Aim student success stories

Aiming for a bright future in San Francisco

Teachers and staff at Aim for English (Jakarta) are delighted to hear this week that one of our students has finally been granted a visa to study English in the USA. Fairly unremarkable news, you might think, until you learn that Jonih, the student in question, has been profoundly deaf since birth, and that his first two visa applications had been rejected (the second time in about 30 seconds flat!)

Jonih first came to study English with us around 5 months ago; none of the teachers at the school had taught a deaf student before (and it was slightly daunting at first) but by using two wireless laptops and 'talking' via Yahoo! Messenger (and aided by Aim's interactive whiteboards), we were able to communicate easily with him, and he soon began to make remarkable progress with his English.

Jonih, a student from a modest financial background, had been fortunate enough to find funding to study in the USA through an American NGO, World Deaf. Its founder, Don Bangs, sponsored his English study here in Jakarta as well as covering the travel, living and tuition costs for Jonih's study program in the US. The future was looking rosy for Jonih, who now only needed to procure his F-1 Student Visa.

In the days before his first embassy interview, Jonih's teachers helped to prepare him for possible questions as well as the completion of the documents, and with the funding in place and all official documents completed, everyone assumed the visa would be a formality. The first application was rejected in less than 5 minutes and the second in under a minute, on the grounds of 'insufficient ties to Indonesia'.

To cut a long story short, nobody would refuse to give up and we made one more application, this time with some additional supporting documents and to his surprise (and to the great relief of all his friends here at Aim for English) the application was successful. He leaves for San Francisco at the beginning of January!

Ian Bishop, Managing Director of Aim for English, says, “We're thrilled for Jonih. He really deserves this chance and we wish him all the best for his continued studies in the USA.”

Good luck, Jonih!