Welcome! We are back for the continuation of the GW UNESCO Fellows blog!
My name is Hayley Pottle and I was a 2022 UNESCO Fellow with the Education Unit at UNESCO Jakarta Office in Indonesia. Although I concluded my in-person portion of my fellowship, I am still reveling and reflecting on the impactful experience. This program enabled me to connect with incredible individuals, develop myself personally and professionally, and experience extraordinary places. I am immensely grateful for my time in Indonesia.
Throughout my fellowship in Jakarta I supported the Education Unit, while I also was able to engage with other units of the UNESCO office relating to communications and social media, as well as other aspects. It was exciting to utilize my communications background to support social media captions, stories and showcase the impact of the office and the phenomenal youth leaders across the Southeast Asia region such as Hazeeq and Ruby (see below!).
Social media stories I developed for UNESCO Jakarta Office for UN International Youth Day.
During my fellowship I supported three of the Education Unit’s main programs through research and development of learning and marketing materials These included the following:
- I researched and developed materials focused on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), Global Citizenship Education (GCED, Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) and Culture in Education. To support this initiative, I helped showcase UNESCO’s support to build education capacity and to enhance access to quality education across the region.
- I researched and helped develop leaflets and brochures for UNESCO Jakarta’s Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Literacy program that helps provide teachers and life-skills training so that youth can obtain work and address employment challenges in the labor market.
- Lastly, I developed materials for the Unit’s Education Sector-wide Policy and Planning program that identifies policy and capacity gaps in existing systems and nation states for implementing Sustainable Development Goal 4 (focused on Education 2030 objective) and to design actions to fill those gaps across Jakarta’s office cluster countries.
In addition to this work that I was privileged to support, the city of Jakarta offered so much to deepen my learning and overall international experience. For example, I was struck by the duality of this view where the impressive and large skyscrapers hover over the much smaller and simpler, yet also beautiful buildings. Jakarta exists at the juxtaposition of what has been and what is to come- a leader in the region that honors the past and welcomes the future and holds tension and space for multiple realities and experiences in a globalized world. May we all embrace such a way of life.
View of the city of Jakarta at sunset.
Participating in a UNESCO Intangible Heritage social media challenge at the Jakarta office with a colleague.
I also had the pleasure to experience culture and festivals in Jakarta throughout my fellowship including Indonesia Independence Day and festivals across the city of Jakarta. Having the opportunity to engage with the communities and cultures in Indonesia enabled me to have an even deeper appreciation for the beauty of the people and places of Jakarta where there is significant diversity in backgrounds, religions, perspectives and worldviews. These activities and events also supported me being able to understand and appreciate cultural diversity in a newfound way. There is much that we can all learn on how to engage the beauty of diversity as a strength and value in society and nationhood.
At a festival in Jakarta, Indonesia
My favorite view on my walk commute to the UNESCO Jakarta Office full of light and greenery.
As I conclude my experience as a George Washington University UNESCO Fellow with the Jakarta office in Indonesia, I am immensely grateful for this opportunity. I remember almost exactly one year ago that one of the deciding factors of me determining my graduate school of choice was professional development opportunities such as the GW UNESCO Fellows program. I have been interested in experiencing the work of the UN first hand since my undergraduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and I am honored to have been able to learn from this fellowship.
My experience in Jakarta has been phenomenal as it enabled me to learn from and support UNESCO’s mission and objectives, explore my own career interests and discover what opportunities are possible in pursuing a global future. As I navigated my time in Indonesia, I was often humbled by my own ignorance or assumptions on how I expected life to be in Jakarta, honored to connect with such amazing people (Indonesians and international friends), and gained a newfound sense of assurance that there is a part of me that comes alive when I am abroad. A confidence and sense of self that is awakened and fulfilled when making impact in a new place that often challenges me personally and engages me intellectually. Thank you for joining me on my experience as a GW UNESCO Fellow!
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Hayley is a Master of Arts Candidate in International Education and is passionate about empowering youth and women to be global citizens and utilize their skills for a better, more collaborative and cooperative world.