxious as the first time I was interviewed. I felt my English skills had improved quite a bit from before, and because of that I just needed to calm myself down, stay focused and confident.

The interview day with CAPSU has come. August 14, 2023, around 6 AM, I went to the deanery in Indralaya. I felt energized and ready for the interview. Arriving at the deanery, I went straight to the room where the three of us were gathered for this interview. I turned on my laptop and entered the Zoom meeting interview room. After that, the interview started at 8.30 AM. It went completely beyond my expectation. I thought it would be a serious and really formal interview, but it was completely different. The interview was relaxed and enjoyable. The interviewer, Dr. Marien A. Laureto is fun, humble and kind too. We shared stories, experiences, and did a QnA session. We took a documentation screenshots before ended the interview. Overall, I really enjoyed the interview, and CAPSU is also very welcome with us. And now, I’m waiting for my departure to the Philippines. See ya there ðŸ‡µðŸ‡­!

That’s all about how my journey has been going. Many exciting things are coming soon, so stay tuned!😄

Location: Indonesia

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