Should ACCD have Permias?

Permias stands for Persatuan Mahasiswa Indonesia di Amerika Serikat and it is an organization that unites Indonesian students in US universities.

This might just came up as a random crazy idea at 3 am, that kind of idea that you happened to dig into after you finished a research for a project. This idea is merely triggered by those Chinese New Year event pictures hosted by Permias in some regions and schools. I joined a sub-organization of Permias in De Anza College, not as a core member though, but being a part of Permias itself would be even a greater honor.

Imagine the idea of teaming up with other members to establish an event, attending cultural nights, getting a chance to encounter the Indonesian Ambassador in the US, and attending nationwide conferences. Wouldn't that be nice?

When my friends and I transferred to different states and universities, I was aware that my school has a considerably low amount of Indonesian students. By far, I only know about 10, and some of them barely know each other. That, if you compare it to other universities such as UCLA or UCB. I heard they have over a hundred Indonesian students over there.

Meanwhile, over the past couple of semester, I started reaching out and finding out more about the existence of Indonesian students in Art Center. No, this isn't what you think it is. I'm not desperate to find other Indonesians at school. I know most of them. Even though we don't necessarily call each other after class to meet up for lunch just like what I used to do in community college, we do say hi when we pass by each other on the bridge. We are busy and we are all over the place, from those dungeon-like computer labs, or one of the spray booths in the model shop.

Anyway, some of my colleagues from the community college found even a bigger Indonesian community on their university campus. Some of them manage to participate and be a core member of Permias on their campus. They become more active and engaged in Indonesia-related events, such as cultural nights. Meanwhile, I interact less with Indonesians, which I actually found even superb as well, because it doesn't confine me in my comfort zone. I got to engage more with other international students and local students - improving my English, encouraging me to participate more in class, learning more slangs, and tons others - something that I barely did in De Anza. I really value those aspects because after all, that's one of the main reasons why I move thousand miles from my home to this place.

However, with me seeing my friends participating in Permias in other campuses, I felt like I had slowly become more individualistic due to the rigorous art school lifestyle. Being individualistic is a trait that is far from that of Indonesian students in other universities.

One of the distinct natures of Indonesian students is to wait for each other. If you surround yourself with Indonesians on campus, you'd most likely to hear "I'm waiting for A, B, and C to finish their class. Then we're gonna go to the cafeteria for lunch." In community college, I'd also wait for my Indonesian friends to go to a nearby cafe for a coffee break.

But Art Center shapes its community differently from other universities. We are basically very busy people. The workload that my friend and I have could be different. When a free time slips in, I'm too tired to hang out. So I'd prefer to just go home and catch up with some sleep, or go to the library or computer lab to finish up some homework between classes. In short, we're just too busy.

Anyway, I'm getting accustomed to that culture already but I still long for the sense of togetherness (another fundamental nature of Indonesian people) that this Permias brings in other schools. I don't consider myself much as a social person. I love making friends and that's what I've been enjoying to do now, but Permias has always provided a good platform for Indonesian students to get together and get to know each other, and not to forget where we come from.

Anyway, just some ideas why a Permias in Art Center would be awesome. These ideas are based on 'if's:

• We would be the second art school in US to have Permias (okay guys, Academy of Art University already snatched the first). But this would make us the second art school out of roughly 20 other art schools across US.
• We would be the second country to have its own club in Art Center after Chinese Student Association.
• Welcoming party and an end-of-term barbecue after 14 weeks would be divine
• We could reach out to prospective Indonesian students who are nervous about going to Art Center. Who isn't? We could give those prospective students an idea that this school isn't as gruesome as it might sound. We could provide them with our experience as students and not frighten them.
• Since Art Center currently doesn't have a dorm or student housing, we could help prospective students in looking for off-campus housing. This is actually inspired by what Elda did when I came to Michigan.
• We could help each other out with our projects. So far, Indonesian students in Art Center have diverse majors, ranging from Graphic Design, Photography, Advertising, Product Design, Entertainment Design, to Illustration. So if product people need help with their graphic panel, they could ask graphic design people for assistance. Same thing if Advertising people need help in doing a photoshoot, they could ask for assistance from a Photo Major
• We could promote our school to Indonesian students
• We could collaborate with ICCLA (Indonesian Creative Community Los Angeles) to organize an event or an exhibition.
• Other universities' Permias might hold Indonesian cultural events, while due to the smaller amount of Indonesian students in Art Center, such thing would be impossible. What's possible is, we could have our own exhibition (just like what ICCLA once did) that has an Indonesian theme to it. So each major would be able to express their thoughts and creativity of our culture through their works. A photo major would display pictures of Indonesian landscapes and scenes. A product major would create a headphone with a batik texture embedded to it. A graphic student could create elaborate poster, motion, and a book about Indonesian culture. This would be a useful platform to introduce and promote our culture to other Art Center community.

But if you're an Indonesian Art Center student, I assume that we all come back to "Ain't nobody got time for that" or "I don't need that. I'm happy with my friends now". Even I'd say that. I'm happy with my non-Indonesian friends. They're very cool, fun, hardworking, and even in this industry - motivating. Again, I've come all the way here to learn about the culture and the people. I don't seek for Indonesian people on campus. I'm just saying bringing together Indonesian people in Art Center as a reminder of our roots and culture, like what they do in other universities, would be a cool idea.

We actually did have two gatherings before, dubbed as "Indo Art Center gathering" and that's already a good step in bringing Indonesian community together and share about our unmerciful life of an art student. Even at one point in the meeting, a friend made a remark that we should create an Indonesian club, but instead of making it a Permias club, we'd name it "Indonesia Maju" (meaning: Indonesia Going Forward", which sounds pretty cliche for a club but playful at the same time. It reminds me of a  tagline from a presidency campaign.

We might be of a smaller group compared to the amount UCB, UCLA, and USC have.

But once in a while, we'd get together and just have fun and share thoughts about our rigorous art school life.

If you happen to be Indonesian and interested in attending ACCD. You might want to consider in establishing this club, because I bet it's going to be a groundbreaking one.

But again, we're probably too busy. I'm too busy too. These pile of homework are staring at me like they're going to consume me slowly.