Jakarta International University (JIU) now has the first official dormitory building, the “Thomas House”. After nine months of construction, it was time to inaugurate on Monday, April 4th, 2022. The ceremony was attended by the main sponsor of the dormitory, Mr. Ho Kim. The representatives of Wira Agung Mandiri (WAM) and Youth With a Mission (YWAM), also attended that ceremony. WAM is the construction company that collaborated with JIU in the construction of Thomas House until the end of construction. YWAM Tyler is a youth global movement community from Texas, USA, which recently has a mission trip to Indonesia and JIU is one of their destinations. This community is a group of young people who want to get close to God vigorously and encourage others to feel the closeness with God.
Starting with a worship service by Pastor Jeff from YWAM, the ceremony was continued by a presentation of the architectural description of the building by Mr. Young-Ju Son, the person in charge of architecture. He is a volunteer and acts as a project manager for JIU. The ceremony ended with performances from the JIU Choir and the Dance Team, Harmony Rhythm Crew; and the piano performance of Mr. Jungtaek Kim.
The official inauguration was held in the Thomas House building with a ribbon cutting and opening symbol by the Founder of JIU, Mr. Yonggyu-Lee.
The attendees were welcomed to have building tours, through the hall, rooms, and other facilities of the building.
The building is entirely white. This white color becomes the perfect background for the symbol in the center of the 1st floor, the image of an ocean-blue palm, with a hole in the middle. This symbolizes Thomas, the Apostle who just believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ after touching His wounds. The ocean blue color symbolizes himself who became a missionary to India by boat. This symbol becomes the center and spirituality of this building with 5 floors and 1 basement. The facilities contained in this building are 3 master rooms, 30 dormitory rooms that can accommodate 220 students, and 4 teacher rooms. In addition, there are study rooms and pantry facilities for dine-in together on each floor.
With the inauguration of Thomas House, students from Jakarta International University and Cornerstone Global Academy officially occupied the dormitory rooms under the same roof. The purpose of education with the dormitory method is to collaborate intellectual and value education with life skills. The university provides students with a better place that is close to the university. While living in the dorm, students will experience makes the students learn and develop a lot of things such as ethics, attitudes, time management, friendship, and teamwork. Students learn to understand and respect their roommates and themselves. They also learn how to enhance decision-making ability which will be useful to manage stress. Developing all aspects of life in the dorm may bring great benefit to the future of students.
Student Reporter – Eudes Pendar Gandhewa Hening
