As on offshoot of the bilateral agreement signed between the Tarlac Agricultural University (Philippines) and the Universitas Mercu Buana (Indonesia) in June 2019, Dr. Ma. Theresa B. Nardo, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, has been invited by UMB as visiting lecturer on October 19 to November 17, 2019.
The UMB International Office welcomed Dr. Nardo and familiarized her with the various offices of the University before she was formally endorsed to the Fakulti Ilmu Komunikasi (College of Communication) which served as her host college at UMB.
The first week was spent on attending various activities in the campus because of the 40th anniversary celebration of the University. Planning and preparation of lectures and materials as well as some welcome visits to historical places in and outside Jakarta to better understand and appreciate the area and the whole set up of the University were done prior to the formal lectures which were conducted in the different classes and fora.
As a visiting lecturer, Dr. Nardo was given topics to discuss for the classes that invited her specifically highlighting the best practices of the Philippines in relation to the topics that were presented in line with the syllabi of the different courses at the FIKom particularly on the major fields of Public Relations, Broadcasting, Digital Communication and Marketing Communication.
At other occasions, she served as resource person for the in-house seminars and forum of the Faculty of Communication and students on going global and ASEAN 2025 for the empowerment of people with disability, respectively.
The exposure culminated in the signing of MOA with the different colleges in the university that offered similar programs with TAU’S College of Arts and Sciences like Communication, Economics and Psychology.
The last leg of her exposure at UMB was her participation in a community outreach in one of the identified villages in Bogor, Indonesia where pupils of a public school received support from BFI, a commercial bank that performed their CSR in cooperation with UMB students.
The enriching experience gave her a bigger perspective of dealing with a culture different from Philippines and for opening the possibilities of developing partners for her College.
After the program, Nardo quipped, “Before I left for Indonesia in October, I was determined to bring pride to my University, TAU, which I did because other plans of academic exchanges, both faculty and students are in the pipeline.”