GAPURA 2017
PERMIAS Bloomington always holds Indonesian Night every year in the Spring semester. This year, the event was held on April 9 at the Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union. As usual, the event was free and open for public.
The fashion show to show o various traditional costumes.
“Gapura” is the main theme of the 2017 Indonesian Night. As the President of PERMIAS, Alvin Hadibowo, said, Gapura means gateway; and PERMIAS would like this event to be the gateway for all of the guests to feel what Indonesian culture is like.
The band played several traditional songs including the “Yamko Rambe Yamko”.
PERMIAS Bloomington has done a fantastic job in preparing and executing GAPURA 2017. There were over 400 people coming to the event, which according to people is the most attended Indonesian Night in Bloomington so far. There were many performances, which include traditional dances (Kecak, Pendet, Lenggang Nyai, Tifa, and Saman), band, and fashion show, that were performed by our own Indonesian students in Bloomington.
To promote our culture even more, PERMIAS Bloomington included many booths to show o Indonesian culture, such as angklung and batik. They also incorporated games that are popular in Indonesia, including sack race, bakiak race, and instant noodle eating competition.
Moreover, the guests were provided with Indonesian food: rendang, satay, bakso, and gado-gado. Not only that, PERMIAS Bloomington also had many gifts for those lucky guests. The two grand prizes were a 39” LED TV and an Apple Watch.
2017 PERMIAS Election
PERMIAS Bloomington always has its new committee in the Spring semester, most of which fall in April. This year, the election was held on April 22. The way a new committee is selected is through an election for president and vice president. The candidate with the most votes will be the president, and the second most voted candidate will be the vice president. The elected president and vice president then will choose its committee from those who had applied to be the officers.
This year we had four candidates, Anthony Lee, Louis Riantan, Michelle Valentine, and Devina Kelvianto. After giving their speeches, which mainly talked about their visions and missions for PERMIAS Bloomington moving forward, they were questioned by the former president (Alvin Hadibowo) and vice president (Felicia Clarissa) and by some other Indonesian students.
With 39 votes, Louis won the election, followed by Anthony (14 votes), Devina (10 votes), and Michelle (7 votes).
Our new president (Louis) and vice president (Anthony) promised to make Indonesian students in Bloomington more connected
to each other through hosting more social events as simple as having dinner together frequently. They also want to strengthen the bonds between Indonesians in Bloomington with other Indonesians in the Midwest area and international students at Indiana University by hosting events together with them. As Indonesian students in Bloomington will keep growing, this should be both an interesting and a challenging year for the new committee.
Outstanding Alumni Alliance award from OIS’ First International Leadership Awards
Lastly, as part of the closing speech from Alvin Hadibowo, the 2016-2017 PERMIAS President, he announced that PERMIAS was nominated for the Alumni Alliance Award by the Office of International Services (OIS). On April 27, OIS announced that PERMIAS officially won the nomination and was awarded a plaque. This surely is because of the hard work that Yayasan Alumni IU Indonesia (YAIUI) has put to connect with and help Indonesian students in Bloomington through the internship program started last summer.