About the Program
Study of the United States Institute (SUSI) is a program supported by US Department of State. Actually SUSI has several branches like Global Environmental Issues, New Media & Politics, Religious Pluralism, and many others, but the one that I enrolled into is the Global Environmental Issues. The program is run by a foundation called The Mansfield Center. Most of the program (4 weeks) were conducted in Montana State. Because we were hosted by The University of Montana, which is eminent for its environmental studies programs, we mainly stayed in the city of Missoula, but be traveled to other sites a lot. In the last week of this program, we moved to Louisiana state (New Orleans city) and finally it is concluded in Washington D.C., the capital city of United States of America. Further information can be found at the program's website (http://www.umt.edu/mansfield/institute/)
Selection and Participants
This program is joined by 20 undergraduate students from Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (5 people from each country). The participants were selected by the US embassy in each country, and each embassy may have their own different selection method. As for Indonesia, we only have to submit administrative requirements such as recommendation letters, study scores, certificates, and TOEFL score, without undergoing any interview like the other countries. From Indonesia it was me, Swasti from State University of Malang, Rendie from 10 Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) Surabaya, Fahmi from Paramadina University Jakarta, Frans from Cendrawasih University Papua, and Angga from Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).
Monday, July 4: Arrival
Indonesian team arrived in Missoula, Montana, in the afternoon. We were welcomed by Mrs. Deena Mansour and Mrs. Kedra Hildebrand who then took us to a diner place where we met the Vietnamese and Mr. Mike Igoe. Later in the evening we headed to Miller Hall, a dormitory building of the University of Montana (UM) that will be our home for the next 4 weeks. The place s very nice, everyone got their own room furnished with a desk, a chair, a bed, a closet, and the best thing is that we got a cellphone to be used throughout the program to make the coordination easier. Because it was the Independence Day of the US, we would not miss the great celebration and we went right away to an open space near the mall, where we watched wonderful brass band playing national songs, and exactly at 9 pm the fireworks started going on and on, and everyone looked so happy. The celebration is very much different from what we use to have in Indonesia, Americans do not have carnivals, competitions, and decorations everywhere. They spend the holiday to gather with families and friends, having outdoor activities, and the only festivity is the firework and band.
Tuesday, July 5: Orientation
All participants had arrived, so this was our first gathering and breakfast together. We were doing great since that very first day, and we can mingle with each other quite easily. Then we had a tour around Miller Hall with Deena, where she took us to see the facilities that we can use during our stay. The tour ended in a very sophisticated building called the Native American Center (NAC), where the room for our seminar session is located. There, we had the explanation of academic programs by Dr. Len Broberg, and after that Deena presented an overview of University Resources. Later on that day we had lunch in a Montanan style restaurant where we tried many local specialties, and we also had bicycle assignment for everyone with Chase Maxwell. We tried the bikes to go to Kiwanis Park, around 5 minutes biking from the UM, to have Asian dinner and very fascinating sport games. The day was concluded with Ice Cream Social in front of Miller Hall, a simple ice dream party where we met other students of UM from different majors, different parts of the US, and even from other countries.
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