WORDS Competition 2017

From April 5^{th through April 8th}, 29 high school students and their English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) gathered in Jakarta for the annual WORDS Competition. A highly-anticipated event each year, this year marked the tenth anniversary of the WORDS Competition.

WORDS is a speech and talent competition, with performances centered on a given theme; this year’s theme was “Cicak on the Wall,” and participants were asked to respond to the question, “If you could be a cicak on the wall of any room in the past, present, or future, where would you choose to be, and why?”   Leading up to the national competition, each ETA held a local competition at their school, and the winning participant from the local competition was then invited to represent their school at the national competition in Jakarta.

Reflecting on the preparation for coming to Jakarta, ETA Shreya Kundur, who is placed in Malang this year, said, "I think the Words

Competition has been one of the best experiences with the AMINEF/Fulbright Program so far, because all of the ETAs get to work on one thing all together, and we had so much anticipation for this one weekend.”

Each of the students represented their school fantastically.  The speeches varied widely in their topics and styles, and the students demonstrated an array of impressive talents alongside their speeches.  The audience was captivated.

Said Jerry Chamberland, a member of AMINEF’s Board of Management, said, “This is the second WORDS Competition that I’ve attended. … It’s an opportunity for ETAs and students from all over Indonesia to meet, and for us, the audience, to see what an incredible job the ETAs do, and what an incredible job the students do.”  The judges—who included two past WORDS winners of Best Use of English, Ditacut Aisyah and Nanda Dima Tasha, as well

as Triwik Kurniasari, Fulbright alumna and author, Dr. Rebekka Moore, Fulbright alumna and senior manager of @america, and Douglas Ramage, Fulbright alumnus and a member of  AMINEF’s Board of Management—certainly had a tough job in selecting the winning participants from such talent.

Five participants were recognized at the national competition for notable performances.  Kezia Natalia Wattie from SMA Eben Haezer Manado was awarded Best Use of English, Artyo Rizqi Syabhantara from Wachid Hasim 2 Sidoarjo was awarded Best Use of Theme, Chalvyn Rahmat D. from SMKN 4 Malang was awarded Best Talent, and Muhamad Hilmi Ainun Fikri from MAN Insan Cendikia Gorontalo was awarded Best Costume.  The Overall Winner for the 2017 Competition was Muhammas Boby Primadiansyah from SMAN 2 Malang, with his speech “Dream Away to the Milky Way.”  Though all five were honored to be selected as winners, they all felt, as Kezia emphasized, the best part of WORDS was that they, “got to meet so many talented, amazing people from all over Indonesia.”

To commemorate the 10^th anniversary of the WORDS Competition, an additional event was added to the experience.  English Fun Day, held at @america, included the WORDS Participants and their ETAs, as well as forty-two participants from two Jakarta-based organizations that serve disadvantaged children: Ticket to Life and Sahabat Anak.

Several groups of ETAs developed storytelling, song, and game activities in which everyone could participate, for an afternoon of fun and English language learning for all.

Jesika Welan, a member of the Sahabat Anak group who performed an impromtu Korean dance nmber at the end of the event, said, "I really loved the Sing-a-song activity, because i can learn more in a relaxed style of studying." 

During their time in Jakarta, WORDS Participants were also able to explore the capital city with a visit to MONAS, and all students and their ETAs were also kindly invited