What do exchange student say!

Nadhifah Habibie, exchange program to an Ivy League school.

Hello!

My name is Nadhifah Habibie and I’m a student at international management concentrating in Human Resource Management. In August 2021, I had the opportunity to go on a semester exchange program to an Ivy League school, University of Pennsylvania (QSR: #13 world wide) with a scholarship from the Indonesian government. The whole experience was amazing and I had a lot of support from my faculty and department, every step of the way. My academic advisor did redirected me from choosing another university and consider the classes and opportunities available at Penn and I’m grateful that my advisor advised me so because attending classes at the Wharton Business School has been one of the most outstanding experience in my years of university. I’m also thankful for the head of the management study program for the support as well as the faculty for how helpful the administration was for me. 

As a student at Penn, I was living on campus in the upperclassmen dorms and having roomates was a very amazing experience. My roomates were very nice and welcoming people. Penn has a lot of cultural centers where we get to study and hold events at. One time, I was in charge of a mini event of a cultural exchange where we introduced indonesian culture and celebrated the youth pledge’s day. We raised over $700 in donations as well as introduced an Indonesian business owner of a Martabak place in Philadelphia to students at Penn and introduced Indonesian college culture as well. For fall break, my friends and I stayed at an Indonesian UN Ambassador house in New York. We had a wonderful time there as they were very kind and welcoming to us. On other occasions, i’d like to visit my brother in Boston, as he was also on the exchange program to Boston University. 

Overall, the whole exchange experience has been a wonderful one for me not only because of what happens during the program, but also how supportive my home university was before the program was and also after the program.