seaylp - Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Sponsored by the Department of State and presented by Northern Illinois University
VS O I CAE S Y O FL S E APY L P
OUTHEAST
SIA
OUTH
EADERSHIP
ROGRAM
Volume 1, Issue 2 ♦ Summer 2012
T H E S PA R TA N S W E L C O M E S S E A Y L P
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
The Spartans welcome
1
Sycamore High School
2
Culture Night
2
Host Family
3
Springfield
3
Water & Environment
4
Earth Day
4
Chicago: The City
5
Chicago: Museums
5
Diplomatic Simulation
6
U.S. Capitol
6
Touring the VOA
7
Unforgettable Program
7
Action Plan Updates
8
Alumni News
10
Requests for Help
19
Alumni Travelogue
20
Special Messages
21
By DINDA HANIFAH and
MARY PAULINE ILA CAOILI
As quickly as possible, the
students got off the bus and
started to head towards a
building. An unusual
ambience welcomed each
participant as they entered
the hall, decorated with the
Spartan mascot. Strange
faces met each portraying a
sense of curiosity. Until…
“Good morning ladies and
gentlemen. Welcome to
Sycamore High School,”
someone spoke with great
apprehension. Each looked
around and posed a smile to
the other person. This
started the bond.
The SEAYLP participants got
the chance to spend time
with one of the high school
students and experienced
how is it to be like them.
They attended the classes of
their partners and even had
their lunch in the cafeteria.
It was kind of scary at first
because you don’t have any
idea of what will be going on
or what you will do. I also got
confused during their
Spanish Class because I
really can’t understand what
they were talking about.
However, my partner who is
a girl as well helped me in
some words they usually
speak.
The school also has a high
Center for Southeast
Asian Studies
level of technology in
teaching. They use
Smart boards, a
special touch screen
with a projector, to
aid in their lectures.
That was very effective, because they
make the teaching
procedure easy. The
teaching style
includes some games
and experiments
during the class,
Dinda and Sycamore High School Students in Chemistry
which also help the
After Health Class, we
students learn more.
walked around Sycamore.
The girls we were with were
She told me more about the
very kind and nice. A girl
building, the basketball
named Christina Dailey was
courts and the volleyball
my partner. The first time we court, because she loves
met, she asked me to join
volleyball. Finally, she asked
the Speech Class. I was very
me to have lunch. We talked
excited, because the
together and shared stories
students in that class were
about our schools.
very active, and then she
After a tiring day, the time to
asked me to join to the next
say goodbye came. We said
class, Chemistry. Honestly, I
goodbye to each other and
don’t like Chemistry, and
Christina asked me to take
some other students don’t
some picture with her
like it, too, but we try to
phone, and then we took a
concentrate to that lesson.
picture together with all
After this, we join the Health
SEAYLP and Sycamore
Class. Health Class, whaaat? Students. It was a very
I don’t have Health Class
unforgettable moment. Nice
anymore at my school. I’m
to meet you Sycamore
so excited with that class. All Students! I hope we all can
the students enjoyed that
meet each other again
class, and I enjoyed it too. It
someday. We really learned
was very funny and
a lot about high school life
awesome. Absolutely, all of
and the lives of the
the student at Sycamore
American students.
High School were very active
in every class.
“I hope that we all can meet each other again”
P age 2
V I S I T T O S YC A M O R E H I G H
took a test.
We also ate lunch with
Sycamore High School
students. When they
really
first saw us, they said,
friendly
“What’s up? Are you
and
having a good time
lovely.
here?” Well, they don’t
In
classes Arya and his Sycamore High School partner know us, but they start
talking to us. It is a
there
really awesome story.
are only
25 students or less. Our own These are the new things I
have learned about American
classes consist of 50
students. The way of
high school students.
teaching was very cool and
After we arrive in our home
interesting. The classes have
countries, we will spread our
modern materials to teach
knowledge to our friends and
the students.
our people that we have
By SENGHONG YOURK and ARYA ADIKRISTY NONOPUTRA
Exploring about American
people is one of our favorite
parts of the 25-day exchange
program.
of us to shadow volunteer
students. They introduced us
to their friends and brought
us to attend in their class.
April 12, 2012 was a day
that provided us a chance to
learn and explore more
about American life. We went
to Sycamore High School,
located in Sycamore, Illinois.
Twenty-five students and five
adult leaders from Southeast
Asia countries were honored
to visit Sycamore High School
to learn about the diversity of
the school and the study
process of students in the
United States.
Senghong’s shadowing
partner was Matt Copple.
He’s a really nice guy,
friendly, helpful and a great
guide and he played a lot of
sports for his school. Traid
Herman, who peer shadowed
with Arya Adikristya, was also
a great guide to lead us to
know more about high
schools in America. We had
a meaningful time that day.
When we arrived all of the
student and school principal
warmly welcomed us and the
principal arranged for each
We noticed that high schools
in the United States and high
schools in our own countries,
Cambodia and Indonesia,
were very different. School
here looks nice, student are
CULTURE NIGHT
It started with, “Ladies and
gentlemen!” Yet it’s not only
like that. Having different
cultures half way around the
world is unusual. From
diverse Asian countries all
the way around the world, we
came into the grand event of
the year here at Northern
Illinois University. This is an
event that talks about a
variety of cultures, and this is
By LOUIE M AYUBAY
and CALVIN
the Culture Night of SEAYLP.
This was the fifth day of us
being in the United States,
the land of opportunities.
Since all of us have been
spending some time
together, we were being
helpful towards one another
and were starting to bond.
And it had only been a day
that we stayed with our host
Louie, Ira, Lolek, Pauline (behind), and Hazel perform a dance from the Philippines
Well, Sycamore High School
gave us a lot of experience
about the way American high
schools perform. We found
that it is kind of amazing!
Students here are not only
friendly and respectful, but
they also smart. We’ve been
to Math class and saw how
smart they are while they
gained from the 25 days
exchange program, as well as
the perspective of American
high school students. We had
a great time there and we
already miss the time we did
together during shadowing.
family, so most of us were a
little nervous about
performing in front of them.
saman dance. After that
comes dinner. Everyone
seems to be in good moods.
Excited about the TV show
that we will be watching at
home, and we rushed back
home with our lovely host
family. Cultural night is one of
the best nights I ever had.
Everyone was dressed
neatly and gracefully. The
Burmese were wearing
different costumes to
represent various cultures in
the country and to reveal how
multi-cultural the country is.
Not long ago, my vision of a
typical American changed.
This is because of what I
have seen in movies,
Americans were rude and
easy-going but in reality, it’s
not like that. They are people
who possess a sense of
friendliness and
responsibility in their hearts.
The show begins with a
couple of dances performed
by the NIU students. Then,
the Thais proudly presented
their ramwongkaewkow
dance which really amazed
my eyes. Last but not least,
the Indonesians ended the
show with their breath-taking
We love all the Sycamore High
School students!
We might have different
culture, but this is not a
barrier of achieving our main
goal as SEAYLPers. We will not
forget this for the rest of our
lives. Exchanging our own
cultures are one of the best
ways to have a better
communication and stronger
relationships with the different
Asian countries, and the
United States. Recalling all the
memories that I value,
everything feels like yesterday.
This is a rhyme that I came up
with just the night before we
depart: Time flies... Life is like
rolling a dice… I don't want to
tell a lie… That's why I'm not
telling you goodbye!
V o ices o f S E A YL P
P age 3
Living with a Host Family
By TEYAORM MAS and
VALERIE LAYNE YOSEPHINE
Hi! I’m Teyaorm from
Cambodia, and I’m Valerie
from Indonesia. We are
roommates, who live in the
same host family. In our
family there are five
members, including both of
us, plus two lovely dogs,
Tippy and Molly. My mum’s
name is Elizabeth; she works
as the communications
manager at the Center for
Southeast Asian Studies.
Mike is my dad, he is an
engineer. And my lovely
sister is Katie, a sophomore
at Sycamore High School.
We always hang out a lot, to
get some food and to go
shopping. We’re really
enjoying it.
problems. We just love to say
that they are our great parents
and sister in only
twelve days. They
to us. My mum
loved to show us new
always takes and
things or some stuff
picks up us from
that our countries
Northern Illinois
don’t have, so that we
University after
can learn from that.
we finished our
They do their best to
activities. Living
take care us, with
in this family
plenty of healthy food.
makes me warm
We are very
and peaceful,
impressed with what
and I felt as
SEAYLP-6 and their Sycamore High School buddies
though they are
they did for us.
my real family. I love them so enjoyed showing them some
In conclusion, we want to say
ceremonies in our culture
much.
thanks you to our host family and a wedding. One more
mum, dad, sister and two
Living in my host family was
thing, when we free from our
lovely pets – that provided us
the essential event to
program activities we always
a great opportunity and
absorb lots of things.
played with Tippy and Molly.
comfortable place to share
Exchanges between
Both of are really smart, cute
our lives. I know that the word
American culture and ours
and it was fun to play with
“Thanks” is not completely the
are the best way for us to
them.
same as what we feel now.
keep our contact smooth.
Before we arrived in United
States, our mother (Liz)
messaged us first. Since
then, we have felt very
happy because in our
opinion our host family is
very friendly and respectful
We did a lot of cultural
exchanging like showing how
to cook food, about
traditional clothes, the way
of our people act, our
lifestyle and popular places
in our country. I especially
All the members in my
family are very kind, helpful
and generous. They always
take care of us and they are
very worried when we face
with a problem. They try to
do everything to solve these
SPRINGFIELD: WHERE LINCOLN BEGAN
Our schedule began very
early in the morning. At 7:00
a.m., we had to depart for
Springfield, to the Abraham
Lincoln Presidential
Museum. We spent half past
three hours on the bus.
Some of us were sleeping,
playing truth, or playing
cards. That was the way that
we got to know more about
each other, sharin our
experiences and life in our
own country. So, three and a
half hours on the bus is the
part of our memories that we
are not going to forget.
At 10:30 a.m., we arrived at
Lincoln Presidential
Museum. There we learned
a lot about Abraham Lincoln
– when he was young, when
he got married, his family
and politics – and also about
the Civil War. Our favorite
part was 3D movies about
him. It was awesome and
the museum is a very
beautiful place to visit.
Then we spent our lunch
time at Subway, which is
nice and had fun altogether.
After that we continued to
Illinois State Capital
Building. We spent around
one hour taking pictures and
learning about the
government. We went to
Lincoln’s house, but we did
not have enough time to go
inside his house. The best
part of the day for most
people was our dinner of
Mexican food.
In Springfield, we learned
about Abraham Lincoln, the
sixteenth president of the
United States, who led the
nation through its darkest
hour- the Civil War. We found
out about Lincoln’s
childhood on a frontier farm,
how a struggling small-town
lawyer became president,
and why he is one of
America’s most revered and
beloved leaders.
So why does a man who died
more than 140 years ago
still capture our attention
and our hearts? Maybe it is
because he was a man who
was not afraid to make
mistakes, a man who would
never pretend to know
something when he didn’t, a
man who worked tirelessly to
figure out solutions to
difficult problems, and a
man who continued to learn
and grow throughout his life.
Or maybe it is because, truly
and deeply, with all his
heart, Abraham Lincoln
believed in the strength of
the Union. He believed in an
America in which all people
are given the chance to
But we still need to say
“Thanks” again to everyone
for providing us everything.
We love all of you and will
never forget this lovely family
forever.
By SREYNOCK CHROEK and
NAJMEE ADULYARAT
better themselves and make a
good life. He believed the
Declaration of Independence
that stated, “all Men are
created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are life,
liberty and the Pursuit of
Happiness.” He believed in a
nation in which even a poor
boy from the wilds of Kentucky
could grow up to become
president of the United States.
Finally, we felt so happy and
warmed that we now know
about his history, work and
politics. One more thing, we
also had a good trip
altogether. We send a special
thanks to Northern Illinois
University, NIU, which help us
to have chance to visit the
USA. We are so glad to know
more of America.
P age 4
WATER
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
AND THE
ENVIRONMENT: THE MISSISSIPPI
By VITO CHRISTIANIA
ONGKO and MELVYN
Iowa, to visit the Mississippi
River Museum for touring
and for water-testing.
We left at
about 7:45
a.m. and
everyone was
excited and
jubilant. It
was raining
as we went
to the
museum and
we arrived
there at
about 11:00
Senghong, Nagjy, Vito and their group test water quality at the
am. All of us
National Mississippi River Museum.
were led into
the museum
It all began on a cold,
cafeteria to have lunch.
breezy morning with the
Shortly afterwards, we were
SEAYLP-6 members
provided a guided tour
crowding around the NIU
around the museum, which
bus in front of the NIU Main portrayed detail information
Entrance. Thursday, April
about the Mississippi River.
19th, 2012, was when we
This included the
all departed for Dubuque,
environment surrounding
EARTH DAY
Earth Day is an annual day
with events that is held
worldwide to increase
awareness and appreciation
of Earth’s natural
environment. This activity is
celebrated in more than
175 countries every year.
Earth Day is held every 22nd
of April. This activity was
based on the ideas of the
participants of the SEAYLP-6
that represents Southeast
Asia in America. This activity
also involved our host
families. This activity was so
fun because we made this
with creativity, fun, and
inspiration.
We started this activity by
walking through the cold
wind in DeKalb, carrying our
gloves and shovels. We
started the day with planting
a lot of oak trees and bird
By RIZKY BAGAS PRANATA
and UKRIT VILLARROEL
houses. We did that to give
more life to the earth. By
planting trees, we also
reduced the amount of
pollution and at the same
time we increase the oxygen
supply of the earth. The
birdhouses provide a living
place to the birds, while at
the same time keeping the
ecosystem well. We planted
trees for around 45 minutes.
After that, we went back
inside the building and
started the second activity,
arts!
Yes, we added the arts to
make this activity much more
interesting and fun. The first
thing that we did in the
second activity is face
painting! It was so fun! Many
of our friends had a butterfly
or bee or fireflies on their
faces. We did that about 30
the river, the flora and fauna
existent there, the history of
the river, and most
importantly, the importance
of the river to the different
states it passes through.
From the guided tour, we
learned several things. We
learned that the Mississippi
River was an influential and
beneficial factor for the
people, towns, cities, and
inhabitants along it. It was an
imperative source of water for
everyone: humans, animals,
and plants.
We also had a chance to do
water-testing. The water was
collected from different areas
along the Mississippi River.
We were divided into four
groups, each group having to
test two sources of water
from the Mississippi River.
We measured values such as
pH, temperature, and nitrate
concentration. We were also
provided a practical
presentation on the
conservation of rivers. Once
again, we were divided into four
groups and worked on ways to
prevent a river from getting
polluted by fertilizers, manure,
and pesticides.
Later on, we got a chance to
watch a short movie on the
history and uses of the
Mississippi River. From that, we
gained much more information
on the Mississippi River,
especially its importance to the
American people.
The day ended after we all left
the gift shop inside the
museum. Everyone gathered
tons of information on the
Mississippi River. Furthermore,
we also learned that a river is
one of the most imperative
factors for a country. It is a
vivid portrayal of life, power,
and the country’s respect for
nature.
minutes.
Our other
friends that
can't do
face
painting,
painted the
bird houses
with many
colors. After
the face
painting, we
went
Planting birdhouses and trees for DeKalb Park District
outside
again,
facing the cold for the next
After that was the most
interesting thing in the whole
arts thing, drama!
day, singing and music! Yes,
A group came up with the
we sang about 4 songs, all
idea of playing drama
together. It was awesome! We
conditions. It's a game where have so much fun, and we
the participants are told a
think our message was sent
theme, and we had to
that day. It is, in caring the
become a statue for 1
world, doing the right thing is
minute. And the winner is the not always boring.It can be a
group which receives the
lot of fun, like what we did!
most applause from the
And yes, we are proud that we
audience. We did about 4 or
can help to give this world a
5 poses at the time.
little bit more time to live.
Voices of SEAYLP
P age 5
CHICAGO: CITY SITES
By HAMATH MAN, PATRICK,
and NARAKORN MANKEOW
April 27th was one of the
most exciting events that we
had on this program. It was
an experience that we’ll have
only once in our lives. We call
it Big or should we say
Monster! We haven't seen
before a city with all these
towering heights that scared
us so much. But we’re glad
that this city is just more
than that.
bicycled around the park for
a more memorable
experience. We had a very
wonderful time in Chicago.
Now, we’re only foreigners.
That's why, If it is possible we
wish that we could come
back to Chicago.
Picturing the city in our
minds, we reminisced about
the past. The experiences
defined our identity by what
surrounds us. For example;
To add more about this
experience, we, Pon, Lin,
Najjy, Tin, Film, Evelyn, and
Vito were together in the low
temperature outside. We felt
like we were freezing with
this 7 degree Celsius. We
could not even move our
hands or my face. However it
was really a very great time
hanging out with our friends
from other countries.
Sightseeing in Millennium
Park, where we saw the huge
Bean, probably the largest
bean we’ve seen. We also
After the tour around the
park, we went to the Willis
tower which is the tallest
building in Chicago.
THE MUSEUMS
interesting places to go. Chicago: Field Museum and Museum of Science and Industry
are the best places of all.
By KIMLOUNG LIM and
MAY PWINT
The whole SEAYLP group
went to Museum of Science
and Industry (MSI) on Friday,
April 27. The MSI is the collection of all the wonders of
science. We start from the
concept of light, heat and air.
We can see up to airplanes,
space, and tornados. It is a
very crowded museum as it is
Chicago is the third largest
very popular among high
city in US and it has lots of
school and middle
school students. Everything is very interesting.
There were lots of experiments for science concepts. One thing that my
roommate and I enjoy
most was “the flight
simulator”. It was like
driving the airplane as
pilots and going upside
down within the airplane.
It was a great experience
Film, Vito, Park, Pauline, Tin, Lolek, Pon, Dinda, for us. You can see
“It is like going around the
world within a short period of
time.” “I can’t exchange this
experience with any other
experiences.” “We went to
the world of science and the
world of wildlife, culture and
wonders within 2 days.”
Louie, Ira, Valerie, Nagjy, Tony and Medina at the Field
Then, we all went to have
dinner but the group did not
go together We went to have
dinner with Pon, Film, Najjy,
Tin and Pon's old friends,
Griffin, Tori and Sarah. They
are very fun and nice. Pon
was very excited about
meeting his old friends.
We went to the ED
restaurant. The ED is not like
other restaurants because all
the waiters and waitresses
are very
rude.
They
are
yelling
and
angry
all the
times.
However, we know that they
are just pretending to do
that. It was a very new
experience for us, because
there is no restaurant like
that where we are from.
We had a really great time
and wonderful experience,
for Chicago is a city that we
will never ever forget for the
rest of our lives.
Evelyn, Park, Najgy, Tin, Lin, Pon, Vito, and Patrick take in the sites on bike
trains and planes from the
past centuries; see the human body and capillaries,
DNA, agriculture to space
suits. The cool thing about
the museum is that we can
take part in the experiments
by ourselves. It is a great and
memorable experience for all
of us. It is like going into the
world of science.
The next museum is the Field
Museum. We went there on
the next day, Saturday, April
28. It is very crowded too.
When I asked the information
counter, they said that the
average people that come to
museum per day is around
2400. If we call MSI the
world of science, we should
call the Field Museum the
world of wildlife, culture and
wonders. We can see the
real statues of all the animals around including the
extinct animals in the museum. Furthermore, we can
see different kinds of very
beautiful rocks and gems.
You will not even believe your
eyes if you see the beautiful
gems and jewelry in the exhibits in the museum. The
next cool thing about the
museum is the collection of
artifacts from the famous
cultures around the world,
like China, Egypt, Pacific and
many, many others. The best
thing about the museum is
the complete skeleton of a TRex dinosaur. You cannot
find such a great and complete set of dinosaur fossils
elsewhere in the world. I
would say that it is museum
of wonders.
Although it was only about
eight hours to visit those two
museums, we learned more
than we would in 80 days by
going around the town. I
hope SEAYLPers from the
next year can visit to the
world of wonders of science
and wildlife in Chicago.
P age 6
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
DIPLOMATIC SIMULATION
By EVELYN and
IRA YOCHABEL ALOG ALONZO
Editors Note: This event is designed by US Diplomacy Center
to give participants and authentic opportunity to engage in diplomacy. Participants take on a
real world problem, with no ideal
solution and many stakeholders.
They must formulate their entities desires while putting themselves in the place of others.
This paper written from the US
perspective is a great example.
Around the globe, the ocean
is used as a resource of food.
Fishing is an ancient practice
and still used to sustain life.
The world is now in era in
which fish species are
beginning to diminish,
becoming rare, and the
people who depend on
fishing and marine products
are in danger. However, it is
impossible to halt demand
due to the rapid increase in
population.
Overfishing is becoming a
global problem and many of
GOVERNMENT
IN ACTION AT
THE CAPITOL
By JOHN PAUL CASTRO and
PHATTARAWEE Phanich
Senghong and Bagas learning about history
and government at the U.S. Capitol
both local and international
economics. They would like to
cooperate with international
organizations to tackle the
problem of illegal fishing and
overfishing. They have
promoted scientific researching to maintain the fish
the world’s fisheries have
already been overfished and
fully exploited. This is causing
the decreased fish populations, damaging ocean ecosystems and
threatening the
economies of many
countries around the
world. The crisis of
overfishing is evident
in the South Pacific,
especially in the
Federated States of
Micronesia, where it
could cause the
collapse of the
economic system
SEAYLP-6 preparing for the Diplomatic Simulation with
Lauren Ficher from the U.S. State Department
and lead to massive
unemployment.
population and provide
All the nations and
enough fish for all the people.
organizations are trying to
The US has been an
solve the problem. The
economic aid donor and
development of aquaculture
spent around $21.75 billion
is one solution to the
in Overseas Development
problem of overfishing. The
US has well-developed aqua- Assistance which is the most
of any nation in the world.
culture and technology to
sustain the fish population
The US will work towards
and realizes that marine
stricter catch-limits and
resources are essential to
enforcement of conventions
E Pluribus Unum, one from
many. The U.S. Capitol is
known for its role as the
country’s basic foundation,
the rule of law. In the Capitol
lies the Senate and House of
Representatives, the body in
which the country’s hands,
body, and head are represented. Here the presidents
and famous people who have
contributed to America’s history are represented and honored in stone and paints. The
capitol and its government
are doing its everyday job as
the heart of the United
States, lovingly, caringly, and
honestly.
The United States of America
is by far the most advanced,
super nation in the world. It
is the most packed country in
concerning overfishing such
as United Nations
Convention of the Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS) and the
Convention on Fishing and
Conversation of Living
Resources on the High Seas.
They will give assistance to
solve the problem of illegal
and overfishing. We also
would like to work together
with UN, WFAO, and other
International and Nongovernment organizations in
solving this problem. At the
same time, the US wants to
make ensure that US citizens
have enough fish. The United
States is always looking
forward to participate in
solving the issues of global
importance such as this. The
ocean and all things in it are
essential to human beings
and we must to solve the
problem immediately. The
US Department of States is
open to every kind of
discussion and negotiation to
solve this problem and calls
every nation to corporate and
solve this problem together
to create a better and
sustainable future.
terms of resources, and I can
see the government is not
just sitting around, bringing
in money. No, they takes
action and the commotion of
the Capitol part of the proof
that the U.S. government is in
action. A nation in work is a
nation in progress.
democracy which is very important for its people. Freedom is also the reason why
the nation is so open and
diplomatic in its laws. To
each and every person working in America’s heart, the
freedom is seen and expressed.
Few people are given a
chance to visit America and
indeed I am lucky I am one of
those people. I got to visit
the crown and glory of the
U.S. and saw for myself its
true beauty. Truly America
has become the country that
it is just by its people and
that the country is conceived
in justice, freedom and liberty. Freedom is the goddess
atop the U.S. Capitol, the
envisagement of America’s
“A nation against itself cannot stand alone.” As Abraham Lincoln said, one nation
must be in harmony for it to
survive every trial that will
come in its progress. I see
that is precisely what America is striving toward, when I
visit its Capitol, it is busy with
tourists and the busier it is
with the employees. A government, a nation, a history,
a capitol. Many, but one.
One from many.
Voices of SEAYLP
P age 7
VOICE OF AMERICA
By HAMATH MAN, PATRICK,
and NARAKORN MANKEOW
Voice of America broadcasts
on shortwave, AM, and FM
radio, satellite, cable, and
local television, and the
Internet on a worldwide
transmission network that
includes more than170
transmitters and 15
satellites with footprints
covering almost every
continent. In addition,
through partnerships with
major content delivery
providers, VOA has a
presence on over 65,000
servers in 1000 networks
across 70 countries. VOA
has integrated mobile
technology and social
media as additional
platforms to deliver news to
its global audience.
May 1, 2012, another day of
a new journey. Another day of
a new experience. A day that
inspired us. A day that
shared us a glance of reality.
Ana Ward, a reporter and a
producer in the Voice of
America, Washington D.C.,
guided us on a tour of their
studios. She shared with us
some facts about how they
work, how they reach other
countries and about
broadcasting. She showed us
how each of their studios
works. She also shared some
stories from their
broadcasters there.
There was one story that
inspired us a lot:
Zamira Islami Edwards used
to listen in secret to the
Voice of
America in her
village in
communist
Albania. In
1984, Zamira,
her brother
Klement, and
sister Isabela
escaped
Albania by
swimming for
twelve hours
to Greece…Not
long after that,
Isabela and
Zamira joined the Voice the
America. Neither had ever
imagined that one day, they
would join the voice of truth
they had once listened to.
Voice of America, voice of
truth.
SeEAYLP-6 at the Voice of America dtudios
S E A Y L P, U N F O R G E T T A B L E P R O G R A M
In the spring
program, we had
participants
from Cambodia,
Indonesia,
Myanmar, the
Philippines and
Thailand.
Because there
were only five
delegations at a
time, thirty
participants
SEAYLP-6 at the FDR Memorial
including adult
My name is Patcharapon
leaders, it took less time to
Podamrongchai which is a
get to know each other and
Thai official name, that’s why we got very close as friends.
it’s long and difficult to
We shared similarities and
pronounce. So I go with my
differences among us and
nickname, Pon. I was an
learned from each other. We
adult participant of Southeast have seen cultural
Asia Youth Leadership
performances from four
Program, spring 2012 at
countries without going to
visit those countries. My
Northern Illinois University.
homestay mates were Lin
Personally, I have been a
from Myanmar and Flor from
volunteer youth leader since
The Philippines. Although I
2000 and have done more
have been to those two
than 20 programs in many
countries, I still learned many
countries as a participant,
things from them by staying
leader and staff. However,
with them at home stay.
SEAYLP is one of my favorite
programs.
By PATCHARAPON PODAMRONGCHAI
Visiting museums and places
taught me American history
and culture while expanding
my knowledge. Even though
I was an exchange student in
Oklahoma in 1995, still I
have learned a lot from
talking to people, visiting
museums, interacting with
high school students and
many more activities. I was
so happy to be able to visit
places in three states and
one district within one trip,
Illinois, Iowa, Maryland and
Washington D.C. Not so
many people would get a
privilege and opportunity like
we did. I love to learn more.
Staying with a host family
made me feel at home in the
states, I had a chance to stay
with a host-grandmother,
host-mom and host-dad.
Apart from making me feel
like I was staying in a home,
they made me feel like a part
of their family. We went
grocery shopping, fed the
horse, set up the dining
table, watched movie, went
to church, shared stories and
laughed together. Lucky me, I
had my birthday while I was
there. So I had my birthday
cake especially homemade by
Jenny Thornton, my host-mom.
I don’t usually cerebrate my
birthday but they made my
birthday one of the most
memorable and special
birthdays of my life.
After the program ended, our
SEAYLP is not finished. This is
just the beginning. My
delegation and I have to move
on with our “Action Plan”
which we presented to our
friends. I had to write the
proposal for funding and
request donations from my
friends, companies and
organizations. By doing this, it
reminds me of my once-in-alifetime period in SEAYLP and
keeps me going as a part of
the community, society and
nation. Not just a small part
but a good little one. I hope
that we will have many little
good parts, from SEAYLP and
other programs, in this world
to make our world better.
P age 8
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
A C T IO N P LAN U P DA T E S
SEAYLP-1
FALL 2009
SEAYLP-2
SPRING 2010
Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, and Vietnam were featured in our last newsletter,
and I do not have a report
from Malaysia. However, for
our new alumni and others
new to our list, below is a
short update on their Action
Plans.
Adel reports that the group
from Banjarmasin, Indonesia
collected and distributed
books to children that could
not afford them. They also
worked to teach them new
English vocabulary. Rather
than old tired methods, they
used English-language songs
to teach, so that it was fun
instead of difficult. Unfortunately, the plan did not continue because of the strains
of school on participants.
Gerry went away to college
and others were swamped
with exams (perhaps some of
you can sympathize).
Brunei did a special cultural
event called "Rediscover
Brunei Race 2010." It immitated the Great Race program, but got young people
exploring the local culture.
Cambodia conducted a six
month, three-part program to
raise environmental awareness in Kampong Cham.
They had an awareness campaign at Dei Dos High School,
donated rubbish bins, picked
up litter, and conducted a
charity events. They were
strongly supported by their
local officials and the US Embassy. Despite their youth,
they successfully led older
and young volunteers, their
environmental club, students, and volunteers from
the the Red Cross, Boy
Scouts and other groups.
Singapore had a fun social
event - a dance to raise recyclables and raise awareness,
in collaboration with others.
they learned much about
planning large events and
social responsibility.
Vietnam is a group with an
interest in medical wellbeing. They set up a program
to serve the needs of young
cancer patients and their
families. They hope to connect patients to funding and
raise awareness in the community.
In Indramayu, Indonesia, Bu
Lucky, Ratna, and Sam
planted mangrove trees on
the Karang Song, one of the
coasts of the Java Sea. With
the help of school friends,
their mission was not only to
extending the breadth of the
coast, but also to involve
youth in caring for nature.
They also had the opportunity
to meet with Boy Scouts on
their way. Unfortunately,
Agung, Anisa, and Intan had
other plan they could not be
excused from.
The participants from Rangoon (Yangon), Myanmar
conducted presentations and
workshops to spread the
knowledge they had gotten at
SEAYLP after returning home.
They went to international
and government schools.
Emerald and Jack formed
club with support from the
US Department of State and
the US Embassy in Rangoon
and hosted weekly discussions on a range of important
local and international topics.
They also went bi-weekly to
teach at a monastic middle
school about health and the
environment with students in
fourth to ninth grades. They
expect the new SEAYLP
group to continue the program, now with more than 78
members, as they themselves go off to school.
The group at Mandalay,
Myanmar - including Rebecca, Harry, and Peter/
Kevin - led seminars at a
monastic school to share
what they had learned in the
US about leadership. The
crowd was large, eager and
inquisitive.
The Philippine group - Team
Aguila - were also featured in
the fall newsletter. They did
a program to help educate
the poor children in Bacolod
City Public Plaza. They word
with them on arithmetic,
reading, and other basic
skills.
There is no report available
on Thailand.
SEAYLP-3
FALL 2010
Cambodia had to conduct
their plan without their group
leader who received a grant
to go to China. Before leaving he did the governmental
ground work to put the project on track. They created a
Green Club and conducted
trainings and trash clean
ups.
Lao participants worked with
the Social
Environmental
Education and
Development
students at
the National
University of
Laos on Lao
New Year
(April 15,
2011). They
conducted a
program
called "Clean
Water Fastival
without Trash for River in
Community." They sought to
prevent and clean up the
waste produced by the hundreds of people and vendors
who visit Tan Piew Village
and Nam Nguem River each
year. They did a rubbish
clean up and provided trash
bags for vendors to separate
out garbage.
After some struggle with
failed Action Plans, the participants from Singapore
adopted the Sengkang Floating Wetlands and were responsible for keeping them
clean. They used their
SEAYLP knowledge to test
and maintain water quality,
collaborating with the
school's environmental club.
With money from the US Embassy, they were able to buy
kits for the SEAYLP and
school groups to test water.
On World Water Day (March
24, 2012) they went even
further by partnering with
Singapore's Public Utilities
Board to put on a public
awareness function, a carnival, at the wetlands for students and the public. They
had the area's Member of
Parliament as the guest of
honor for the event. They
also hosted special guests
from the US Embassy, including Public Affairs Officer Eric
Watnik and Coordinator for
Education and Cultural Exchanges Public Affairs Goh
Hwee Lian.
Voices of SEAYLP
Harry reports that the group
from Vietnam held an event
for disadvantaged children
with a talent for art. They
held a camp, a series of
trainings for volunteers, and
a music gala. The gala and
sales of handicrafts earned
hundreds of dollars to support young, disadvantaged
artists. Part of their success
is certainly due to the 40
volunteers who gave their
time and energy to the project in the Art, Sales, and PR
committees and overcame
many difficulties.
The Brunei team has been
working to get their action
plan up and running, with
support from the government
and the embassy. Their project is largely to educate the
younger generations on water! They named our group
DILLENIA, which is a flower
found mostly in SE Asia. Their
water awareness program
was officially initiated January this year and has been
receiving positive reactions
and requests. At the moment, They are still working
out timetables as they are
each going on different
paths.
Malaysia has been unable to
complete their plan at this
time, but they have been
bouncing around doing great
things on their own.
SEAYLP-4
SPRING 2011
Participants in Papua, Indonesia encountered many and
repeated problems. Like
participants from Indramayu,
they hope to plant a mangrove forest, but the land
rights in Papua are problematic. The first mangrove forest planting and the second
reforesting of barren hills
project were halted by customary land rights issues.
P age 9
Eventually, they were able to
conduct a planting on the
hills near the school where
Rina teaches. While Dhita
was able to participate up to
execution of the plan, even
helping to get cooperation
from the forestry offices, only
Rina, Paul, and Citra were
able to do the planting, along
with other volunteers.
The project in Bekasi, Indonesia also reflects this problem with re-gathering participants who are geographically
and chronologically dispersed. Tikah reported on
the project to build a library
there with Adi, Fajar and Mirwan. They will build a library
in an orphanage, which is
also a kindergarten. Adi and
Tikah have chosen the orphanage that will be used for
the project, but the distance
between Adi, Tikah, and Mirwan has hampered the project. Fajar is continuing his
studies in Jogjakarta, which
is quite far away.
The participants from Myanmar have created a small
NGO, inviting their friends
and schoolmates to join.
With this organization they
have visited several orphanages, where they donated
stationery and learning materials. While they have not yet
done many projects, group
members are eager to do
more in the future.
Our friends in the Philippines
have conducted many leadership training programs and
workshops at local high
schools. They plan to continue these programs. They
have also of course been
rated very highly by participants.
Thailand has had a rough
year of flooding. Panya reports that these natural disasters have hindered project
execution.
SEAYLP-5
FALL 2011
Brunei will work to raise
awareness about the condition of water sources and
provide opportunities and
resources for improving the
Brunei River. They plan to
utilize civil society organizations as well as educational
structures to instruct young
persons. They have not yet
begun executing their program, but have completed
their preliminary paperwork
and presentations. They will
research and
solicit funding
and then approach the administration of a
chosen school in
Kampong Ayer.
Lao participants
plan to collect
various materials
to redistribute
them to another
school in the area. After assessing the limited resources
of rural schools, the group
decided that they would not
only collect study materials,
but also clothes and sports
equipment. This project
hopes not only to increase
valuation of reading within
the community, but also to
improve rapport with the
same.
The group from Malaysia
completed their program
June 8-10, 2012 when they
came together to create a
reading corner at an orphanage near Penang. They collected over 500 books from
the public, bookstores, and
the Asia Foundation and donated them to the Shan Children’s Home in Penang,
where they had done some
restoration work in January.
In cooperation with a local
university, participants established “reading corners” in
an orphanage, with trained
staff to sustain it. Utilizing
traditional and social media,
they collected used textbooks and story books which
are accumulated by students
in their cities and bring them
to students who cannot otherwise afford them. Participants also played special
learning games with the children there and offered advice on examinations to the
older students. Participants
remarked not only on the
value of this program to recipients at the school but
also for them as they learned
about book labeling and
cataloging and public speaking.
The participants from Singapore recognize a growing
problem with animal abuse in
their community and plan to
address it through education.
They plan to partner with the
Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to
create special programs to
raise awareness and instill
responsibility towards animals. They will use “road
shows,” flyer distribution,
and a media campaign to
address their mission. In
June, the group collaborated
with Pertapis Children's
Home in Singapore to take
fifteen young children to the
Singapore Zoological Gardens for an educational trip
about animals and to promote love for animals. In October, they, along with some
200 students from their
school, will conduct house to
P age 1 0
house visits in their neighborhood to raise awareness for
preventing animal abuse.
Finally, on December 1, they
will hold a mini roadshow at
a shopping mall to promote
kindness to animals and to
help disseminate information
to the public about animal
abuse cases, which are on
the rise.
The group from Vietnam is
executing a program called
Water Wise. This program
aims to raise the awareness
of high school students in
Hanoi of the necessity of protecting the water resources.
They organized workshops to
share their experiences in
the US, to spread the knowledge of leadership skills,
making action plans, dealing
with the media, handling conflicts and mediation, emerging leadership, and teambuilding activities. In June
2012, they conducted and
an intensive training session
with guest speakers from the
U.S Embassy, Center for Environment and Community
Research, IUCN
(International Union for Conservation of Nature), and the
National Environment Administration. They also organized the testing of two lakes
in Hanoi, so that the participants could monitor water
quality themselves and see
how healthy the water bodies
were. The six participants
continue to work to build
their own voluntary projects
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
with the given format of action plan during the training.
Water Wise will organize biking activities in which they
will cycle around some lakes
in Hanoi, stopping on one
ride to clean up the lake side
and to talk with people
around the lake to get their
attention and support for our
cause. The first bike ride was
on July 22, and is planned to
take place every two weeks
afterwards. They will have an
Exhibition Day in the early
September to show all what
they have done during the
project, including images of
waterway systems in Hanoi
and northern Vietnam, as
well as photos about water
use and beauty. On the same
day they will announce the
Water Wise Club - a club for
those who love lakes and
water bodies in Hanoi and
want to protect the water
resources.
SEAYLP-6
SPRING 2012
Cambodian participants, like
those in previous groups, is
interested in providing more
training and public information on environmental issues.
The participants will conduct
seminars to inform people in
their community about environmental issues and to provide on-going support of initiatives to deal with pollution.
They also hope to share more
information about
the United States
and create an English-Khmer language library.
The Indonesian
group will address
the real availability
of education. Indonesian participants
are collecting
books from students at the end of
the school year to be redistributed to other (particularly
poorer) students. Because
students are required to buy
their own books each year,
this can be a restricting factor in educating all youth. By
providing books free for
those who need it, more students will be able to continue
their education. As a bonus,
the program will reduce paper use.
The group from Myanmar
plan to focus on lack of education among the poor. They
will teach basic health care,
some sport, Burmese, English, Mathematics, Social
skills and general knowledge
about Myanmar and the
world.
The participants from the
Philippines are taking a more
long-term approach by looking to train young people for
the future. Their organization
Unity Builders in the Nation
and Government (UBING) will
“train socially responsible
citizens through livelihood
trainings, business education
and other projects that would
contribute to a better quality
of life and lifelong llivelihood
knowledge.” In the short
term, they aim to train unemployed youth in computer
literacy and silk screening, to
provide them with marketable skills.
Thailand is planning a substantial event based collection and improvement activity. In order to address the
material deficiencies of rural
students in the mountains,
they plan to visit a school in
Chiangmai. There they will
conduct a service and training day with SEAYLP alumni
and other State Department
alumni. Participants will: a)
solicit and donate books,
clothes, and sorting items, b)
provide agricultural training,
and c) teach leadership
classes.
ALUMNI
ROUND-UP
BRUNEI
Fatin Amalia (Fatin
Amalina Syahirah
binte Haji Salleh) is
now doing her
bachelor’s degree
in economics at Universiti
Brunei Darussalam and
hopes to continue on into
graduate school. Fatin fills
her extra time by helping
those in poverty in her country. Along with the Student
Community Outreach Team
(SCOT), Fatin helped gather
3.8 tons of recyclable materials in Green Xchange 3.
SCOT gathered materials
from people in disadvantaged kampungs in exchange
for rice (1 kg recyclables =
1.5 kg rice). If you want to
find out more about Fatin’s
organization, go to: http://
fightpovertywithus.org/
projects. Fatin also attended
the First Southeast AsiaAmerican Alumni (SEAL)
Youth Conference along with
several other alumni.
Amin Feisal
(Mohamed Fahamin
bin Feisal) is currently studying Materials Engineering at
Loughborough University in
the United Kingdom. Though
he hadn’t completed the
bronze or silver level awards
due to his involvement with
the Brunei National Tennis
squad, last year Amin completed the Duke of Edinburgh
gold award. He cites this as
an amazing and influential
experience in his life. He
found he was already doing
many of the activities – including voluntary service – to
complete the award. He
learned a great number of
skills in camping, fitness, and
Voices of SEAYLP
first aid before travelling to
Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Amin climbed to the
summit in 4 days, caring his
15-20 kg of baggage. Afterwards, following a day of rest,
they worked on projects with
Camp Tanzania including
digging watering holes for
animals and a school and to
help plaster the walls of a
school. He also had a day
long safari.
Amar (Amar Syahirah
Hj Abd Murad) was
part of the Southeast
Asia-American
Alumni (SEAL) Youth
Conference held April
19-22, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur. Along with delegates
from 8 other countries
(several SEAYLP alumni),
they discussed regional issues, including “brain drain,”
education, economic sustainability, and the environment.
The conference was meant to
foster regional unity and networking.
Last year, Amar finished
school at Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah. She’s applied to schools
in Brunei and plans on studying chemical or petroleum
engineering so she can eventually join Brunei Shell Petroleum. In her free time, she
volunteers with the local
AIDS Council, completed a
charity walk-cycle for the
HSBC
Norazrina
(Norazrina Haji Sarbini) attended the
International Workshop Resource Alliance in Malaysia,
sponsored by the Girl Guid
Association of Brunei.
Maajida (Maajidah Mahmud)
participated in a second leadership camp in Brunei which
focused on life skills. Addi-
P age 1 1
tionally, she attended the
Borneo Global Issues Conference a
mock UN event.
She took 2nd place
in an oratory competion at her school.
Unfortunately, her
school was not able to retain
their title at the Green Debate this year, due to a
scheduling conflict with A
level exams. Maajida has
continued to demonstrate a
passion and skill for speaking and informing others,
including being part of a
young journalist camp with a
local newspaper at the end
of the year.
Lia (Nur 'Alia Abdul Bari)
(along with Maajida and Izza
[Izza Haziqah Rosli])
are both taking their
A levels this year
and then will pursue
their studies at universities. Lia is interested in studying business
administration. She also
recently had the opportunity
to attend the 4th of July (US
Independence Day) at the
U.S. Embassy in Brunei Darussalem.
Irah (Nor Shahirah Roslan) is
in sixth form and preparing to
move on to university, along with the
rest, and hopes to
study biological
science or microbiology. She hopes
to work with a hospital at the
end of this year and into
next. Along with Fadli, she
gave a talk on Civil Society to
the Youth Development Club
and Irah used some of her
SEAYLp experience from the
Theatre Arts workshop to
plan a “bonding session”
with her school’s student
council.
Fadli (Fadli Muhammad HJ
Awang Zaini) has been orga-
nizing and managing mini
fundraising events. He has
been inspired by his SEAYLP
time to do more with his
peers. He has been selected
for dialogues with His Highness Prince Azim at the
Counseling and Career Unit,
Ministry of Education
regarding counseling
matters and Deputy
Minister of Culture,
Youth and Sports
Datin Hajah Adina
binti Othman regarding youth
matters. He has also been a
requested speaker and offered to speak on various
occasions. As Peer Counselour President, Fadli has
developed special programs,
such as mentorship and infrastructure developmen. He
is also part of a creativeaction-service program, Photography Club and Youth Development Club. He was the
best speaker for the 10th
International School Brunei –
Borneo Global Issues Conference (March 2012) and a
representative at Brunei +20:
National Youth Seminar on
Sustainable Development
(May 2012). He was also the
president of Peer Group
Counselors (PRS) in Pusat
Tingkatan Enam Meragang
(PTEM).
In the future, Fadli hopes to
study in the UK or US in Law,
Philosophy, or Public Policy
and Administration.
Andy (Tan Yung Pen) and
Lina (Norazlinah Johari) also
checked in, but we will have
to wait for more news later.
Andy and Lina also checked
in, but we will have to wait for
more news later.
CAMBODIA
Sey (Pisey Sreng)is
studying Economics
at the Royal University of Law
and Economics, with a four
year scholarship, and he
hopes to have an opportunity
to study abroad and return to
work at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. In his extra time, Pisey is involved in
many clubs working on important issues, including:
Alumni Environmental Youth
Club, English Club, Youth
Forum, Climate
Change Forum, and
Asian People Forum.
Hy Dalin is now attending the National
University of Management in
Phnom Penh, studying ecobusiness. She hopes to continue on to get a Master’s or
higher in business administration and English, while
also making time to study
some in media and arts.
Since SEAYLP she has also
been an English Club facilitator at the American Corner –
Fulbright and Undergraduate
State Alumni Association of
Cambodia and a volunteer
with Drop Everything and
Read (DEAR), and with a program for public announcements. Dalin is also happy to
now be old enough to do one
of the great civic duties –
vote!
Nita (Khinchan
Thearanita) is doing pharmacy studies at the University
of Puthisastra. In
the future she hopes to work
in her own pharmacy or in a
medical company. Nita has
also been doing plenty of
service, including volunteering on Earth Day with American Corner, helping to organize the clean up and tree
planting around a temple,
doing environmental per-
P age 1 2
formance for secondary students, and, like Dalin, facilitating English Club at the
American Corner.
Watey (Ban Sophorn
Watey) is studying
international business management
at Cambodia Mekong University. Tey received
a wonderful recognition and
a full scholarship continuing
through her bachelor’s degree for her charitable work
in assisting underprivileged
learners in the province. Tey
has also graduated from high
school, run the AEYC project
with support from the U.S.
Embassy of Cambodia, joined
and won 2nd prize in a spelling bee competition, worked
with FUSAAC and with programs in Alumni Education
Innovation Fund (AEIF), running 2 charity concerts for
the fund-raising, one of the
founding members of the
FUSSAC Radio Program. Beginning in August, the FUSSAC Radio Show will be a
source of information related
to scholarship, entrepreneurship, and employment, and
will broadcast throughout
Cambodia. She, as part of
the US State Department
alumni, hopes to foster
peace and development in
Cambodia through the promotion of access to quality
education, youth capability
building, and cross-cultural
understanding. The Cambodians have received an alumni
grant and so they have conduct several large events,
including Grand Camping,
workshops, a pleasure reading corner, social entrepreneur exchange, and 2 special
events with large impacts
and recognition in Cambodia,
the No Plastic Bag Campaign
and a Majors and Careers
Fair.
Thearith (Sreang
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
Chanthearith) is doing
international studies
at the Institute of Foreign Languages, and
he plans on continuing into
his master’s degree. He has
received a few recognitions
for his work with the Fulbright
and Undergraduate State
Alumni Association of Cambodia and the work he has
done with the SEAYLP-1
group. In addition to the
“Loving Our Environment”
project, they ran a community library project in
Thearith’s village and one for
a 3-month English club. He
has also been volunteering
with the youth non-profit AIESEC and recruiting international interns to Cambodia.
He will soon be presenting a
project on the 3 Rs of environmentalism, reduce, reuse,
and recycle. He was recently
invited to join the FUSAAC
20th Anniversary at the U.S.
Embassy and meet with
many high ranking national
and international officials.
Dawson (Seyha
Soeng) reported that
the Cambodian
alumni held a camp
at Sihanouk Ville with
about three hundred participants. They passed on their
knowledge, and worked to
inspire them to study harder,
apply for scholarships, get
better jobs and pursue a better future.
Raya (Nhoung Raya),
is working on his
Masters degree in
International Business at Shenyang Aerospace
University, in Shenyang,
China. He also founded the
English Club in the American
Corner in the University of
Management and Economics, which focuses on language capability building and
awareness of Cambodian
and English cultures.
Vengkim Nguon has been
studying hard and seeking
scholarships.
Reaksmey Chann Sok also
checked in to say “hello” and
to say she is doing okay.
Parinha Seyhak recently
graduated high school and
will soon be studying architecture at the Royal University of Fine Arts.
After graduating from high
school in August,
Senghong Yourk will
study international
relations, hopefully
in the United States
or Europe, and then
plans on becoming a diplomat. He has received the
Certificate of Achievement of
English Access Microscholarship Program, funded
by the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia and the Certificate of
Award of Good Achievement
of Studying in the 20092010 Academic Year. Since
returning home, Senghong
has given lectures about his
experience in SEAYLP to students at his high school. He
has also been working with
international high school students in his job with Rustic
Pathways. He and participants in Rustic Pathways
have been working on Cambodia Orphanage Project to
help Mekong Cambodia Kids,
building libraries, teaching
English, gardening and supporting orphans.
nities to travel and learn
abroad.
Since SEAYLP-6,
Pum (Hamath Man)
has been sharing his
experience with his
friends and community and
formally writing the Action
plan with his group, which
focuses on the environmental problem and sharing
experience in the United
States to the English microscholarship students. He has
created a youth group in the
community for reducing environmental degradation in the
community and participated
in a campaign of trash collection. Pum is also active with
State Alumni in Cambodia.
He also contributed to an
event to preserve Cham heritage (Cham is a primarily
Islamic ethnic group in Cambodia). They hope to preserve all kinds of Cham
books and custom etc. Pum
will soon share his experience to the English microscholarship students and
creating a library for students
and people who want to
know and understand more
about The United States.
INDONESIA
Teyaorm Mas is also
planning to study international relations,
in the US or another
program and is planning a trash collection project
to clean public places in her
area.
Adel (Adelia Wahyu
Astuti) is now studying economics at
Gajah Mada University. She’s very excited to have gotten into the
program, competing with
some 400 other students for
entry. She is hoping to do
well in her international program so that she can get a
scholarship to study in Germany. Just before she finished school in Banjarmasin,
Adel won a short story competition.
Sokheng Nget is studying
Management at RUL and
hopes to have more opportu-
Bernard Ekki Wicaksono is
now studying communications at Universitas Atma
Voices of SEAYLP
Jaya Jogjakarta and
he hopes to be an
ambassador or
work with an international organization in the future. He won
four debate competitions and
participated in a debate competition in Malaysia.
Anisa (Anisa Wahyuni) is
studying geological engineering at Jendral Soedirman
University and is now just
spending the Ramadan holidays with her family.
Mirwan Nijan is still alive and
kicking in Indonesia.
Dinda Hanifah is finishing her last year of
high school and will
test next April. She
reports that she is a
member of a wall magazine
3D which won a competition
through the Jawa Pos, which
was also part of her and the
other SEAYLP participants
from Indonesia’s path to the
US.
Medina Andini Syahrani is a teacher at
Khadijah Senior High
School in Surabaya,
East Java. She received a Master’s degree
scholarship in Science Education from the East Java
provincial government. Since
SEAYLP she has been working to include more fun and
activity in her classroom, like
she saw while in the United
States. She is also interested in working more with
the public and students outside of her school. She has
joined with a local education
NGO and is part of a seminar
about Citinet on how cities
around Asia can work together to improve the environment. Medina and others
recently had the chance to
meet up with an NIU student
in Indonesia and she and the
P age 1 3
other alumni are working
with a local NGO to teach
English and reading at a underprivileged school.
LAOS
Toukta (Soulichan
Lamxay) is attending
the University of Tokyo on a two year
scholarship to get her master’s degree in water environmental science technology.
She also works with a volunteer group, SEED (Social Environmental Education and
Development) which holds
events in environmental education.
Thar (Saninithar
Soukhaphorn) has
been studying high
schools in Xayaboury
Province. He has been selected as a Humphrey alternative and hopes to come
back to NIU. He’s also begun
an English club.
Tuy (Pathummaly
Phommachanh) has
been applying for
college in the DeKalb
-Rockford area, but is still
looking for the right school.
She is also applying for the
Southeast Asia Youth Camp
(SYC).
While Pabu (Savina
Romyen) is still attending high school,
she’s already got
high aspirations, to
be a teacher or diplomat.
She’s already doing well in a
variety of skills. She took 1st
place in a Lao dance contest,
2nd place in the International
School Maths & Puzzle Olympiad, and 3rd place in the
Japanese Speech Contest.
Pabu is showing her kindness and growing maturity as
she works as a teacher, practices in the Vientiane Public
Speaking English, and the
Vientiane Movies Club. She’s
had a few exciting events
since SEAYLP, including a
opportunities to study science in India and participate
in a cultural exchange in Japan.
Nungning (Sunepha Detvongsa) is now attending
school in Singapore on an
ASEAN scholarship. She is
currently attending grade 8.
MALAYSIA
Joshua Lim is currently studying multimedia design at
the One Academy
and building the
Malaysia’s largest
youth platform and
youth development program
(you can check it out at
www.youthstoday.com/), focused on creative arts, entrepreneurship and technology.
He founded this company
with two of his friends and is
still building it. He is currently organizing the fourth
annual Youth Jam, a youth
festival, which is expanding
in Malaysia and hopes to be
international next year.
Joshua has also been offered
some really exciting opportunities. He got an internship
right after high school for
three months at a top media
advertising company,
SAYS.com, where he was the
youngest staff member. Additionally, he was chosen for
the National Youth Summit of
200 outstanding young people to work industry leaders
to help his country. Finally,
he also attended Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia, which
focused on creating a technology hub in Malaysia.
Kyle Chan Wei Ren
(Supershine) has
also had a fruitful
year. He completed
his national exams
(SPM) with straight
A+’s (which puts him in the
top 0.1% in the country) and
has received a scholarship
from Maybank to continue
his pre-university course in
Malaysia and then attend
university in the United Kingdom in accounting and financing. He was awarded
certificated of commendation
for his involvement and leadership in his school’s Editorial Board, sports house, Literary and Debate Society,
and Young Enterprise club.
Kyle was part of a program
called Starstruck 40, with
Malaysia’s leading newspaper, The Star, that asked 40
aspiring writers to compete
for a one year internship. He
not only learned a great deal
about writing news stories,
but also got to experience an
independent and exciting life
in Kuala Lumpur, shadowing
real journalists to big events.
He looks forward to becoming a leader in business and
finding a way to follow Gandhi’s directive, “Be the
change you want to see in
the world.”
Marina, along with
Kyle and Eleasha
helped to organize
the SEAL (Southeast
Asia-America
Alumni) Youth Conference April 19-22,
in Kuala Lumpur. There was
an average of three participants from each participating
country, or about 30 people.
Amar from Brunei came as a
participant, too. In part of
the conference, the Southeast Asian American Alumni
Partnership was established
the and Marina was elected
President for this year.
P age 1 4
Jo has done a great
job on keeping staff
updated about the
SEAYLP 5 group and
her own activities.
She was already helping conducting trainings in leadership the same month the
group returned! Jo has been
incredibly active and engaged, as the Heritage Hunt
program developer, coordinator and facilitator for Heritage
Heboh Children’s Festival in
conjunction with the UNESCO
World Heritage Celebration in
Georgetown, Penang, as part
of the organizing committee
and a presenter for a TESOL
Colloquium, as a volunteer
for the NGO Arts Education,
and as facilitator for the Love
Earth English Camp for rural
primary school children. If
you’re interested, you should
check out the article on Jo’s
camp at:
http://www.disted.edu.my/ev
ents/12/ev-news-love-earthenglish-camp--SET.htm. Jo is
also working on a project
with students using P. Ramlee’s movies and is doing
research on “Out-ofClassroom English Language
Acquisition Among International Students.“
Jason Wee has also
been part of some
very exciting activities, while he is waiting for his acceptance to the United
World College for his
International Baccalaureate.
Jason has been named as
one of the top ten debaters
in Malaysia and named to
the pre-Malaysia debate
team that will represent the
country in international debate tournaments. Jason
has already been to the
Asian Schools Debating
Championship, hosted this
year in Malaysia, where he
competed against participants from 14 other nations,
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
where his SEAYLP experience
helped him in his interactions
with diverse peoples.
At his school Jason has also
participated in two very admirable ventures. First as a the
co-director of his school’s
Cheer supporters club, he
organized and carried out the
purchase and sales of more
than a thousand t-shirts! He
was also an organizer for his
schools Christian Fellowship’s group trip to a school
for Burmese refugees. Because these refugees are not
recognized by the government, the school is supported by the UN, but lacks
various things. Jason and his
group led students in songs
and origami and they shared
a sweet snack together.
Loh Jo Yee is looking forward to trying
new things in college in the liberal
arts and social sciences, and to explore social
and media entrepreneurship,
which a major topic of interest in Malaysia right now.
She was recently interviewed
by reporters about her
school, Nexus International
School of Putrajaya. Jo was
also invited to join the Fifth
Annual Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre Theatre
for Young People (though she
had to turn it down), was part
of the Model United Nations
Conference, and went to
SEASAC Model UN in Jakarta
in February. She will be doing more Model UN when
she’s on summer holiday and
is become quite a future diplomat. I hope to see her and
many other SEAYLPers at
ASEAN and UN conferences
in 10 or 20 years, making
positive decisions and finding
common ground.
Vanessa Raj is still
rocking the squash
courts, winning lots of
tournaments. She
was recently awarded
top athlete at her school.
She is also doing well in her
studies. So well rounded!
Syazana is hoping to take up
International Baccalaureate
(IB) studies after her exams.
When she reaches
university – perhaps
in the U.S., Russia, or
the U.K. – she plans
on studying medicine
so that she can become a
gynecologist. Syazana is also
involved with Youth Jam and
SGGS International Student
Conference, where she did a
cultural performance. She
was also recently involved in
her states Leadership Camp.
She has also applied for the
KIZUNA exchange program in
Japan, and we all certainly
wish her and other applying
for new programs much luck!
MYANMAR
Jack will be studying this fall
in Pennsylvania, where he
has received a Presidential
Scholarship. Jack has high –
but certainly reachable –
aspirations to finish his M.A.
and Ph.D. and return to
Myanmar for a political career, even running for president someday. Since
SEAYLP, Jack has worked as
editor-in-chief of a journal, as
an assistant lecturer and
head of the ESL program at a
local university, as a volunteer at a library, and cofounder of a debate club.
Jack also had the opportunity, as the founder of the
club for youth leadership, to
do something that makes me
very envious; he met U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her historic trip to
Myanmar. Jack also recently
met with John Brandon of the
Asia Foundation, who he
originally met through
SEAYLP, on Brandon’s visit to
Myanmar. Brandon has offered support to each
SEAYLP and the Asia Foundation has been able to assist
with funding and materials
for some participant projects.
Rebecca received a $13,000
scholarship to attend the
New York for business management, which she will begin this fall. She expects to
manage the workers in her
parents factory upon her return to Myanmar. Recently
she served for six months in
the Baldwin Library at the
American Center in Yangon.
She is very excited to be beginning school in New York,
even if it is a little difficult to
imagine Rebecca excited. J
Emerald received a trophy for
getting five distinctions out of
six on her matriculation exams, which will look very nice
next to her three sports medals for inter-school basketball tournaments. She is now
taking a year leave from her
university studies in medicine. Emerald will be applying for universities in November and December and looks
forward to attending school
in the U.S.
Emerald has been teaching
students at the deaf school
and sharing her experience
and leadership skills with
young people and adults in
her community. She has
also formed a club for discussions on leadership, the environment, student life, and
other topics. They use
games and brainstorming to
encourage communication
and a positive environment.
She has also participated in
a club which gives youth a
place to share their views on
specific topics.
Voices of SEAYLP
Nang has been working as a
teacher trainer in two NGOs
affiliated with an international center. One program
focuses on teachers from
formal and non-formal education sectors while the participants in the other program are future young female leaders in their respective communities, where she
applies her SEAYLP knowledge in leadership. In near
future, Nang will implement
an educational program
aimed at the poor, with a
group of mostly women who
are female leaders in different remote areas throughout
the country. In her work,
Nang has seen more and
more equality and inequality
in grassroots level, so her
next step is to take corporate
social responsibility (CSR)
while continuing to empower
young women and youth and
continue conducting teacher
training, especially for nonformal education sectors.
She is interested in more
funded programs (like
SEAYLP) related to education, empowerment, or CSR
training.
Brenda is doing foundation
studies in Australia, and
plans to become an architectural engineer. She is also
planning a fundraising fair,
but expects that it will not
occur until next year.
Last year, Zachary received
excellent marks when he
finished his high school studies and will soon leave his
pre-collegiate program at the
in Yangon for college in the
United Kingdom. He will attend on a full scholarship,
starting in August, to do the
International Baccalaureate
program. After two years, he
plans on continuing his studies at another college in the
U.S. or the U.K.
P age 1 5
Zachary has also been keeping busy outside of school.
He has enjoyed service as a
teacher at a monastic school
in Yangon each week. Following SEAYLP, he went to an
international summer camp
in Japan, where he met people from India, Nepal, Japan,
the United States, the United
Kingdom, and other countries. He also trekked
through the Shan State last
month, where he was challenged mentally and physically by the terrain but grew
as a person, in his friendships, and in knowledge of
rural Myanmar.
Like many SEAYLP groups,
Tom and his group have
found it difficult to keep up
with service work and the
stress of schools and exams.
But the group has done two
self-funded projects. Their
group has 33 members, who
spent a day at an orphanage,
playing fun and educational
games to improve the learning environment for students.
Lin has been very busy with
his work and his own voluntary projects since the
SEAYLP-6 group returned.
With some 30 other volunteers, Lin works with underprivileged and monastic
schools, teaching about hygiene and dental care.
May Pwint has been selected
for a study trip to Singapore,
Malaysia and Thailand,
where she will be with people
from Thailand, Taiwan, and
others from Myanmar. They
will be studying management
and non-governmental organizations. She is looking
forward from her precollegiate program to studying environmental science at
a university. May Pwint will
also participate in a program
for young leaders, sponsored
by a U.S. university.
Evelyn like so many others is
mostly concerned with her
exams just now, with the goal
of going to MIT to study architecture. She is also interested in doing social work,
such as educating the poor
and preventing human trafficking and child labor. Evelyn has joined the various
international and domestic
youth and service organizations.
Calvin received an award
from his school for his participation in SEAYLP and his
group has applied for funding
for their project. While attending the high school, Calvin has joined the environmental club. He is also
teaching students at the
monastery, helping elders in
his community, and picking
up rubbish.
Melvyn plans to attend university in business and management, along with musicology. He is studying for exams
and competing in basketball
tournaments.
PHILIPPINES
Borj Coscolluella
was a proud member of Bahay PagAsa (literally translated as 'House of
Hope') back in high school,
where we donated to, interacted with, and visited a
house/community for youth
who had been into trouble
with the law. They help them
get back on track and we
offer them a clean slate. He
has continued to find service
opportunities at college, such
as relief drives for victims of
natural calamities. He was
part of my city's Boys and
Girls Week during his 3rd and
4th year in high school,
where he was 'elected' as a
city councilor for a week. He
attended meetings with a
real councilor counterpart,
together with his co-studentcouncilors, did their part by
coming up with various ordinances.
Borj is now studying manufacturing engineering and
management with specialization in mechatronics and
robotics at De La Salle University – Manilla. During his
last year in high school, he
was the Student Council Executive Treasurer, was a St.
Br. Benilde Awardee, the 2nd
highest honor awarded to a
student in his school, and
graduated with honors. Now
in college, he is part of student government, in fact he
never misses a chance to be
part of the school's government. He is also part of a
socio-political party at De La
Salle University, and they
always make it a point that
there is so much more to
politics than just, well... politics. They have activities and
programs specifically for the
underprivileged in the community and Borj been increasingly driven to become
an active and productive
member of the community.
Alexandra Soledad is now
doing a bachelor’s of arts is
political science at the University of St. La Salle. She is
attending with an Academic
Special Grant Scholar of the
University with 100% of tuition and fees covered. Alex
has been able to
create sustainable
clubs and was
asked to share
about her SEAYLP
experience at the Youth Congress in the Provicial Capitol.
Alex was a Lasallian Ambassador during her first year,
then ran in the senatorial
election at university, won
first place (no surprise). She
took a 2-year as term of office, and now has been nomi-
P age 1 6
nated as Senate President
Pro Tempore. She is also a
member of Sangguniang Kabataan federation of Bacolod
City and works as a tutor, of
grade 3 to 5 students. She
attended the Philippine
Women's Judges Association
Workshop-Seminar to disseminate the Anti-Sextortion
Toolkit in coordination with
the International Association
of Women Judges with the
support of the MDG3 Fund of
Netherlands which was conducted in Negros Occidental
last February. She is one of
the ten students who were
invited to attend and was
given a toolkit, which she
also shared with my fellow
Political Science Students
and our barangay.
Alex is a Dean's Listee at the
university, which helps her to
show appreciation for her
parents care and hardships
to educate her. For her 18th
birthday, she went to Hong
Kong and Macau to learn
more about Asian culture and
bureaucracy. In October, her
International Relations class
is planning to visit Thailand
to experience Thai culture,
understand more about the
relationship between the
Philippines and Thailand, and
discover how bureaucracy
works in their governmental
institutions.
Edcel Paul Tejare
(Brix) is now studying electronics and
communications
engineering at the
University of Saint La Salle.
While looking for high
achievement in academic
pursuits, he also wants to
make a difference through
student government, where
he is the Secretary for Department of Advocacy Programs (after two years of
being the year batch representative), and more student
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
exchanges. He has been a
university academic scholar
since 2010 and a consistent
Dean's Lister.
Last April of 2012, Brix became a delegate of the Philippines to the Japan-East
Asia Network of Exchange for
Students and Youths
(JENESYS) Programme in
Japan for 2 weeks. Brix and
others became Young Goodwill Ambassadors of the Philippines to the Tohoku Region
in Japan where the greatest
destruction due to the tsunami was found and helped
to clean the area and learned
about environmental facilities and techniques in Japan.
Since SEAYLP, Brix has engaged in more youth oriented
activities, volunteerism, and
student leadership and encouraged others to partake in
exchange and leadership
programs. He find his service
to be very meaningful.
Bea Charlyn M.
Laino was appointed as Secretary for sports affairs a year ago and
was elected as Governor for
the College of Business and
Accountancy. In August, she
will participate in the Aboitiz
Future Leaders Business
Summit in Cebu, Philippines,
a convention of the top 90
students in the Philippines.
Along with Alex, she is also
part of a socio-political organization called KAUSAP at
the University of St. La Salle.
Rai-Rai (Ryan Jay
Yong Riconalla) was
awarded one of the
Ten Outstanding
Students of the
Philippines three
years ago and has
been very active in that program since. Addionally, he
has participated in student
government and has a lead-
ership role in student affairs.
As an active student leader,
he was able to represent his
country at a youth exchange
program in Korea. He has
also travelled to Bangkok,
Thailand for a 5-week International Practicum on Teaching. After returning home,
the Rai-Rai and the
SEAYLPers did some special
activities and training, and
have continued to do so individually, but things have
slowed on that front as they
have adjusted to the change
in workload at school.
Raffy (Iphraim
Cabristante)is attending Silliman
University for his
Bachelor’s of Mass
Communication,
Broadcasting. He Recently
attended the Japan-East Asia
Network or Exchange for Students and Youths and travelled to various parts of Japan, especially the Iwate and
Miyagi prefectures, which
were heavily effected by the
earthquake and tsunami. He
received the Freshman and
Sophomore of the Year
Awards for his good marks at
his university and college
honors earlier this year. He
plans to work as a broadcast
journalist for the next few
years, before pursue his master's degree on a Fulbright
scholarship.
You can tune into Raffy live
broadcast on Killer Bee
Dumaguete 95.1 (weblink:
www.ustream.tv/channel/
killerbee951) each Saturday
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Manila
time) for requests or Sunday
nights 6-8 o.m. (Manila time)
playing local music. It is a
Top 40 format station with
most of the narration in English, so we can all listen.
Abigail Cabonita is
also attending Silliman University, but
she is taking courses
for a Bachelor’s of Science in
Medical Technology. She
has received a scholarship
each year and is a year level
officer at her university. She
is active in the colleges activities, despite her busy
schedule. Additionally she
has been part of the schools
award winning choir.
Florante R. Riego has
participated in training on the implementation of Grade 7 curriculum
in the Philippines, the Brigada Eskwela, National
School Maintenance Week,
and the observance of the
113th Day of Independence
Celebration. With support
from the State Alumni organization, Flor is exploring his
resources to implement both
the SEAYLP-6 Action Plan
and other planned programs.
At his university Mar
Louie M. Mayubay
qualifies as an academic scholar and is
consistently on the
dean’s list at Mariano Marcos State University where he
studies accountancy. Louie
is looking for scholarships
abroad so he can further
share Filipino culture and
bring out the best in himself
in academics, sports, culture,
and leadership. Louie and
his associates have conducted computer literacy in
one of the areas near his
own and they reevaluated
the needs of the children and
are considering new efforts
to expand their mission to
other learning.
SINGAPORE
Gabriel Goh Minh Yang
graduated from Commonwealth Secondary School
Voices of SEAYLP
with 7 distinctions in
the GCE 'O' Levels,
and now attends the
Anglo-Chinese Junior
College. There he
was elected as the captain of
the school's Air Rifle Shooting
team and flew the college
colors for their team at several invitational shoots and
organized camps and
courses in basic weapon handling. After completing his
course this year, he will serving his time in National Service (NS) for 2 years and he
aspire to be an officer. While
in the army, he will be looking for scholarship opportunities to double major in sociology and economics in the UK
or the US or enter the education sector. As a backup plan,
Gabriel would establish study
cafes for students to have a
fitting environment in which
to prepare for their examinations.
Gabriel also served as a subject representative for chemistry, served the college and
his community by volunteering in peer tutoring programs
and summer camps, and was
an orientation group leader
for freshmen at his college.
In July 2012, he was involved
in a dialogue session with the
Minister of Transport Mr Lui
Tuck Yew about Singapore's
public transport network.
Vivian (Chan Ker Ling
Vivian) is a member
of an executivecommittee member
in the school choir
and helped as an orientation
group leader, like Gabriel.
Encouraged by an ”attitude
of grattitude” to the school,
she served the school as a in
the choir and elsewhere.
She also participated in an
overseas community involvement program in Koh Rohkar,
Cambodia. Together with
approximately 16 others,
P age 1 7
Vivian spent 8 days in a
Christian village helping villagers, teaching children and
teenagers English. They
helped to refurbish a rundown compound so that it
can serve as a new school
building, interacted with the
locals, and experienced the
life of a villager, gaining insights and experiences.
Vivian and Kah
Leong (Soon Kah
Leong)were secretary
and member, respectively, of the college
choir, which
achieved the 'Gold with Honours' in the biennial Singapore Youth Festival Central
Judging platform, the highest
possible accolade. Last December, they sacrificed their
time and energy to spread
the Christmas mood with
caroling, Vivian as a soloist.
Recently, the college choir
represented Singapore in
Krakov, Poland in the international choristers festival,
"Cracovia Cantans" and was
the only team in the festival
who edged out their competitors and won in every category that they participated in.
They were given the honor of
concluding the music festival
with their performance.
Kah Leong hopes to pursue a
degree in veterinary science
at university and is currently
planning a second service
trip to Cambodia, after attending the program in 2011.
According to
Gabriel, Amirah
(Noor Amirah Binte
Rohaizad) represented the college's
hockey team in the
annual National
Inter-School games in which
our college emerged runner's
up to ten-year champions
Victoria Junior College. As
she's only recently picked up
hockey, this is undoubtedly
an achievement.
Dee (Diamanta
Vania Lavi) is taking A Levels at the
end of this year
and entering university next August
(and she’s eager as
certainly everyone is, to be
done). Dee has been doing
work on various Model
United Nations! Starting last
year, she went to Beijing, for
the largest Model UN in Asia
(WEMUN), in Singapore for
THIMUN in December 2011,
with The Hague Foundation,
and was a delegate in General Assembly 5. Earlier this
year, she was promoted from
a delegate to the chairman of
the Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC) at a local
Model UN. Dee is planning
her post-graduation trip; she
hopes to go to India for a
while and do volunteer work.
Mark (Mark Wen Hao Chia),
Gabriel (Gabriel Duen Yue
Chan), Wanying (Sng Wan
Ying), Kirthana (Kirthana Ganeson), and Gene (Gene Png)
held a small, private donation drive. Their friends donated their old clothes,
books and other unwanted
things and they donated
these items to the Salvation
Army.
Gene started a small
-scaled project
called Project Picture Perfect. She
asked her friends to submit a
picture of themselves holding
up a sign with a word describing themselves and then
posted these pictures on her
blog. She hopes that these
will to remind others of who
they are and the importance
of inner beauty. She also sold
Project Picture Perfect bracelets for more than $3 and
donated the proceeds to Op-
eration Smile, an organization that funds operations to
correct cleft lip. She plans
on beginning another campaign in her school with
Kirthana, but they have not
yet decided on the cause.
Gene is studying business
innovation and design at
Singapore Polytechnic. She
hopes to attend a local or
overseas university to further
her studies and eventually
start her own business in the
future. For now, she has
started a small business selling homemade friendship
bracelets. This has been an
exciting opportunity to be a
creative entrepreneur and
get first-hand experience in
business ownership. Another
major highlight for Gene has
been meeting All Time Low,
her favorite band in October
2011.
Kirthana is also at
Singapore Polytechnic, but she is study
creative writing for
TV and news media.
She has had an opportunity
in her studies to share her
SEAYLP experience. Following graduation, she plans on
becoming a print or broadcast journalist. She reports
that every piece of work she
does at her university is extremely meaningful. She
says, “I'm doing what I love
and learning more about the
world. I feel like my life is just
amazing right now.”
Wan Ying is studying
science topics at
Saint Andrew’s Junior College, and
hopes to study engineering in the future. She received an award
for getting 7 distinctions and
an Edusave scholarship.
Daniel (Danielle Gek-Theng
Sim) looks forward to study-
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
P age 1 8
ing arts and humanities at Junior College.
She provided information about the fun
that the group is having on their Action Plan (see
other article).
Choon Keong (CK)
reported that the
SEAYLP-5 group had
been making great
progress on their
action plan, including getting $5000 (USD) from
the U.S. Embassy in Singapore. Ter Shein reports that
he is still the teacher-incharge of his school’s student council and was recently involved in organizing
the Student Council Investiture. What CK failed to mention, but I have heard
“through the grapevine” and
on facebook, is that CK and
his wife got a special delivery
from the stork – a bouncing
baby girl! – earlier this year.
Congratulations, CK!
Ter Shien (Ter Shien
Ang) has been focusing on his school
projects, even deactivated his facebook! However, he hasn’t
neglected his time with
SEAYLP and helped to plan a
trip to a zoo for a group of
orphans. This project was
well received by the school
and enjoyed by the children.
He recently relinquished his
post as president of the
school's theatre club to allow
our juniors to step up.
Ters Shein also report that:
Joshua (Joshua Jin Siong
Chin) recently badly injured
his ankle while playing soccer. Yijin (Yi-Jin Shin) has
officially stepped down as
the Treasurer of our school's
student council as it is the
time for leadership renewal.
Charmaine (Charmaine Wan
Wen Ng), despite having
given up her post
as the school's vicecaptain of basketball, has shown a
commitment by
remaining actively engaged
in basketball practices and
giving her unwavering support for the team.
THAILAND
Enfant (Napassawan Neampradit) is now studying medicine for her second
year at Huazhong
University of Science and Technology in Wunhan City,
Hubei, China.
Rin (Chitiwat Intarapreecha) recently
graduated from secondary school and is
now studying law at Mae Fah
Luang University, School of
Law.
May (Sriwikan
Tancheng) is studying
international affairs
at Khon Kean International college.
Rutchadee Lachi is
looking forward to
attending school in
Malaysia, studying a
humanities field.
Far (Mueanfar Chalermchit-uthai) received a scholarship
from AFS (July 2011June 2012).
Dream (Sirinmas Wattanasuntikul) is studying Chinese language
at Prince of
Songkhlah University.
She’s in her first year
now, but will get to live in
China for her third and fourth
years.
Pon (Patcharapon
Podamrongchai) was
offered the directorship for Ship for
Southeast Asia
Youth Program (an annual
diplomatic and cultural exchange program sponsored
by the Cabinet Office of Japan in cooperation with the
member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations), and will conduct
the pre-departure training for
participants. Pon is also staff
for the Children’s International Summer Villages.
Park (Narakorn
Mankeow) is currently on scholarship
from the Ministry of
Science Technology
and Environment for his high
school studies. He is closely
focusing on his studies so he
can do well on his entrance
exams and achieve his goal
of become a doctor.
Tin (Paweera Boonton) recently placed
second in a play competition. She is working to find innovative teaching methods to use when she
and the others conduct their
action plan at a primary
school in Chiang Mai.
VIETNAM
Hana (Tran Thi Ngoc
Han) just returned to
the US from Hong
Kong. She studied at
the Asia Institute of
Political Economy (AIPE) under a grant program organized by Hong Kong University,
Georgetown and the Fund for
American Studies. She and
others studied intensive
courses on politics and economics, especially in Asia.
The program is very diverse,
with the best students from
all over Asia, each with their
own projects related to com-
munity services or political
activities, providing opportunities for students to learn
from each other, too. Also,
this summer Hana did an
internship as personal assistant for the chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce
and Industry. Finally, she is
applying for an alumni grant
for US embassy Hanoi to run
a project on social entrepreneurship in Vietnam.
Karen (Huong Huang)
reports that she is
now at Messiah College in Pennsylvania,
studying international
business. Karen received
the trustees scholarship.
She has volunteered and
found meaning with the Future Smile project and the
Creative Kid project.
Piggy (Vu Thi Ngoc Bich) is
now attending North Karelia
University of Applied Sciences in Finland for international business.
Tracy (Ngo Quynh
Trang) applied for
several US colleges
and was accepted
by 5 universities.
She is studying business
management at Kutztown
University in Pennsylvania,
where she has a full scholarship. She was granted first
prize, Vinaconex corporation’s Green Star competition, was given a scholarship
to attend English courses by
the British Council, received
third prize in her district’s
English competition, and
received the title of
“excellent student”.
Diemmy (Diem
Truong) has been
working with her
group on the action
and covered the MTV EXIT on
reducing human trafficking
for Radio Australia. She had
Voices of SEAYLP
the opportunity to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
on her visit to Vietnam. She
has engaged with the American Studies forum and various other organizations.
Harry (Linh Duc Phan)
is studying Economics
at the Free Trade University of Vietnam. He
plans to be a good and active
student, and to go on to be a
successful CEO at a technology company.
Annie (Vu Kim Hanh)
will soon attend the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Since SEAYLP, she has received the ETS – IIG Scholarship which included a full
scholarship for TOEFL IBT
course at the IIG Training
Center). She was the first
runner-up in “Be Challenged
With British University Vietnam,” an English-language
debate competition. She
won the award for best art
direction in the 5th Annual
Vietnamese Student Filmmaking Award in a competition funded by the Embassy
of Japan. She was first place
winner in the Hanoi Student
Film-making contest in 2010
and second place in the Vietnam ASEAN competition
2011 a national competition
that is organized by VTV, the
national television broadcaster for Vietnam.
Kevin (Do Duy Hung)
became the Vice
President of his
schools English Club
and had opportunities to share his SEAYLP experiences since returning
home. He is applying for
scholarship to study abroad
at his dream school – Stanford University – in marketing/management affairs or
international relations. He
has been volunteering with
P age 1 9
various projects including
Earth Day 2012 and the
Creative Kid Project. On July
11, Kevin met Secretary of
State Hilary Clinton at a conference organized by the US
Embassy. He reports that he
sat only 3 feet from friendly,
inspiring, and powerful
stateswoman, as she reminded guests that, "Talent
is worldwide, but opportunity
is not". Edward hopes that all
of our alumni will keep this in
mind and always make
strong endeavors.
Trang (Pham Thi
Thu Trang) has recently been participating in US Department of State webinar for
teacher of English. There
teachers from all over the
world can share experiences.
She really enjoys teaching
and working with students.
Trang has also joined a lake
monitoring project, sponsored by the Center for Environmental and Community
Research, as a volunteer
recruitment officer and took
part in their international
conference in Hanoi as a
translator. Along with other
SEAYLP participants she
helped to clean the lakes on
Earth Day with volunteers
and residents. She was able
to meet Clinton during her
visit to celebrate the 20th
Anniversary of the Fulbright
scholarship in Vietnam and
meeting with State Alumni.
She will be the group leader
for all Grade 10 teachers at
her school this year. While
she knows that the job will
include plenty of new responsibility and stress, she is excited about the opportunity.
Candy (Anh Thi Hoang Pham)
and Bella (Lam Yen Nhi) both
checked in, but did not report
anything.
FOR
THE
GREATER GOOD
The following are requests for help and advice from your fellow
SEAYLP participants. What can you offer them from your experience?
YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT:
Joshua Lim: I’m part of Youth
Jam, Malaysia Largest Youth
Festival. It's a six month program that develops youth
skills and showcases their
talents and ideas. We are
looking for opportunities to
bring this to international arenas. So contact me
(joshua@youthstoday.com) if
anyone is interested in it.
Brenda: I am worried about
the security at the fun fair,
since it will be held mostly by
us youths. How can we do
successful fundraising fairs?
Abigail Cabonita: My academic
group in our course are currently doing a research entitled "Biochemical Assay of
Janitor Fish Oil and its Bactericidal Effect on Selected Gram
Negative Bacteria Cultured In
Vitro." We would need a relatively large amount to pursue.
I would be very happy if you
know any organizations that
could sponsor our study and
introduce us to them. This
could greatly help us.
Alexandra Soledad: Since we
have tapped six schools, I am
in charge with one of those, La
Castellana National High
School. They want to conduct
a leadership training and
seminar regarding their campaign against the increasing
number of minors smoking
around their school, who also
cut their classes. If possible,
I'd just like to ask for your help
if you can suggest some videos regarding the negative
effects of smoking or modules
about how we can conduct it.
Rai-Rai: Our proposed schoolto-school leadership and confidence building is on the waiting list and we need support in
terms of inputs and social
media brigade.
Scott Abel: In 2013, I plan to
return to Southeast Asia for
language and potentially research purposes. I may need
a translator for Chinese, of
any dialect and maybe Malay. The person will need to
know traditional characters
of both languages.
ANY IDEAS?
I love the enthusiasm girls!
Gene: Kirthana and I
might be starting a campaign in school but we have
not thought of a cause that
we want to help out with or
an idea yet. However, we do
intend to start on it soon. :)
Jo Yee: It would be great if
SEAYLP would help give
ideas on more projects that
us SEAYLP participants can
carry out individually, as I
would love to do more projects. It's hard to get connected to some participants
from other states as transportation remains a big issue. I would love to take on
an individual project that will
help my community.
MATERIALS AND BOOKS
Some groups have done a great job
seeking out funding and
materials from the
embassies, State
Alumni, Asia Foundation and others. Suggestions?
Mar Louie M. Mayubay: I'm
planning to create a mini
library in our area, because
we are very far from the city
and don’t have easy access
to internet unless you’re in
the city or in the school.
That’s why I would like to ask
for books, kindles, computers, or a laptop and any
other referenced that could
help the children and the
P age 2 0
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
youth in our community.
Brix Tejare: One basic help
that I believe is needed, not
just for our group but others
as well, is financial support
for programs and projects.
Also, books and reading materials can be a very great
help in building small libraries for far flung public
schools, since we are planning to introduce a
SEAYLP Reading Corner
to public schools
which will contain reading
materials and
articles about
USA. And also
we are planning a program of reading stories
to cancer patients here
in a public hospital in Bacolod. Thank you very much.
Sokheng: My group wants to
make workshop about how to
keep the environment clean
in the polluted area of the
country, but we are afraid we
don't have enough resources
to do it. Money is a particular
problem in processing the
project.
Thar: There is a project that
Lao SEAYLPER needs to do.
However, we lack financial
support. We expect to donate
some used study materials
and also doing some activities at an Orphanage School
in Luang Prabang Province.
GUIDANCE AND ADVICE
Our older alumni especially have navigated
these waters before.
Can you offer any
advice or resources?
Jo: I am trying to develop a
transnational education experience program for underprivileged kids in SEA. English and cultural experience
will be the main focus.
Hy Dalin: I don't have any
project that run independently by SEAYLP Cambodia
team, but so far, I hope you
can be our consultant for our
next activities. Thanks.
Pham Thi Thu Trang: Our Project Water Wise and 6 miniprojects are trying our best to
get financial support from
various sources. We also
asked the American Center in
Hanoi to help us organize
some training sessions on
fund-raising and teamwork
for Water Wise volunteers
and participants. You
can help us with
some information or
experience from other
voluntary groups
concerning same
issues. Your experience would definitely help
us a lot.
Medina Andini Syahrani: Our
project now is not only raising
books but also prepare the
bookshelf and desk for students to read.
Sreang Chanthearith: Absolutely, I need your support to
run a project which will be
implemented in our city. I
want to run a project which
cares for the environment,
especially which it helps to
motivate people to re-think
recycling. It's a 2-month project. Actually, we have been
troubled with the budget to
run this project. I hope you
will give us a hand to make it
happen.
Khinchan Thearanita: We are
thinking of running a project
about the environment focus
on the item that can Reduce,
Reuse, and Recycle. Our target is in Phnom Penh.
Senghong: I will conduct my
first workshop in August, It
will focus on sharing my experience in US, the values of
SEAYLP, and environment
awareness for youth. I will
keep in touch with SEAYLP
Alumni and let you know if we
have any challenges.
Hamath Man: I have two pro-
jects. First is, sharing experience to the English microscholarship students, supported by US embassy, Cambodia. Second is, doing a
library for students and people who want to know and
understand about The United
States. So i need help from
you like giving advices to
conduct workshops and supporting some books for the
library.
Melvyn: Our group might
need help with our action
plans. We just need some
advice on how to carry them
out.
NETWORKING
You are great lifelong friends and resources for each other. Remember
that!
Fadli: As long there's communication between all the
other members, it'll be great
to have each others moral
support, information sharing
and recognition.
Toukta: I would like to keep
clean water festival continue
next year and support environmental education for
community and if possible I
would like to hold exchange
program from our SEAYLPer
in some county for meet up
again and share our projects
we have done on our own. It
will be useful for us.
Bernard Ekki: I want to see
the alumni united. We really
need that so that we can
follow up on our action plans
together and reunite as
members of SEAYLP.
I will try to offer some advice and
support where I can via the SEAYLP
Connections page, but I hope that the
you can also share information between
years and countries. After all, the first
group in Cambodia, now really knows
how to get things done in Cambodia, I
more of an expert on getting it done at
NIU. - Rai
SEAYLP ON
THE MOVE
The alumni are traveling and would
like to meet others on their way.
Go ahead, make contact and share
an adventure!
GRAND TOUR (9 OR MORE)
Alex
Ekki
Kevin
BRUNEI
Jo Yee
Dee
Sokheng Syazana
CAMBODIA
Sey
Josh Lim
Diemmy Tin
Kirthana Calvin
INDONESIA
Evelyn
Kah Leong
Sokheng
Tin
Calvin
LAOS
Kirthana
Jo Yee
Trang
Syzana
MALAYSIA
Sey
Kirthana
Tin
Evelyn
Trang
Fadli
Pon
Irah
Lia
Scott
MYANMAR
Tin
Pon
PHILIPPINES
Evelyn
Calvin
SINGAPORE
Adel
Sokheng Trang
Fadli
JoYee
Irah
Syzana
Lia
Sey
Joshua
Scott
Lim
THAILAND
Sokheng May
Pwint
Calvin
Adel
Evelyn
Louie
VIETNAM
May
Pwint
Adel
Thearith
Jason
Wee
Syazana Joshua
Lim
Sey
UNITED STATES
Kirthana
Sokheng
Syazana
Sey
Joshua
Lim
Tin
Evelyn
Kah
Leong
May
Pwint
Gene
Watey
Senghong
Dinda
Adel
Medina
Borj
Flor
Pabu
Voices of SEAYLP
P age 2 1
ALUMNI LIST
BRUNEI
Aez
Amin
Belle
Daus
Fatin
Khoja
Hazimin
Wana
Amar
Andy
Hazmi
Lina
Majidah
Rina
Willy
Aiman
Dina
Fadli
Ian
Irah
Izza
Lia
CAMBODIA
Dalin
Gnean
Kosal
Nita
Sey
Thearith
Watey
LAOS
Anita
Jimmy
Toukta
Nung-Ning
Ya
Phie
Onn
Thar
Pabu
Tuy
MALAYSIA
Marie
Muaz
Mun'im
Rahman
Ash
Eleasha
Josh
Kyle
Marina
Teri
Jason
Jennifer
Jo
Jo Yee
Syazana
Vanessa
MYANMAR
Rebecca
Emerald
Dawson
Harry
Manica
Jack
Parinha
Khin
Raya
Luther
Reaksmey
Peter
Vengkim
Barani
Inasy
Brenda
Kimloung
Nang
Noch
Steven
Pum
Tom
Sokheng
Zachary
Senghong
Evelyn
INDONESIA
May Pwint
Adel
Melvyn
Agung
Lin
Annisa
Patrick
Dessy
Zaw Lin
E (Intan)
Ekki
Gerry
Lucky
Masliani
Ratna
Sam
Adi
Citra
Dhita
Fajar
Mirwan
Paul
Rina
Tikah
Arya
Bagas
Dinda
Medina
Valerie
Vito
PHILIPPINES
Alex
Bea
Bien
Borj
Brix
Floyd
Nobelle
Abby
Jason
Kate
Niko
Raffy
Rai-Rai
Flor
Hazel
Lek
Louie
Pauline
Yocha
SINGAPORE
Amirah
Dee
Gabriel
Kah Leong
Qiu Ying
Vivian
Yui Yin
Arasu
Gabriel
Gene
Kirthana
Mark
Wan Ying
Charmaine
CK
Danielle
Joshua
Yi-Jin
Ter Shien
THAILAND
Bee
Enfant
Hanna
Light
May
Rutchadee
Rin
Dream
Far
Fatin
Panya
Ploy
Praew
Film
Najgy
Park
Pon
Tin
Tony
VIETNAM
Duong
Hana
Huong
Piggie
Quỳnh
T
Annie
Candy
Diemmy
Harry
Edward
Tracy
Bella
Kevin
Nam
Peace
Taylor
Trang
US STAFF
Aaron
Emily
Jordan
Scott
Sean
Shahin
Shawn
Shay
Steve
SHOUT IT OUT SEAYLP!
Hi SEAYLP Alumni,
- Toukta
My name is Jen Bookbinder and
I work in the Youth Programs
Division at the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs in the
Department of State. My office
oversees Youth Leadership Programs worldwide and I have had
the pleasure of working on
SEAYLP since last summer.
Though I’ve only had a chance to
meet two groups (SEAYLP Batch
5 and 6) in person, I feel like I
know you all a little through the
highlights and reports I’ve read
in the newsletters. I’m very impressed with how much you all
have done since returning home
from the program- you’ve definitely put your leadership skills
to use!
Each of us are living on our
own lives now. Some of us
are pursuing our degrees in
college and some are drafting on their dreams also but
wherever you are, whatever
you do, always remember the
lessons you learned in
SEAYLP. No race nor nationality owns the opportunity to
be a good leader, but it's you
being human and it's you
having big dreams and working on it that makes the
world a better place. Take
care everyone. - Alex
As you may have heard, there’s
a SEAYLP reunion coming up.
The U.S. – ASEAN Young Leaders Summit will bring together
SEAYLP alumni from all 10 countries for 4 days of skill building
workshops, community service,
and sessions that you all will
have a chance to lead. The U.S.
Embassy in your home country
will be contacting you soon
about the Summit, and an invitation to a new Summit Facebook
group will follow. I hope to see
you there.
Regards, Jen
Miss you guys - Thar
10 countries, 25 amazing
days, our amiable manager
and staffs, our dedicated
host families, all just have
been the greatest we can
ever dream of. - Kevin (Do
Duy Hung)
Be safe and smile =) - LOUIE
Dear all SEAYLPers, This is
massage from Soulichan
(Toukta) from Laos, please
keep in touch and I hope we
can meet up some where
again to exchange the project
we have done in our countries. I also still miss my host
family but we are still keep in
touch. Take care and keep
going to achieve your dream.
For SEAYLP friends all
around ASEAN and U.S.A., I
had a great time in the states
and I'll like to host you if you
have a chance to visit Thailand. - Pon
Hey People. All love goes out
to my perky buddies all over
ASEAN, SEAYLP staff. And of
course, the Haji-Sheikh family :D Spread the lovin. Keep
in touch! - Fadli Zaini
Hi Everyone, the experience
in SEAYLP are so amazing
that brought me up to another level of life! I hope that
all of you are rocking your
country too! - Joshua Lim
Hi, Denius family :) I hope
you still remember me. I
hope to see you all again and
do enjoyable things together
like playing Yahtzee. - Abby
Hi, I really miss you everyone
there:) how I hope I could
turn back the time and revisit everyone there again:)
To the High family, thank you
for hosting me during the trip
I really appreciate it:) I still
have the CD you gave me as
a Christmas gift hahahahah:)
thanks for such awesome
memories - Kah leong
My host family, Mr. and Mrs.
Richter: I still think of both of
you very often and I really
wanna thank you for the wonderful memories. I will write
to you soon :) -Dee PS: I
love all the SEAYLP staff too!
I hope everyone is doing
well :) :) - Dee
How time flies! Miss everyone like crazy and I'm sure
we'll all meet again - somehow, somewhere. - Jo
I am missing everything
about SEAYLP and everyone
involved in SEAYLP terribly
esp my host family! Hope to
have a chance to meet again!
- Lia
I appreciate every moment I
had in your home, Ruth
Wood, with your caring for
me as one of your daughters.
See you again soon,
SEAYLPers 2011 and Rai and
everyone in SEAYLP staff. Trang
I appreciate every moment of
SEAYLP and love my host dad
and mom so much. I hope to
see them again soon. Diemmy
I had a very great time in my
life by participating in
SEAYLP. I miss all of you. I
am trying so hard to meet
with you all again - May Pwint
I just want to say Hello and I
miss everyone from our
SEAYLP-2. Its been 3 years
but still seems like yesterday
when i think about you guys.
:) - Emerald
I just want to thank everyone:
staff, SEAYLPers and of
course, my host family(the
Potts) for all they've done.
You've made my experience
a very fruitful one and I'll
never forget all of you! :) Danielle Sim
I learned a lot from this program. About leadership and
friendship among the
SEAYLPers and Staff. Also,
never ending thanks to our
host family who showed me
P age 2 2
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
SEAYLP is
the most
wonderful
experience
that I have
ever had. I
would love to
send a thank
you message
to all SEAYLP
friends, staff
and my host
family. Wish
you all the
SEAYLP-1
life values. - Medina
I miss all SEAYLPers and my
NIU staff, especially I miss
my host family, Joe Pourry
and Patty Rieman, they are
my kind, open-minded and
funny parents. Yes, I would. I
always miss all of them, especially when I hear the news
about US and when I meet
American people in my country. I miss you, Joe and Patty.
- Sokheng
I really appreciated having all
of you (my lovely host family,
funny staff, trustworthy
SEAYLP friends) in my life. Tin
I really miss all of you and if
there is another chance I
would give the world to meet
all of you again. The times
with you guys were one of the
happiest times of my life. Rebecca
I really miss you all. Thank
you all for your trainings and I
will not let it go waste by doing nothing at all. - Brenda
I will forever treasure the
memories we've shared. Your
love and insights have curled
up in my system, and made
me a more improved person.
Thank you! - Rai-Rai
I will never forget you all. Raya
I would like to say Hello to all
SEAYLP staff especially my
host family. I would like to
show my thankfulness to all
of you who made me feel
comfortable when I were
there. I love my host family! Nita
Mom Suan, Dad Robert and
all of the Freelands, I really
miss and love you all. I have
always been telling others
how great you are and how I
miss you. I am looking forward to meeting you again
real soon. Love lots. - Brix
I'd love to send a message to
you, Rai. "A special thanks to
you from the Singapore team
for your exceptional commitment to us during SEAYLP
Fall 2010. We really appreciate all that you did. Cheers!" Kirthana
It is great. - Pum
Nana, I've never forgotten
you. I will never, too. Love,
Evelyn - Evelyn
To my host family, I miss
them very much and I am
very much looking
forward to meet you
again in the future. Zachary
best! - Tracy
SEAYLP you are the light of
my life, you have advise me
how to be a real leader. Mom
Erika and Dad “His Excellency” Russell you are the
most lovely host parents I
ever had and knew. I love you
so much, I will never and
ever forget you. - Senghong
Sending my love and missing
to all the SEAYLPers , It's
been 3 years already since
we met. This is listed as one
of my great moment of
life.Thanks to everyone out
there for giving me such a
meaningful and unforgettable experience. - Watey
TEAM = Together Everyone
Achieves More! Love you all,
guys. We should meet again.
Our friendship will never die!
- bernard ekki wicaksono
Thank you so much for everything. I love all of you. - Sey
Thank you, for everything, for
shaping my identity, for opening your world, for teaching
me priceless lessons, for the
beautiful memories. Thank
you all. :) - Kyle - 'Supershine'
To all my beloved staffs and
kind host family, I will always
remember the times that I
spent together with u guys. I
cant find words to describe
how grateful I am to you for
your hospitality and warmness. SEA!! YLP!! - Calvin
To all my SEAYLP friends, all
the staffs & my loving host
family, THANK YOU FOR A
MONTH OF MIND-BLOWING
EXPERIENCES! Miss you guys
& am looking forward to see
you guys again in future! :D Syazana or Zaza :D
To all SEAYLP friends, staff
and my host family, I'm hoping to return to the US for
college/uni so I hope to see
you all soon! Lots of love,
Jo Yee. - Jo (Loh Jo Yee)
To Deb and Dave Riniker, my
host parents - I know that
today, the 15th of July, is my
host mom's birthday, so I just
wanna greet her a happy
happy birthday! Thanks for
everything! Stay safe :) I miss
you guys! :D - Borj
To my host family, the Fairfields: How have you been?
Did you receive the postcard
which I sent out 2 months
Vito, I miss you a lot
and that I'm looking
forward to seeing
you again. To my
host family: I miss
you a lot. - Melvyn
SEAYLP - we will see
each other again,
you loving people of
the United States of
America - Florante R.
Riego
SEAYLP-2 (without Myanmar)
Voices of SEAYLP
P age 2 3
gram. I miss you all and
hope to see you again. Nang
Liz, I miss you so badly, I
especially the time you
picked me up and I told
you the story I got confused the Car to other
Man not Mr. Mike. We
laughed a lot. – Senghong
You’re probably in there...
SEAYLP-3
ago. Hope everyone's fine. Choon Keong
well as SEAYLPers. You made
it! I MISS YOU - Thearith
To my host family: I miss you
guys and I really hope I get to
see you soon. Lots of love Gene
Yes, to my host family, Rai,
Jordan, Eric, Emily, Dr.Jim,
Scott and all the staff members, I truly miss everyone of
you and I hope I would be
able to visit everyone of you
in the near future. Love you
all and do come to Malaysia.
It would be an honor for me
to have you all visit - Vanessa
To SEAYLP staff, friend, and
my host family: I MISS YOU
ALL! Please make a reunion
for us :'( - Adel
To SEAYLPers, staff and my
host parents, Phil and Barb
Johnson, if I were given an
opportunity to gather with
you all in United States, I
would take it for sure! :D Irah
To the staffers, I still think
about all of you everyday. To
the Rileys, I'm still having
trouble detaching from you
guys, and I think this is permanent! - Jason Wee
We forward our well wishes
to all members and staff who
were instrumental in making
all of these happen and we're
looking forward to seeing you
guys soon! - Gabriel Goh
What I want to say is, I really
miss you all and never forget
what I have done during
those 3 weeks in the United
States. I would love to say to
all SEAYLP friends, staffs,
and my host family - Donna
and Frederick High - that you
have made such a very
memorable thing to me as
I send my regards to everyone there,
hope everything is
well. And
also to my
foster
family, the
Diedrichs,
you are
missed
and loved,
and will
always be
remembered :) Maajidah
M.
I want to say enjoy life while
it last. The SEAYLP is something I don’t want to forget
and I will always cherish
those moments. – Amar
I send my greetings, wishes
and love to Dr. Collins, Catherine, Shay, Joseph Flinn,
Mary, Jordan and all lovely
people from SEAYLP pro-
To SEAYLP Staff: Thanks
for working hard to run
this program. Actually, I
learnt a lot and it helps
me to be able to do something for my community, work
in team, share idea, and develop myself. To respond for
what you gave us, I will try my
best to develop myself more
and achieve more things to
help community. To my host
family: Thank you so much
Tim and Jen. I had a really
great time while I stayed with
you. Even though it was a
short time. but I feel like we
are a family already. Thanks
for visiting me here in Cam-
everyone, and thanks for
giving me a good time. I'm
glade that we still can keep
in touch until now. so please
keep sharing everything and
be friend forever. To my
team: Meet you is my best
luck in my life. You guys
seem like a bio-siblings to
me, do you ever know that?
We always help each other
and hang around. We have
run through a lot of tear,
hard times, fightings and
funs. Right now, those things
become a good memory to
me. Even though, now we are
not often meet each other
like before but I do believe
our relationship still live in
our heart forever. To my
adult leader: Thanks for everything you have done for us.
I can't imagine if we don't
have you with us. Not only for
our project, but you also help
us all the time we need you.
You always advice us, encourage us, and believe us.
And sorry for giving you a lot
of troubles, but you never
SEAYLP-4
bodia. Thanks for always encourage me :). Hope to meet
you again soon. I love you
Tim, I love you Jen. To my
friends: To be honest, I was
so worry before I joined this
program, but soon after I feel
so comfortable to meet you
and study together. We can
get along well and be friend
so quickly. I want to say I love
complain. PS: Thanks again
to everyone, I love you all,
you are always right here in
my heart forever. - Hy Dalin
Hi Rai, I miss you. It just awesome I can meet you and
know more about SEAYLP.
You are the wisest staff that
I've ever meet. I hope, we
can meet again in the same
place, soon. I hope too, eve-
P age 2 4
rything gonna be fine, keep
your health. God bless you.
For my handsome staff, Hallo
Eric. I just miss you, and Indonesian delegates, miss you
too, actually Medina, Valerie,
and I. We miss when we go
outside when we were at
Chicago, remember it? Very
interesting, without you, we
will not to know around Chicago that night, lol. Just love
you to be our SEAYLP staff,
cool staff. For beloved
Aaron, our funniest SEAYLP
staff, Everything good? Hows
your day at NIU? Don’t you
miss when you gave a piggy
back to all youth girls in
SEAYLP? Lol, I just missed.
And also, I miss your call,
when Ira called you teddy
bear, hahaha. Miss ya Aaron!
For Scott and Jordan, It just
amazing to know all of you,
guys. Hope we can come
back and meet all of you
again, soon. For my host
family, the Cichy Family: For
my lovely American MOMMY
(Evelina Cichy), how are you?
Everything good? Hows your
day? I miss you mom. I miss
your rice. Iahaha. I miss
when you laugh at me and
Pauline that we seldom eat
any meals or something like
that. We just ate rice, rice,
and rice, haha. Mom, thank
you for being an amazing
mommy, during my stay in
the United States. It was just
amazing, I tell more about
you here, in my Family. I love
you, i will come back there,
soon. And thankyou for the
love mommy... Hugs! Missyou, Dinda.
For my
Americans DADDY (Steve
Cichy), Hi daddy!! Wazzup?
Everything good? How are
you? And hows the Hospital?
Haha, I miss you the most!
You're an awesome dad. You
are very kind to me. Did you
remember when we walked
away to your hospital? Lol, i
miss it. I love the Cichy Family. I promise, I will back there
V o l um e 1 , I s s ue 2 ♦ S um m e r 2 0 1 2
soon, dad.
Wait me
and
Pauline. :)
Thank you
for the
love, thank
you for the
comfort
you gave. I
will love
you and
miss you
forever.
Hugs
kisses Dinda
From Your
Families
We are in contact with all of
our SEAYLP kids and are
proud of their accomplishments academically and in
their communities. We hope
that someday we can see
them all again, perhaps as
students at NIU. We had a
wonderful time hosting the
kids and also hope that their
time with us was equally enjoyable. In alphabetic order,
our love to Dalin, Park, Patrick, Pum and Quynh. - Tim
and Jennifer Mescher
Greetings from the Fairfield
family! We are all well and
healthy. Our summer has
been a great variety of adventures. We have played
and taught the horn in WI as
usual, traveled to see family
in New York and soon North
Dakota, and a high school
reunion for Laura in Colorado. Elizabeth has been
working in Wisconsin at an
art gallery as an intern, has
been a hostess at Al Johnson's Swedish restaurant and
helps out at the music camp.
Soon the fall schedule will
begin: John at NIU, Laura
helping to lead Bible Study
Fellowship,and both of us
playing the horns in 2 orchestras. Elizabeth will be back at
St. Olaf College in Minnesota
SEAYLP-5
as a junior. She is a music
major (violin) and has a new
responsibility as the assistant orchestra manager this
year. Sunny, now the oldest
member of the family, ages
gracefully and still loves to
sing for visitors and catch the
ball. Life is full with music,
family, and again hosting
some international students
soon from Brazil. It is sweet
to open our home to new
friends. May God bless you
with good health and a wonderful new season. Miss you
all. Love in our LORD - John &
Laura
To ALL my Sweets... Gene,
Candy, Marina, Brenda,
Praew, Charmaine and Pabu,
We miss you all!!!! It is such a
blessing to be able to stay in
touch with technology today..yet I would love to be
able to give you all a big
Overhaug squeeze! There is
always much going on here
at the ranch. We have a couple extras living with us right
now. We are blessed that
God keeps using our home
for his purposes. We would
love for you all to come back
and visit. We are so proud of
each of you for all your accomplishes. Hearing updates
on how you are doing makes
us smile. Keep up the good
work and remember to keep
in touch! We love you all!! -
The Overhaugs, Dad, Mom,
Teagan, Rhyan, and Lukas
Dear Nobelle and May, We
were so happy to be part of
the SEAYLP family and be
your host family while you
were in America. We had so
much fun getting to know
both of you and learn more
about your cultures as well
as share more about ours.
You truly became part of our
family and we think of you
often and miss you so much!
You brought us much joy and
happiness during your brief
visit. It is wonderful being
able to keep in touch with
you both through Facebook.
We wish you all the best with
what the future holds in
store. Love - Joe, Cathy, Britt
and Dani Pivonka
Dearest Hana, Gnean, Ratna,
Voices of SEAYLP
Alex, Barani and Dream, We
look to the sky and think
fondly of our daughters and
sisters on the other side of
the world. We hope you are
safe and happy. Work hard
and send our warmest greetings to your families. We love
you all and miss you. - Big
Daddy, Donna, Jeff, Kala, and
Karsten (and of course, Millie, Lyla, Patches, and Grace)
PS We never eat ice cream
without talking about you all!
Dear Rin, Luther, Ekki, Flor,
Pon and Lin, We so enjoyed
having each of you in our
home. I'm so glad we can
keep up on facebook!! Olive
sends her greetings too :) Love, Mike and Jenny
Nang, I hope you are doing
well with the changes in
Myanmar. I have great
memories of you staying in
our house and did remember
how important it was to fulfill
your dream to come to America. I will be curious to know
what you remember the best.
I wish next time I go to Burma
to meet with you again –
Catherine
Dear Senghong and Arya, Not
a week goes by that I do not
think of you both! I am so
glad we can communicate
through facebook! You are
P age 2 5
part of our family forever and
we will continue to support
you in any way we can. It is a
joy to see how hard you are
working in school, your jobs,
and your projects. This demonstrates that your time in
SEAYLP was not just a temporary thing but that it really
did make a large impact on
your lives and futures. While
we all lived together, it was a
joy to see how you two young
men, from different countries
and family backgrounds, became brothers. After two
weeks of living together, we
all agreed that it's not where
you come from, how much
you have, or who your friends
are, that make the person.
It's the heart. It's all about
the heart. We were able to
share in each others joys as
well as sad times. We
learned each other’s weaknesses and instead of using
those to our own advantages,
we learned to help each
other in those times. This is
the true definition of family.
We love you both very much!
Hugs - Erika Bishop
To Brix, Harry, Raffy, Tom,
Louie, & Calvin, We would
like to tell you all that we love
you very much and that each
of you have touched our life
in an amazing way. We wish
SEAYLP-6
we could see you again and
are hoping that someday our
paths will cross again. - Love
Mom and Dad Freeland
To Enfant & Emerald (from
the Johnna Jennings and
family), Girls we enjoyed having you in our home, and
really learned a great deal
from you while you were
here. It is not just anyone
that can manage life in the
Jennings’ household. I still
remember taking you to the
cookout at the dairy farm and
how you had to take pictures
of all of the desserts and of
course the pig head that was
placed on the fencepost.
Dan, Jaylene and Justene
also enjoyed your stay and
we all still talk about you
from time to time. It is wonderful to see you on Facebook. Take care! - Johnna –
Mom #2
Dear Valerie & Teyaorm, I
miss you two so much. I’ll
never forget you guys staying
with my family. You’ve
taught me so much. Talk to
you soon. Love you - Katie
Denius
Diemmy, Toukta, Dina & Jo,
We were so fortunate to host
such great and talented educators. We are so proud of
each of you as you have
gone on to better your professional expertise and continue to be a role models for
education in your countries.
We miss you and hope you
will visit us again. Best
Wishes to you all and keep in
touch. XOXO Tim and Chris
Thompson
From the Staff
I would just like to say Hi to
every one and wish you luck
on your projects. - Aaron
To SEAYLP-1 to 6,
I miss you all. I am proud
each day to have worked
with you and to see what you
are doing now. You are a
truly amazing group and I
would not trade my time
working on the Southeast
Asia Youth Leadership
Program for the world. As I
continue to follow you all on
facebook, take opportunities
to hear from you elsewhere,
eagerly check the videos and
pictures on your projects, you
reinvigorate my hopes for a
great future. I can not wait to
see the even more amazing
things you will accomplish as
you get older. I’ll be looking
for my invitation each countries White House in a few
years. I know I can speak for
the rest of the staff when I
say it has been a pleasure to
get to know you and to contribute something to your
lives. You’ve brought so
much energy and joy to ours.
- Rai
Southeast Asia Youth
Leadership Program
Center for Southeast
Asian Studies
Northern Illinois University
520 College View Court
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
Phone: 815-753-1771
E-mail: seaylp@niu.edu or
mariahancock@hotmail.com
A B O U T S E AY L P
Starting in 2009, the Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP) is
funded by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by Northern Illinois University. The program involves secondary school students and adult
leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It promotes mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries and between ASEAN nations, breaks down differences that impede communication, promotes good governance, contributes to conflict prevention and
management, builds respect for cultural expressions and identities, develops knowledge and skills in leadership, and develop skills for community
action and improvement.
U. S . - A S E A N Y O U N G L E A D E R S S U M M I T
By JEN BOOKBINDER
Program Officer,
Bureau of Education
& Cultural Affairs,
U.S. Department of State
An event for SEAYLP
alumni in Jakarta,
Indonesia from
December 5-9, 2012.
The Summit will be 5
days of workshops,
skill-building, and
community service
designed to build on
Center for Southeast
Asian Studies
what you learning
during SEAYLP and
what you have done
since you have
returned home. We've
set up a Facebook page
just for the Summit
where you can get
more info, just search
for "U.S. - ASEAN Young
Leaders Summit" and
ask to join. We'll be
posting a call for
session proposals soon
Be sure to check out everyone’s pictures and posts on facebook
and hope that you'll
considering forming a
team and submitting an
idea for a Summit
session. The U.S.
Embassy in your home
country will coordinate
your participation in the
Summit so if you have
not already heard from
the Embassy, please
contact your Alumni
Coordinator.