Belum Berdaulat, Indonesia Sudah Krisis Energi - Ford Foundation ...

ISJN DYNAMICS31From IFP to Fulbright:Mission Impossible, but finally Accomplished within Three YearsStudying in Americanhigher educationwith a three-yearscholarship from Fulbrightseems to be impossible.Before leaving for my hostuniversity, Florida StateUniversity, I was told thatstudying at a public researchuniversity was not going tobe easy. Several commonchallenges would be faced byinternational students likeme, coming from a differenteducational system. Amongthe challenges are language,money, classroom behaviors,the nature of relationshipswith professors and advisers,teaching styles, academicworkload, expectations,class dynamics, and studyrequirements.However, as an IFPFellow and Fulbrighter, I feltthat it was my challenge toprove that finishing a PhDwithin three years is alsoPOSSIBLE. After waitingfor my visa for about eightmonths, I finally arrived atFlorida State University as aFulbrighter and started myprogram in Spring, January2009. During my doctoralprogram, at Departmentof Educational Leadershipand Policy Studies, Collegeof Education, Florida StateUniversity, I experiencedseveral interesting andimpressing opportunities.The first week of semester, Imet my temporary academicadviser (who finally becamemy professor directingdissertation); I told him thatmy Fulbright scholarship wasthree years to finish my PhD.He understood my situationand he even told me thathe was willing to find othersources of funding in caseI could not finish my studywithin three years. We thendesigned my study programto finish my PhD within threeyears. He was a remarkableprofessor. One thing thatI never forgot from him is“You are a Fulbrighter, Amirand I believe you can makeit.” He set what I had to doevery semester and I reportedto him at the end of everysemester as well. Anytime, Ihad difficulties, he and otherprofessors at my departmentwere willing to help me. Asa result, I finished taking allrequired courses within 1,5years, I passed the diagnosticdoctoral exam, preliminarydoctoral exam, and doctoraldissertation proposal, anddefended my dissertation on6th December 2011 with aGPA of 3.96. The messageVOL. 2 TAHUN 1 - SEPTEMBER 2012SOCIAL JUSTICE MAGZ