A Whole New Family!

As a student coming from South East Asia, one of the main problems that came to my head before joining IMFSE was that the considerable distance and time zone difference from my family and best friends – it’s like jumping out of your comfort zone. Especially for me, I had never been away from the city I live in for more than a month and I would need to speak a language that is rarely used in my home country. If you are still pondering whether or not you want to join IMFSE because you have the same thought as I had, think no more and go for it! Because here in IMFSE, you will have the best international family you’ve ever had!

It happened to me in the welcome week in Edinburgh, I got new friends from all over the world. Starting from the first year who are in total 7 students from 7 different countries, to the second year students who are 4 students from 4 different countries as well – not to mention our super cool academic supervisor Prof. Grunde Jomaas who warmly welcomed all of us so we could feel at home!

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The best thing about IMFSE is that the relationship among students doesn’t end when the programme has ended. Some of the graduates that are working in the 3 countries of IMFSE programme still willingly welcomed us and showed us around town. For example, Balsa (who is now a PhD student in Ghent University) took us second year students to a small trip around Ghent so we could get to know the best place in town. Other graduates who are working in Ghent are Kristi and Kunsulu. They recently moved in to a new place and invited us for a house warming party, and of course, 1^st year and 2^nd year students are invited! Look at all the food beautifully placed and served!

To sum up, having been part of IMFSE programme is one of the best experiences in my life. Everyone supports each other without leaving anyone behind. Especially in 2^nd semester when you finally get to meet your parted family in Lund, it feels like a very big support system! So, for the first year students who may have problems with anything, don’t be hesitant to contact us seniors or graduates. If we could, we would surely help you sort out the problems as we are one big family after all. IMFSE family!

Life After IMFSE

Two years of learning, of fiery experiments and discussions, of multicultural experiences, of travelling, of bonding moments. As cliché as it may sound, the best two years of my life.

IMFSE went by so fast. I can still vividly remember the day when I received the email saying I am accepted to the programme. I can still clearly remember the day when I had my first international flight; I was excited, albeit afraid, of what is waiting for me on the other side of the globe. The memories are fresh–feels like everything happened just yesterday.

We did it! 🎉 (Photo taken from IMFSE page)

But all good things come to an end. And the culmination of IMFSE is such a bittersweet memory. During the student representatives’ speech on our graduation, I posed a challenge to both the graduating students–to proudly show the world what IMFSE has equipped us with–and the management board–to continue improving the programme for the next generation of fire engineers. After all the jubilation, we were at the point of our lives where we were kind of caught in a limbo. What’s next? Where to go?

Thankfully, IMFSE prepared us really well. Almost all of the graduating class stayed true to what that capital I stands for: INTERNATIONAL. We, literally and figuratively, went places; armed with knowledge and hope for a fire-safe world. UK, Belgium, Italy, Australia, Singapore, China, India, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan: our cohort dispersed like fire brands.

The IMFSE Sprinklers: Cohort 2017-2019! (Photo taken from IMFSE page)

As for me, I am now affiliated with OFR Consultants–one of the company sponsors of IMFSE. I have to say that IMFSE equipped me with the skills that I need for my job. IMFSE’s approach is truly international because it taught us the fundamentals of fire engineering which transcends building codes and standards. It gave us an insight about fire that is applicable everywhere; after all, fire is a global phenomenon. That is not to say that I know immediately everything about my job. I am learning day by day but the training given by IMFSE made the transition from being a student to being a full-pledged engineer easier. My weekdays revolve around assessing building plans and writing fire safety strategies. I occasionally attend meetings with architects and looking forward to meetings with clients and building authorities.

I remember the promotional video of IMFSE saying that more than 70% of the graduates found a job before graduating and the rest within three months after graduating. I am a lucky part of that 70% and I can tell that my knowledge of fire because of IMFSE gave me an advantage.

To the current students, savour every bit of your IMFSE journey but plan for what is ahead–a bigger world where you are more needed. I am sure that IMFSE will prepare you well for the challenge.

This is yours truly, Gerard, signing off.

Shine bright, IMFSE! 🔥 (Photo taken from IMFSE page)

Happy Batik Day!

One of the advantages of being an Erasmus student is learning about different culture from other international students. Starting from a little knowledge of the history of the countries and even the important national dates to learning some of the (bad) language of each country.

Today, for example, is the National Batik Day in Indonesia and most students and people working in the office will wear batik – the traditional shirt of Indonesia. While I was in Jakarta this summer, I thought it would be very nice for the IMFSE group in Ghent to know about this and experience it themselves. So, I brought some batik shirt from Indonesia for them! It looks really nice on them too!

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Unfortunately last year I didn’t have time in Edinburgh to prepare such a thing for IMFSE, so I celebrated batik day with the Edinburgh Indonesian Students’ Society (or widely known as PPI in Indonesia which is the abbreviation for Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia). Here are some photos of us making Edinburgh a bit more colorful!

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Thanks to PPI Edinburgh for making such an event and the photos as well!

Happy Batik Day!