Hello, my name is Sonnia Christin, Binusian20 majoring in accounting. It was a very valuable and honorable experience for me to be able to represent Binus University in the acceptance of CPA Australia Ambassadors which is one of the international accounting certifications that has a representative office in Indonesia.

As we know that Binus University has a partnership with many companies including professional certification institutions, and one of which is in the field of accounting, Binus is cooperating with Certified Practice Accountant (CPA) Australia that has a representative office in Indonesia.

In the end of 2017 armed with the information that I got from my senior accounting & finance lab assistant who is also an CPA Australia Ambassador in 2016, I challenge myself to participate in the 2018 Ambassador election.

After the CV screening, the first phase of the interview, until the last stage, me and my partner Mahdi Kusuma (Binusian19 – Accounting) were selected to be the CPA Australia Ambassador 2018 representing Binus University.

I have gained a lot of experience while serving as an ambassador. Especially experience related to communication, public speaking and teamwork within a team. Where ambassadors from other universities and I collaborate in every event held by CPA Australia such as the Career Expo, Workshop, and so on.

Initially I was doubtful that I could be chosen as an ambassador, considering that one of the requirements was fluent in English (written & spoken), while I felt that I was not fluent in English. But don’t let them be the barrier, with courage and desire to learn, during my time as an ambassador I learned and practiced a lot to speak English. Because in its activities, we meet a lot of CEOs, Lecturers, Practitioners and CPA graduates who are also fluent in English, so we had to speak English with them.

Besides skills in communication, public speaking, and team-work, ambassadors also get a lot of connections with HR staffs from national and multi-national companies during the Career Expo. Where this is the provision for us when we have graduated from university, so that we are more familiar with HR from the company.

I really enjoyed my time as a CPA Australia ambassador, and certainly thank the Binus University accounting majors lecturer & staffs also the laboratory assistants, senior ambassadors, and CPA Australia who entrusted me to become an ambassador for the 2018 period. I highly recommend to accounting, finance and accounting & information system students for challenge yourself to become the next CPA Australia Ambassador.

(ANM)