The 2013 Community College Initiative Program (CCIP) Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) was successfully held at the Royal Kuningan hotel in Jakarta on June 11-12, 2013.   Treasurer of AMINEF Board of Managers, concurrently U.S. Embassy Cultural Affairs Officer, Mr. Frank J. Whitaker, officially opened the event on June 11 morning.

Mr. Whitaker in his speech highlighted the vision and mission of this US Government program and encouraged the participants to contribute to a better understanding of the role of education and educational exchange in promoting tolerance and peace.  He also encouraged the participants to be Indonesian unofficial ambassadors to the U.S.  by engaging actively in community activities while they are in the U.S.

The orientation was attended by 48 participants of Community College Initiative Program, including nine participants from Papua who are sponsored by Freeport Indonesia Company.  The purpose of the orientation is to prepare the participants for their upcoming academic programs in the U.S. and to establish strong networking among the participants.  This year, there are three consortia administering the program, Community College Consortium (CCC), North West Community College Initiative (NWCCI) and newly appointed consortium, International Research and Exchanges (IREX).  The representative of Community College Consortia, Dr. Syedur Rahman, who is also the Director of International Sponsored Programs of Northern Virginia Community College along with two recent alumni and AMINEF secretariat staff members provided insights and guidance for the participants on the CCI program throughout the two days of orientation. The representative of IREX and NW Consortia also welcomed and introduced themselves to the participants via Skype video conferencing call from the US on the first day of the orientation.

In addition to two alumni who consecutively shared their experience in the forum during the orientation, 14 CCIP alumni under the CCC and NW consortia were invited to the welcome dinner to get acquainted with the newly selected participants. Several groups of the participants contributed to live cultural performance which was done in an interesting and interactive manner as a token of friendship among peers and alumni.   Each group performed songs and dance of either traditional or contemporary offering recognition of their talents and strong motivation to be part of the group community of this program. The dinner showcased an experience that has left everyone with deep and lasting memory of the importance to represent Indonesia in the US with such rich heritage, traditions and culture.

The selected CCIP grantees this year came from variety of places across the archipelago, from Aceh to Papua.  They are young, lower to middle level professionals working in the fields of media, tourism and hospitality management, business administration, information technology, engineering and early childhood education.  They will be pursuing one year study of this non-degree program in several different community colleges.

This program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and administered in Indonesia by AMINEF.  Freeport Indonesia Company also provides significant contribution to this program for the first time.