Professional Mentorship Program by Garuda Bisa
Garuda Bisa is based in Austin, Texas and was founded in 2013 by Jane Tedjajuwana and Klevrin Sitohang who have later on graduated to pursue careers in the United States. The purpose of Garuda Bisa was initially to facilitate a mentorship program that familiarizes Indonesian high school students with the vast opportunities that lie ahead in their future. The curriculum included pairing university students in the US with high school students in Indonesia and providing videos of over thirty distinguished professors from the University Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) who explained their respective fields of expertise.
Fast-forward a year later, our original purpose was challenged by time differences, students’ busy schedules, and countless logistical issues. I became president in 2014 and proposed the idea of a professional mentorship program. The idea of professional mentorship struck me when I participated in Target Your Future, a mentorship program hosted by the McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin. By some stroke of luck, I was assigned a professional mentor who is an Indonesian working at a Fortune 500 oil and gas company in Houston.
Many other students that participated in the program did not get as much from their professional mentors as I did and I believe that having a shared Indonesia background played a large role in how much I gained from the professional mentorship. Target Your Future only required one phone call with the mentor, but my mentor went above and beyond and took time out of his busy schedule to have three phone calls with me to discuss my career ambitions and map out ways to help me reach my aspirations.
Now, Garuda Bisa is a non-profit organization that facilitates mentorship between Indonesian university students and professionals in the US. The Garuda Bisa team is currently managed by a group of fifteen passionate students at UT-Austin and Austin Community College. Aside from myself, the main team includes Nena Natalia (Vice President), Lydia Johanna (Head of Corporate Relations), and Margaret Baramuli (Head of Student Relations). Profiles of the whole team can be found on http://www.garudabisa.com/AboutUs.html.
The mentorship program occurs every semester, and lasts for six weeks. The six-week program encompasses several activities including a mock interview, resume checking, exchange of industry knowledge, simulation with mentor on how to approach a recruiter, and guidance on how to build a social media profile. The program requires at least two personal interactions through video conference, phone call, or a face-to-face meeting because we feel that such personal interactions are crucial to an effective mentorship.
Our professional mentors come from small firms to Fortune 500 companies and some even have experiences in interviewing students for full-time jobs and internships. The companies our mentors come from include Deloitte Consulting, Dell, Ernst and Young, Intuitive Surgical, Samsung, and many more! We also have mentors that work in educational institutions and non-profit organizations.
Garuda Bisa launched its mentorship program for the first time in the Spring semester of 2015 and the program was a great success! Many of our mentors and mentees communicated with each other more than the required two personal interactions. I have also heard many wonderful stories from other mentees, from getting on-point career advice to getting job referrals from their mentors.
We have mentees and mentees from eleven states and counting! It has been a pleasure for us to facilitate the networking opportunities between the Indonesian students and Indonesian professionals. Thus far, we have helped over fifty students in the US. We hope that other Indonesian students across the US get to apply and experience the program.
The deadline for this semester’s mentorship program has passed, but if you are a student or professional in the US and you are interested in becoming a mentor or mentee, don’t hesitate to email us at garudabisa.idn@gmail.com. We will email you next semester when the application opens up again! For more information please visit our website at: www.garudabisa.com or Facebook page, www.facebook.com/garudabisaidn.
