AmCor Presentation in IAIN Semarang - from Matt

Rationale for the event:
The American corner is, without a doubt, the best place to procure resources and conduct research at IAIN Walisongo. However, even with the plethora of resources available, the staff at the American Corner is still having a few problems with getting the students and teachers from IAIN Walisongo and Semarang to come utilize the facilities. As such, the Consulate General in Surabaya and the AMINEF office in Jakarta sent representatives, i.e. Brian Himmelseib (representative from US Consulate General in Surabaya), Erica and Isye(representatives from AMINEF and Fulbright in Jakarta) in order to hold a presentation on Education in the United States. It was thought that if the American Corner hosted an event in which experts gave presentations on topics in their respective fields, people would not only learn more about education in the United States, but they would also come and see the resources the American Corner has to offer. In this way, these visitors would be motivated to return to utilize this great resource more regularly.

Outcomes of the event:
The event began with a presentation from Brian Himmelsteib about applying for a visa to the United States. This was followed by a brief question and answer session. After this, Erica and Isye gave two different presentations on studying in the US and how to go about applying for a Fulbright fellowship. These presentations were great and definitely elicited the most questions from the students. I believe that this is because they gave their presentations in Bahasa Indonesian. The participants definitely felt more comfortable using their native language. As such, they asked more questions and learned more about higher education in the United States. This was followed by a presentation from Matthew Pizzorno on the Next Generation TOEFL. Again this was followed by a question and answer session.