The 6th Camp EPIC Workshop held in Bandung in Indonesia, 51 pre-service English teachers joined this growing number of U.S.-trained English teaching professionals. According to the U.S. Embassy Jakarta's Regional English Language Office (RELO) celebrations marking 75 years of U.S.-Indonesia relations in 2024, the RELO has thus far supported training for a record 1,750 Indonesian English teachers and pre-service educators nearing completion of their university studies.
Ruth Goode, Director of the Regional English Language Office, thanked participants for their hard work and commitment to their profession. “Everyone needs three languages: the language of the home and heart, the language of the nation, and the language of the world”, said Goode at the November 4 Camp EPIC opening ceremony. “English opens the doors to good jobs, to higher education, to the global economy, and to understanding our world”.
Managed by the University of Indonesia, Camp EPIC is a two-week workshop for talented third- and fourth-year university students training to be English teachers. Selected from over 600 applications in a highly competitive process, the 51 Indonesian students joined by four from Timor-Leste come from every corner of the archipelago, some traveling for over eight hours from their homes to get to the nearest airport. In the intensive workshop, talented future English teachers experience the latest English teaching strategies and learn how to implement them in their own classrooms.
Alumni of Camp EPIC which stands for Empowered, Prepared, Inspired, and Connected typically go on to other scholarship opportunities, graduate study, or leadership roles in their own schools, and because of their participation in the intensive Camp EPIC experience, form a strong bond with each other and stay connected to this professional community long after the Camp is over.
For the Camp EPIC series, instruction is provided by University of Indonesia faculty members in collaboration with U.S.-sponsored English Language Fellows. Five alumni of previous camps serve as camp counselors and gain experience running a teacher training workshop.
Four U.S. English Language Fellows participating in 2024’s 10-month academic exchange are assigned to universities in Medan, Ambon, Surabaya, and Bandung, where they are teaching a combined 800 pre-service English teachers in support of Indonesia’s move to reintroduce English curriculum in public schools beginning from Grade 3. In addition, RELO is sponsoring the third iteration of an English Language Teacher Training program (ELTT3) for 480 teachers from 11 cities in Indonesia, primarily from madrasah and pesantren.
The initiative camp is already training 160 pre-service English teachers from ten cities across Indonesia through its scholarship program called the English Access Scholarship, giving two years of scholarships to poor youth. RELO has also awarded 100 students with scholarships for online courses held over eight weeks at the graduate level, through the US Department of State's Online Professional English Network (OPEN). The program has trained over 50 university-level English instructors on academic writing and 20 language teachers from Sebasa, an Indonesian police language training academy.
