On Mondays after school, ten to twenty middle school students from various middle schools around Pangkalpinang come to SMA Santo Yosef for English Club. SMA Santo Yosef English Club members greet the nervous students at the door in English and welcome them to their school.

They energetically begin a series of games and activities that make the room shake with laughter and light up with smiles. Because high school students are closer to the middle school students in age and come from similar communities as the middle schoolers, they are able to engage and often connect with students quicker and more meaningfully than ETA Kiyoko “Kiki” Nakamura-Koyama can herself. Kiki learns a lot from her high school students’ lessons both about what the high schoolers are interested in learning and about her students’ leadership skills. Empowering students through this intergenerational method of learning has been one of the highlights of teaching in Indonesia.

Kiyoko “Kiki” Nakamura-Koyama is currently teaching at SMA Santo Yosef Pangkalpinang, Bangka-Belitung