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News & Press: Alumni Profiles |
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Thea Nelson Dotulong '96
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
 When Thea Nelson Dotulong ’96 spent her junior year in college studying political science in Indonesia, she had no idea this special place would eventually become her home. After graduating from Wesleyan with a B.A. in government, Thea decided to return to Indonesia for a year to perfect her language skills and learn a bit more about this fascinating part of the world. She received a one-year contract to teach English as a second language at a university in Yogyakarta, Java. Thea made $50 a month, struggled to make ends meet, and found herself happily exploring this different culture.
Her contract was extended for a second year and Thea began translating and editing academic papers and reports, in addition to teaching English for some private companies. Thea describes, “My garden flourished and the university holidays allowed me ample time to travel the archipelago in search of the best scuba diving Indonesia has to offer.”
After a few years in Java, Thea felt it was time for a change. So she packed up her things and moved to Bali to become a scuba diving instructor. She continued to translate and edit academic papers, which focused mainly on economics, and she enjoyed the physical challenges of being a certified open water scuba instructor. Thea also joined a nonprofit diving club, where she eventually met her husband, Hengky Dotulong.
Thea now works with her husband helping out with his local internet provider business, continues her editing and translating, teaches scuba diving, and teaches English over the internet. And, if that was not enough to keep her busy, Thea thoroughly enjoys raising her 15-month old son and 4-year-old stepson. She remarks, “I’m not really sure how I got here, except to say that I followed my intuition and allowed my happiness to rule my destiny. When I first returned to Indonesia to teach…I thought I would spend a year in the country and emerge with a niche skill—knowledge of Indonesia and fluency in the language. I assumed I would continue with grad school and find a high-flying job in D.C. or NYC….but life has a wonderful way of offering the most unexpected possibilities.”
Thea’s involvement with her dive club (www.kepalselam.org) has also opened up a variety of new areas for Thea to explore. Recently, she has become more involved in the environmental aspect of diving. She explains, “Because of Indonesia’s myriad economic and social problems, the reefs and fish are at particular risk. It is my fervent hope that we will be able to contribute to efforts to preserve the country’s underwater wealth for generations to come.”
Interestingly, Thea first began diving her junior year at Maret. She went diving for a week in the Bahamas and knew this was something she wanted to keep doing. She feels her education at Maret gave her the tools to “thrive in whatever I chose to do.” She elaborates, “Maret taught me that no matter the path that I ultimately chose, as long as I did it with passion it was valid….I learned early on at Maret ‘to think globally and act locally,’ a maxim I still try to apply to my life. The social, economic, and political problems that we all face, and which residents of developing countries face in particular, can overwhelm. Maret teaches its students how to focus on small achievements that add to the common goal, no matter what it is.”
Thea descibes the environment at Maret as one of “collective individualism”—a place that values the development of each student’s unique personality and interests, while emphasizing the importance of respecting other people’s opinions and working together. She begins to list her influential teachers at Maret, including Puckie Thomas, Shelley Brody, Barbara Hadley, and Lynn Levinson, but stops herself to mention “no Maret teacher can be forgotten.” Thea continues, “But most of all, I remember all of my teachers stressing that it was more important to learn how to think than to memorize or learn by rote. And that is a lasting lesson indeed! The focus on questioning, on discovery, on drawing your own conclusions…these are lifelong lessons that continue to resonate.”
Thea urges her fellow Maret alums to contact her if passing through Indonesia at thea.nelson@gmail.com. She loves to share with others her new country, its beauty and culture, and her passion for diving.
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