Specialist Jesse Kiendl spent two months visiting 10 cities on five islands across Indonesia to help facilitate English Language Fellow Program teacher placement arrangements with Indonesian host universities. He performed site assessments to identify potential issues and worked with the institutions to prepare effective work plans and clarify expectations for the incoming Fellows. At each of the sites, Kiendl also provided teacher training and educational workshops for more than 700 English teachers and future English teachers on techniques to improve their teaching quality. In addition to university site visits, he conducted a two-day workshop for current Indonesia Fellows and representatives from current or future host institutions to discuss cross-cultural communication. This workshop provided an opportunity for current Fellows to share their experiences and advice with future hosts. Kiendl also worked with the Reginal English Language Officer in Indonesia to develop a site assessment template for identifying and selecting new host institutions and he recommended further opportunities for former host institutions to continue their collaboration with the program.
Jesse Kiendl has been teaching English in Spain, China, and the USA for the last 15 years. Over the last five years, he has been involved in teacher training in the USA, Europe, China, Central Asia, and Indonesia. He holds a BA from Columbia University and a MATESOL from the SIT Graduate Institute, where he has also taught classes in language analysis and lesson planning. He has worked as a director of studies in China, was the recipient of a U.S. Department of State Senior English Language Fellowship in Kyrgyzstan, and has served as an English Language Specialist for the Department of State in Indonesia and Bulgaria. In the summer of 2016 he will be working on a Specialist project in Egypt, providing teacher training for Access alumni.