Last January, Senior Asia Programs Director Patrick Arnold traveled to Indonesia to interview high school students and mentors for the third cycle of the Indonesia-US Youth Leadership Program. While interviewing a group of students in Madura he met Achoe Sunhiyah Misya who shared that she remembered fondly the five VIA teachers who started teaching her at age 10, in 1982. Since then, she’s gone on to get her PhD in Anthropology and do impressive work in her community. When Patrick asked her what the impact of having a VIA teacher was, her student interrupted her to explain that the impact had extended down an entire generation. Her student Moh Khatibul Umam, next to Patrick, was chosen as one of the adult mentors to travel to Washington, DC and New York City over the summer.
Since the program began in 2014, over 60 Indonesians and 30 Americans have participated in the two-way exchange program.