One of my favorite parts about SMA Labschool Kebayoran is the vast variety of activities and opportunities they provide for students. There is always an event, a competition, a committee, or a field trip coming up soon. In this instance, a trip was proposed to all eleventh-grade Civics students: contact an embassy in Jakarta and schedule a visit to discuss international relations.

In past years, Kebayoran has been unable to contact the right person at the United States Embassy in order to make this visit happen. This year, a group of my eleventh-grade students approached me to ask if I had any contact suggestions at the U.S. Embassy. To their surprise, one of my closest friends in Jakarta is an officer at my country’s embassy! I put my eleventh graders in contact with Mrs. Alexia Branch at the United States Embassy, and they were able to set a date and schedule for the visit. It was a gift to be able to help my students out in this way. Here’s how the day went, in their own words:

“On March 8th, 2019, we went to the U.S. Embassy for a Civics project on international relations. Other than that, we are also interested in studying abroad in places with good quality education, such as the U.S. So we felt like this is a pretty good opportunity for us to learn about how we can get there, what will be different, how to prepare, etc. At the embassy, we had a session on the diplomatic relationship between Indonesia and the U.S., and a session on EducationUSA. Through those sessions, we learned a lot about the strength of people to people relationships between Indonesia and the U.S. and how it can help to strengthen our bond in many fields. We also saw the U.S. is a diverse country with various opportunities for its people to help create a better future. This opportunity may hopefully be a chance for Indonesians, may they be young or old, to not only broaden their knowledge but also to enrich the people’s knowledge and skills and help Indonesia to grow.”

Madison Clark

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