The Institute for Training and Development (ITD) is a nonprofit organization based in Amherst, Massachusetts dedicated to education and inter-cultural exchange. ITD has supported civic engagement, academic exchange, youth leadership, sustainable development and other priority areas worldwide by immersing community leaders, scholars, professionals, governmental and non-governmental administrators in engaging programs from over 100 countries.
Anang Saja
Anang Saja
Teacher
Anang is a language teacher at SMA Negeri 3 Sukabumi in West Java, Indonesia, known for his dedication to classroom learning and to strengthening the wider teaching community. He earned his bachelor’s from the Indonesia University of Education (UPI) in Bandung and a master’s in Population and Environmental Education from Pakuan University, grounding his pedagogy in social and environmental contexts. Active in professional forums, he writes on education, develops teacher trainings, and is a frequent seminar speaker—yet consistently prioritizes his students. A 2022 SUSI participant at ITD, he later received a Mini Grant to host an education seminar in Indonesia and was invited to the 2025 SUSI Alumni Conference in San José, Costa Rica, reflecting his growing impact in global education networks.
Being part of the SUSI program is a dream for many educators in Indonesia. When I discovered that the program also welcomed teachers, I felt challenged to compete and become part of it. After a rigorous selection process, I was fortunate to be accepted and joined the program in June–July 2022. The experience was nothing short of extraordinary—truly a life-changing journey that still moves me deeply whenever I recall it.
Yet, for me, the greater challenge began after the program ended. I felt a strong responsibility to create meaningful initiatives that would extend the impact of my SUSI experience to fellow teachers in Indonesia. Only two weeks after returning, I began disseminating what I had learned to colleagues at my school.
Still, I was not fully satisfied. Together with the educator community Kelas Kreatif Indonesia, I organized several webinars that featured fellow SUSI participants as speakers. I invited inspiring educators such as Randi Hunshamar (Norway), Hemn Ali (Iraq), Maricel Roldan (Argentina), Kamelya Tsanova (Bulgaria), Frans Henry (Malta), Kenneth Koh (Singapore), Iskandar Sattibaev (Uzbekistan), and Stella Kroustalidou (Greece). These sessions continued in multiple episodes and generated remarkable enthusiasm among teachers and education practitioners.
That growing enthusiasm encouraged me to take even more concrete steps. At the end of 2024, I was honored to receive a mini-grant as an alum, which enabled me to organize Edu-Talk, a seminar that explored Critical Pedagogy in relation to the implementation of Indonesia’s Kurikulum Merdeka.
My journey did not stop there. In January 2025, I was invited once again to join the SUSI Alumni Conference in Costa Rica. It was another valuable opportunity to absorb diverse insights and capture a variety of educational phenomena from different parts of the world, shared by fellow alumni across cohorts.
As a teacher from a region that still has much to learn and develop, I remain deeply committed to being part of the movement for positive change in education. I believe that by sharing knowledge, fostering collaboration, and embracing global perspectives, we can contribute to shaping a brighter future for education in Indonesia and beyond.
