Being More Encouraged & Productive By Joining IOSBC

Hey, Peeps… What’s up!

Here we have a story from Raditiana Nur Ulima who is one of IOSBC’s member. She joined IOSBC in the 2nd generation and now her responsibility is being crew in Public Relations of IOSBC. Let’s dive in her story!

I never thought about becoming a buddy, nor that i knew about this program before. It was all started when I and my friends were constantly going to international office to ask for scholarships and exchange programs. But one day the information of becoming a buddy suddenly popped up.

What is it? Becoming a buddy means that we have to be available 24/7 for those international students who need help.

Back then I was thinking like whether I really would gave my free time just to go to the office and stay there, whether I had courage and willingness to meet new people, especially people who couldn’t even spook Indonesian.

A lot of people saw me as an extrovert person, but I was actually got so nervous when i met new people I started talking a lot. Though I thought that international people would be less judging and less rude (because they wouldn’t exchange here if they couldn’t behave) so I started to feel more interested in this program. I registered, and I was just so lucky to be accepted being a buddy.

I was actually more nervous when I met the members of International Office Student Buddy Club generation 1.0 rather than when I met exchangers. I thought there would be some kind of ‘adjustment’ which was basically just like common student orientation programs with seniority and such, but it was not!

I feel encouraged, productive, and what’s better, i felt that i was actually fit in, i felt that I belonged here. If there was something wrong, Buddy would got straight to the problem and solved it up. We shared stories, we shared perspective, and what’s more, adding more experience and friends. Buddy also didn’t push someone to be active, they encouraging them to be so. Buddy’s environment was so comfortable.