Stefanie WINARKO | Memoirs from Alumni

Memoirs from Alumni - 2018-19

Stefanie WINARKO

Student of Parahyangan Catholic University, Indonesia
Exchange to the University of Notre Dame Australia, Australia

I am a student majoring in International Relations at Parahyangan Catholic University, Indonesia. I would like to thank the Cheung Kong Group for supporting me in Australia through the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards Program.

One of the most exciting parts of my exchange program was its flexibility – I was able to take any subject I wanted to learn, irrespective of my major. Therefore, I studied Archaeology, Counselling, and Behavioural Science. I also took a class on Australian Politics, Governance, and Democracy which was related to my study and I believed I would never learn better in any other country. I was actually nervous in the beginning of the semester as I found out that Australian grading system followed the bell curve therefore only 15% percent of the students could get the top score. This was totally different from the grading I was used to. However, as time went on, I started to care less about the grades and focused more on what I was learning in the class. Classes were divided into lectures and tutorials, I thought this system was very helpful as I could understand the substance of the subject in the lectures and then figure out how they could be implemented in the tutorials.

Archaeology was the next wonderful part. I did not know that I would love Archaeology as much as I did. It was such a mind-blowing subject. I studied about the past, how to deduct and summarise past event(s) based on things that were found, and literature about Archaeology and related theories. We did an excavation near the end of the semester and it was amazing. I found pieces of old English ceramic and black bottle which was used to contain alcohol back then. The site where we did the excavation was believed to be Peel Town which was a town of the British colony from 1829 until 1830.

Besides the academic environment, I also loved my dormitory, the community, and Freo (Fremantle). I seldom felt like I was away from home. Everyone in the dormitory was very warm. We had events every week, family dinners twice a week, and we could always reach out to each other anytime for help. There was a time when I had to bail out from our visit to the Pinnacles because I misread my major essay deadline. I was in a panic and worked continuously for days in the study room. Everyone was supportive, saying that I could do it. Someone even left candies on my desk with a note of encouragement for me.

As I mentioned before, I loved Freo. My dormitory was located near the beach, just in front of Esplanade Park, and there were nice restaurants, bars, ice-cream shops, and grocery stores nearby. I would do evening walks to South Beach or around Freo when I wanted to relax myself. I was also keen on the market, going there every weekend for affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. They sold wonderful food as well. I do not think words could describe how wonderful Freo is.

I believe all the experience I got from the exchange program will help me grow as a person. Not only did I gain academic knowledge, living abroad has also taught me many of life lessons. I learned how to live independently far away from home, how to adapt to a totally new environment, I met new friends with various backgrounds, I worked – volunteering and group projects – with people who had different work ethics, I travelled around Western Australia which I barely knew about, and I even got to meet the Premier of Western Australia and the Group Managing Director of CK Infrastructure. I am really grateful that I was given the chance to do the exchange program.

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