ETA Anisha Tyagi’s highlight this month was finally getting a reason to communicate with her students one-on-one. Prone to pulang (go home) right after school ending, her students didn’t feel very accessible to Anisha. That was until she started her community engagement projects!

Her first is a letter exchange with SMKN 3 Pangkalpinang, another ETA vocational school focusing on the same industries as SMKN 6. She noticed her most passionate and dedicated students asked to be a part of this project. Reading their first letters filled Anisha with pride and admiration for her students. These same students also promised to come to English club more regularly.

In one English club, the students had in-depth discussions about what stories they like. Anisha noticed many students expressed interest in story-writing and drawing, so she figured one of her English club projects will be writing and illustrating English children’s books. It will also be good practice for WORDS (AMINEF’s annual storytelling competition) next semester. Anisha can’t wait for these relationships to deepen over letters and stories.

Anisha Tyagi is currently teaching at SMKN 6 Semarang, Central Java