School Update!

I’m at my second term in school and I’m loving my classes so far. I know I promised some of you to write about my school life so this post is a bit overdue, but anyway here it is! 🙂

So this term I’m taking 4 classes. Three of them are within my Digital Marketing certificate program, and one is actually from a Sustainability certificate program. This is by far the most stressful quarter because everything I’m learning about is new to me. It’s exciting, but at times I found myself putting too much pressure over a 5 points assignment, so yeah.

I love my Sustainability class although I wish I took it in class instead of online, I’m pretty sure I would have learned a lot more if I could get a chance to interact with my classmates and lecturer in real time. Well this is my second online class but I think it just made me realize that I prefer in-class teaching instead of online, although I can say that I’m digitally savvy but still.. nothing beats the classroom experience hehe. Anyway the Sustainability class that I’m taking is called “Global Business Practices in Sustainability” and the title is pretty self-explanatory, I love how I am able to learn about doing business sustainably and learn best practices from well-known companies. My interest in Sustainability kept me going although I found myself overwhelmed at times, learning about those new terminologies outside of my Marketing world. But hey, one’s gotta keep learning!

I’m also taking a Digital Marketing class, Social Media Marketing class, and a Personal Branding + Influencer class. I actually just finished the latter; it was only a 5 week class but was very insightful and inspiring to say the least.

So the Personal Branding class was about how we need to develop our personal brand, how to become an influencer, and if you are on the marketing side – how to manage one. It’s interesting to see how Influencer Marketing in practice here in the US because the lecturers are practitioners and they also brought in several guest speakers, including an actual fashion influencer who spoke to us about the hard work behind all those flashy insta pictures. However, what’s most inspiring to me is that the class also taught me to reassess my own personal brand – not that I’m planning to become an influencer, but for future career and basically in order to get to know myself better. The activities and assignments helped me to reflect and as a result I now have a better understanding of my own personal brand – something that is considered a necessity today, especially since I’m planning to rebuild a career in Marketing after finishing the certificate program.

Me and the lecturers of my Personal Branding class, taken on the last day of class

Phew! That sounds like a lot, isn’t it? Hehehehe.. don’t worry I’m having fun and I have to say that going back to school even after 10 years of graduating is still exciting and if anything it’s more exciting than my previous degrees because at this point of life, I have a better understanding of what I want and what my interests are 🙂

Anyway, I hope all is well with you and I’ll see you in the next post.. thanks for reading! ❤

Suka Duka Tugas Kelompok

Sebagai anak kuliahan tentunya saya ketemu lagi sama yang namanya tugas kelompok. Apalagi program kuliah saya lebih fokus pada praktek dibanding teori jadilah semakin banyak tugas, termasuk kelompok.

Nah, tugas kelompok ini ternyata banyak suka duka nya dan rasanya kok saya baru berasa banget sekarang ini ya. Sungguh, mungkin udah kelamaan nggak sekolah tapi rasanya dulu – dulu kok nggak pernah mengalami dinamika tugas kelompok seperti sekarang ini?! Hehe..

Tugas kelompok ini rasanya benar – benar kayak ikut undian. Nggak ada yang tahu gimana hasilnya. Kalau beruntung, dapat kelompok yang enak banget dan lancar banget kerjanya. Kayak kelompok A saya (kita sebut aja begitu). Anggotanya 3 orang, dan hampir 3 bulan kami kerja bareng, nggak pernah ada masalah. Pernah saya agak beda pendapat sama mereka berdua, tapi saya anggap nggak penting lah jadi saya ngikut aja, eh hasilnya dapat A, berarti emang saya yang kurang paham kan konsepnya 😛 Kami juga pernah kerjain tugas bareng di cafe pinggir pantai yang dilanjut dengan happy hour hari Jumat malam.. seru ya :D. Pokoknya, kelompok yang ini oke banget deh!

Tapi saya pernah juga dapat kelompok, kita sebut aja kelompok B, yang semuanya diaaam seribu bahasa. Untungnya waktu kami kerja bareng cuma 1x kelas, proyeknya pun nggak punya bobot nilai yang besar. Aduh tapi kelompok ini, nggak ada yang mau inisiatif, masing – masing anggota kayaknya sibuk sendiri, alhasil saya yang musti mengarahkan diskusi kelompok untuk cari ide. Parahnya lagi 1 anggota nggak datang di waktu hari presentasi, tebak dong siapa yang ambil alih…?

Ada lagi kelompok yang semuanya mau ngomong. Nah kelompok C ini juga bikin pusing. Pernah kami menghabiskan waktu 20 menit cuma untuk muter – muter bahas sesuatu yang ujung – ujung nya nggak ada kesimpulan dan nggak jadi dipakai di dalam presentasi. Walaupun orang – orangnya baik dan nggak nyebelin, tapi entah kenapa kalau diskusi tuh kok rasanya pola pikir kami nggak nyambung semua ya… jadi seringkali capek muter – muter bahas sesuatu dan susah banget untuk menyamakan persepsi dan frekuensi. Haduh!

Ngomong- ngomong, nggak berasa deh, saya sudah berada di penghujung semester pertama program sertifikat saya ini. Baru mulai sih, belum ada setengah jalan. Sejauh ini saya suka banget kuliahnya, walaupun masih sering capek karena ternyata kuliah sebagai istri di umur 30an tuh beda banget yaa sama kuliah waktu masih lajang … hahahaha, badan rasanya capek mulu berbagi tugas antara kuliah dan mengurus rumah tangga. Walaupun sebenernya saya punya tanggung jawab yang sama dengan R dalam hal rumah tangga, tapi tetep aja sejak kuliah ini saya sering berasa capek banget… padahal dulu kuat kuat aja tuh kuliah, kerja part time dan siaran radio pas di Inggris! 😛 emang namanya umur nggak bisa boong deh 😉 Nanti kapan – kapan saya ceritain lebih lanjut deh tentang hal ini.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend! 🙂

Back to School

I always knew that I would go back to school but I didn’t know when and where (and how, for that matter!). I had planned to go back to school since I first moved here but unfortunately that plan did not happen until … last week!

I won’t go into detail but what happened was miraculous in my dictionary and before I knew it I was able to start school last week! Hoorah! I am now enrolled in a digital marketing certificate program at UCLA Extension. I should be able to finish this program in the next 9 months or more, it really depends on the courses I will take and the route I will choose.

For now, I am taking 3 classes this term and 1 of them is an online class. This is my first ever online class – and I found it very interesting. Well I’ve taken some Coursera classes before but this is nothing like that because there are live seminar sessions in which we can hear the lecture and also participate in class discussion through an online chat room.

As for the other two classes, so far they are as interesting. One caught me off guard because I did not think that I would need to write a final paper as part of the requirements to pass the class. I mean, the last time I wrote an academic paper was…. 10 years ago? 😀

Anyway, I can’t say much for now because, well, it’s just the first week, but surely I will share more about this journey! I’m excited to learn, meet new people, and share experiences! All of this still feels surreal because up until last week I really have no slightest clue that I would be starting school… oh well, here I am now and I better get back to my online learning platform to read materials for my second week. Ah, student life…

Taken in front of Royce Hall – where UCLA graduation ceremonies are held

Pengalaman Berpuasa Sebagai Mahasiswa di Inggris

Duh, judulnya panjang juga ya. Baiklah, langsung saja kalau begitu, pada post Selasa Indonesia kali ini saya ingin berbagi cerita pengalaman saya berpuasa sewaktu saya menjadi merantau di Inggris Raya sebagai mahasiswa. Kejadiannya sudah lumayan lama sih, tahun 2010 yang lalu.. yah semoga masih relevan 🙂

Gimana Cara Sekolah ke Luar Negeri?

Pertanyaan diatas sering sekali saya temukan di berbagai forum daring.

“gimana cara sekolah ke Amerika/Inggris/Australia?”
“gimana supaya diterima di Harvard/Oxford/Cambridge/MIT?”
“gimana supaya dapet beasiswa?”

Silakan diganti sendiri subjek nya, tapi kurang lebih pertanyaan nya sama.

Nah, kebetulan beberapa tahun terakhir sampai awal tahun ini saya cukup aktif di sebuah organisasi nirlaba yang bernama Indonesia Mengglobal. Sekarang sih status saya sudah alumni, tetapi sewaktu masih aktif, saya sering banget menemukan pertanyaan semacam diatas.

Days of Part-Time Job

This is the eighth post in the “Christa in the UK” series – stories from the year 2009 and 2010 during my time living, studying, working and traveling in a small beach town called Bournemouth in South West England.

As a broke student student with limited funding, I was challenged to work part – time during my time in the UK. My student visa allowed me to work maximum 20 hours per week part – time, so I began searching for a part – time job after I considered myself settled in, approximately soon after my second term started. I figured it was the perfect activity to actually immerse myself in student life. Okay I was being subtle, truth is I desperately needed the job because I spent all my money traveling throughout the UK on my Christmas break … hahaha :p