Wonderful Program

I took part in a VIA program in Jogja in the summer of 2013. The academic support and coursework was broad without feeling unfocused. We dived deeply into a handful of subjects and had the chance to work directly with social scientists with research specialties in Indonesia. One of my favorite things about the program was that it was half American students and half Indonesian students and each American was paired with one Indonesian to work on a research project together. No study abroad program is fully immersive but this was one of many things that VIA did to bring the American students both closer to the country in which we were living while resisting the urge to shy away from the dynamics of power and privilege that allowed us to fly across the world and "study" a culture. Many pieces of the program seemed designed to highlight this tension: the readings were critical of Indonesia's internal social inequities while also shedding light on the ways that Western intervention has served to deepen and amplify these issues; the professors with whom we studied came from both Western and Indonesian backgrounds and taught at both Western and Indonesian institutions. I met great people, learned a great deal about Indonesia, and learned even more about research and social dynamics.