One of the highlights of the ETA grant year is the annual WORDS event. WORDS is a national English language competition that brings together one student from each ETA host school. The 2019 WORDS competition followed the format of a storytelling and storybook competition. However, the best part of WORDS is not the competition—although it is exciting—it is seeing the students from various parts of Indonesia bond over shared interests and the unique experience.

During February and March, ETAs led local WORDS competitions at their host schools. This year’s WORDS theme was: Future of Indonesia. It took weeks for the ETAs to recruit students, host brainstorming workshops, assist with story creation, and provide performance feedback. The local WORDS competitions determined which student from each school would travel to Jakarta and compete in the national competition.

Finally, on April 3, the 22 finalists, accompanied by their ETAs, traveled to Jakarta for the national WORDS event. That same evening, all participants (finalists and their ETAs) were treated to a welcome dinner. Alan Feinstein, AMINEF’s Executive Director, officially opened the WORDS festivities with a speech to welcome and remind the finalists that they are already winners no matter the outcome of the competition. Throughout dinner, participants engaged in icebreaking and team-building games to get everyone acquainted. The welcome dinner ended early in preparation for the following day’s main event.

The WORDS competition was held on the afternoon of April 4. Before that, finalists and ETAs participated in a Peace Values exercise led by the Indika Foundation. AMINEF partnered with Ayu Kartika Dewi, a Fulbright Visiting Student alumna who is currently Managing Director of the Indika Foundation and co-founder of SabangMerauke.  In conjunction with the WORDS theme, this session hoped to expose participants to peace education and help build tolerance.  The session also reminded participants of their value and the collective value of a very diverse Indonesia. Not to mention, it was a nice way to keep everyone busy while the judges arrived and scored the storybooks.

The five judges for the WORDS competition were: Aziza Noor, a graphic book artist and Fulbright Visiting Student alumna; Brad Horn, Regional English Language Officer at US Embassy, Jakarta; Peggy Shaw, Education Coordinator, Public Affairs Section, US Embassy, Jakarta; Aditio Tantra Danang of Dongeng Toleransi, and Theresia Pratiwi, Fulbright Visiting Student alumna and English language specialist. Scoring for the WORDS competition was split into two parts 1) storybook and 2) storytelling. The judges were tasked with reading each storybook and then giving a final score based on the judging rubric. The second part of judging involved the finalists presenting their storybooks. The WORDS competition was held at @america.

One by one the 22 finalists presented their storybooks to the judges, in front of an audience including their ETAs, AMINEF staff members, AMINEF board members, and a public audience. The judges had a very difficult task but in the end, they decided on three winners: “Big Sharkie and Little Remor” by Tiara Fitra Ramadhani Siregar (SMAN 1 Padang Sidempuan, North Sumatra); “Bella, The President” by Carina Hakim (SMA Don Bosco Padang, West Sumatra); and “Unexpected Journey” by Laksmi Anindita Kusnanto (SMAN 1 Temanggung, Central Java) listed in order from first to third place.

The prize for winning the national WORDS competition included trophies, goodie bags (which included an English-Indonesian dictionary) and the grand prize of participation in a service-learning trip to Ende, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.

While some students may have been disappointed with the results, you could not tell! After all of the presentations were done and the winners were announced, the participants ended the event with a dance party. This solidified the competition as more of a celebration.

WORDS did not end with the competition! The next day, participants had a jam-packed agenda. In the morning, participants joined sessions to learn more about Indonesia’s religious diversity. There was also a session on critical thinking that encouraged the finalists to be wiser consumers of news. In the afternoon, the participants headed to the new US Embassy Jakarta building where they heard from Ambassador Donovan, made use of the MyAmerica space and took a tour of the embassy’s art pieces. After that, they walked over to the National Monument (MONAS) to take pictures at the iconic monument and do some oleh-oleh shopping. The day ended with a group bowling event at the Jakarta Bowling Center.

The next day, all of the participants departed back to site. In the span of a few days, participants made life-long connections. Year after year, WORDS proves to be an incredibly meaningful experience for students, ETAs, and AMINEF staff members.