MEET AN AFSer:
Heidy Utami
Intercultural Learning Responsible, AFS Indonesia
Ever since her first contact with AFS, Heidy Utami has focused on developing her intercultural skills, and together with her colleagues at AFS Indonesia, trying to introduce intercultural learning to AFS volunteers and the local community.
Heidy has been the Intercultural Learning (ICL) Responsible and the Hosting Coordinator for AFS Indonesia since October 2010. Her involvement with AFS started in 2001 when she went for a short-term exchange program to Japan, which opened her mind to the world outside of Indonesia. With an educational background in economics, she became an AFS volunteer and considers AFS to be her second family.
When Heidy attended a session on intercultural learning organized by AFS South Africa in 2011, she was inspired by how others tackled many everyday issues between AFS participants and their host families by using non-formal reflection activities and various theories of intercultural learning. Heidy returned to Indonesia with great ideas and a renewed passion for intercultural learning.
Heidy is glad to be part of the organizational efforts to increase AFS’s capacity as a quality education and intercultural learning organization. A recent successful outcome of these efforts was the inaugural AFS-AAI-SIETAR Learning to Live Together — Intercultural Education: From Ideas to Action international conference held in April 2015 in Bali. An exciting collaboration between like-minded organizations, the event brought together more than 100 scholars, experts and educators from the Asia Pacific region. One of the aims of the conference was to introduce AFS and Bina Antarbudaya (The Indonesian Foundation for Intercultural Learning) to other intercultural organizations and professionals.
Heidy continues her work to curate similar events, new projects and collaborations using the connections established during the event as well as the worldwide AFS ICL Responsibles community.
