I bid you auf Wiedersehen! Goodbye message from Ivan

Liebe Alumni, liebe Freunde,

Every beginning has to come to an end, and that is true for my time here at the DAAD Jakarta office. For more than a half-decade I have worked and supported the DAAD team in Jakarta as Media Manager. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that someday I would leave the office and say goodbye to my humble and hardworking colleagues here. There were indeed ups and downs but mostly I enjoyed my last five years taking care of the media world for the office.

Please allow me to put down a short, memorable review of what I have done so far. My first working day was 2 January 2014, right after New Year. Our media technology was not as advanced as today then. We started with establishing the web-based seminars (short: webinar). I developed a concept for the webinar series fit for information and marketing purposes, identified suitable topics and presenters, and invited my DAAD colleagues as speakers, as well as representatives from German universities, Indonesian students in Germany and alumni. In 2016, I developed a webinar particularly designed for German language lecturers and students. This webinar is called Gerbinar (Webinar für Germanisten). In total, 137 webinars have been organized, 42 of them together with German universities, and 4 as Gerbinars.

Since I have been in charge of maintaining the homepage of DAAD Jakarta, I – supported by Christian Rabl, one of my colleague at the office – was the responsible liaison officer when DAAD Jakarta’s website was relaunched in 2017. I closely supervised the year-long process together with my colleagues in the head office. Beside this, I also have been in charge of DAAD Jakarta’s three-monthly newsletter, including layout, overseeing the production process, identifying main topics and possible authors, contacting alumni and interviewing them, negotiating with translators and eventually distributing the newsletter to various target groups in time. This June edition is my 20th and my last edition as well.

Another field of my activities were the social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. DAAD Jakarta only had Facebook and Twitter when I was hired in 2014. As time went by, Instagram became more popular than these channels, so I decided to open the Instagram channel on 1 January 2018 to keep our followers updated. Now, we have more than 21.000 followers on Facebook, more than 22.000 followers on Instagram, and almost 5.000 on Twitter. I am a passionate photographer, and it was one of my tasks to shoot pictures during our events. Now you know where all the good images posted on our social media came  from. I also supported the Director in her/his annual reports by finding pictures and securing or clarifying copyrights. My duties also involved face-to-face guidance and consultation for students and parents interested in studying in Germany, at education fairs and during our consulting hours every Thursday afternoon at the office. Last but not least, I was in charge of the alumni database. Because of this, I had the chance to get in contact with many of our wonderful alumni. They inspired me to continue my studies and broaden my network.

There were still a lot of memorable events that will not be forgotten. The last five years have been an invaluable experience and of course, have set the foundation of my future carreer and skill. Herewith, I would like to thank my former Director, Ibu Dr. Irene Jansen, who accepted me as one of her team members and my current Director, Bapak Thomas Zettler, who has always supported me with every decision I made. Big thanks also to my wonderful colleagues for the great cooperation and many moments of joy and laughter. I will really miss our lunch together at Doib. Thank you dear DAAD Jakarta’s Freunde who have always been giving your likes on social media, joining our webinars and subscribing to our newsletter.

For you who are interested in studying in Germany, either with or without a scholarship, I wish you all the best of luck. Do not  give up easily and keep trying. Remember: „Setiap orang ada masanya dan setiap masa ada orangnya“.

See you in Europe!