In this best opportunity, I am very pleased to convey my key messages and impressions
during my time as a Doctorate student at the School of Business and Economics, Major in Project
Management at AIU. In this regard, allow me to briefly tell you what the basic reasons for becoming
an AIU student since the beginning of 2018. Before becoming a student at that time, I had prepared
myself as best as I could in several years before officially registering as a student. Initially, I received
information from a co-worker named Henrique do Rosario at the World Food Program Timor-Leste
office around 2013, where my friend was a student at AIU. At that time, he briefly told how to
become a “Distance Learning” student along with all the rights and obligations which was very
interesting. Then from time to time, I consciously began to get used to taking online courses to
deepen my mastery of information and technology online. Because in my opinion at that time, the
“Distance Learning” model relied on the Andragogy education system in its learning method, where
students had to be able to learn on their own with minimal supervision from a lecturer, meaning
that at least they had to have Information & Technology skills in addition to basic skills in the
scientific field that a person had. Departing from my basic knowledge at the bachelor’s degree for
Marine Science and the master’s degree in Environmental Science requires knowledge and other
skills in order to act professionally in an increasingly competitive work.
The shorten story, as time goes on and so does some new knowledge and skills achieved,
precisely before the end of 2017, I tried to contact the link at the URL [https://www.aiu.edu/] to look
for opportunities to become a masters level student for Project Management. At that time, I
seriously followed every stage of the existing process however, after fully understanding the
opportunities and challenges that existed, and then I finally changed my mind to become a
candidate for doctoral level student in the same field of Project Management. And in the end the
opportunity came with the response of my email by AIU academics, and after that got a direct phone
call in the early morning from Ms. Keren Felisiano (Admissions Counselor). After all the
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administrative criteria were understood and approved by my family, especially my wife Elisabeth Eny
Kususmastuti, I was officially accepted as an AIU student which I love and be proud of according to
the letter dated January 9, 2018 signed by the Dean of Admissions (Prof. Dr. Jaime M. Rotlewics).
There are several key messages and impressions that I would like to express here, and hopefully they
will inspire some people to be happy to join the AIU family as well. One thing that has definitely
been my impression all this time and I continue to promote it to my friends is the uniqueness itself
where AIU has clearly stated it as a motto that everyone is UNIQUE and UNREPEATABLE.
Starting from this motto, then other unique things really started to impress, such as by a
virtual platform that was specifically stimulated for each student, tutor, advisor, and of course the
alumni. Thus, administratively it can be concluded that all needs for those who have been officially
registered on the virtual platform account provided by the AIU campus can be accessed to enhance
the ability of participants, including Virtual campus & guidance, MYAIU Elements, online libraries,
campus Mundi Magazine, student testimonials, etc. Actually, there are many more impressions that I
have in depth while I was a student, when I took an online exam for environmental management
and pollution courses, where at that time because the internet network was unstable, the process of
loading the test results was hampered. Therefore, in the following moments I prefer to choose to
submit assignments and exams offline. My personal impression is on Prof. Dr. Edward Lambert, Prof.
Dr. Jack Rosenzweig, Prof. Dr. Leonardo Salas (Advisors) where they patiently guided and directed
me who was almost past the deadline for submitting assignments, then to Prof. Dr. Franklin Valcin
(President/Academic Dean) who became a motivator, especially when delivering his speech at
graduation ceremonies. To all of them, even though haven’t had the opportunity to meet in person,
but have met them virtually and it makes me very satisfied. Then materially, one of the impressions
that remain in my mind is about the vision of AIU itself, namely “The empowerment of the
individual through self-learning to achieve the joint evolution of the world, through a holistic and
tenable educational design, based on Andragogy.”
Then move on to the message that I think it is needed to informing to those who can be
relied on to share information in each of the neighborhoods in which they are. At this time the facts
show that AIU alumni are widely distributed in many countries, and it has become a common
obligation that the AIU alumni association should promote the motto that everyone is UNIQUE and
UNREPETEABLE. Likewise, personally the reason I chose the research title for my dissertation, which
is about “Ocean and Coastal Governance Stewardship: Moving Towards a National Integrated
Coastal Management Strategy for Timor-Leste 2020-2040.” Here, I want to be explicitly transmit a
message especially to the Government of Timor-Leste, and other countries that in this world there
are no transboundary for ecological values except the administrative boundaries, and only the ocean
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unites us all without boundaries jurisdiction, and only through partnerships we can move forward
together to build a world that we love together, and hopefully this year we will all be part of the
messages of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).Yours Sincerely,Mario Marques Cabral