JIS gets into festive mood for 50th anniversary

Viva Goldner, Contributor, Jakarta

The Jakarta International School celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, with the aim of connecting more than 20,000 past and present students and their families, staff and teachers for "2002: A JIS Odyssey" -- a year-long salute to the school's colorful history and bright future.

From humble beginnings in a converted garage in suburban Jakarta, JIS now enrolls more than 2,500 students from 64 countries across four campuses.

The school's first students were the children of UN staff posted to the capital of the newly-independent Indonesia in 1951.

As Jakarta continued to grow, so too did the number of international non-governmental organizations and multinational businesses in the city, and in 1953, the fledging International School moved into new facilities at today's Pattimura campus.

In 1969, the school became the Joint Embassy School under the sponsorship of the Australian, British, Yugoslavian and United States Embassies, before adopting its current name in 1978.

JIS opened three new sites over the years as enrollments continued to climb -- the Pondok Indah Elementary Campus, Cilandak Campus, and Prep Center Campus, also in Cilandak.

The transient nature of the student population means that, while JIS has graduated more than 4,000 students, five times that number have attended JIS, but left before Year 12.

According to JIS Director of Development Joan Michaud, a strong sense of community means all students feel at home, regardless of their background or how many years they attend the school.

"Past students we speak with say their years at JIS have been a life-changing experience for them, and wherever they end up in the world, they have tremendously fond memories of being at this school, and of living in Indonesia," Michaud said.

In fact, JIS has often become a focal point for the wider community during times of crisis, such as the 1998 political upheaval with the end of Soeharto's New Order regime, or more recently the floods which claimed 150 lives and many more homes around Jakarta.

Students and staff reacted swiftly, organizing a flood relief committee to collect funds, clothing, medicine and food for distribution to flood victims, as well as coordinating visits by students to affected areas.

"There is a recognition that we are one world, and a recognition that we all have to work together to achieve that, and I hope that here at JIS we promote that idea of being one world," JIS Deputy Head Jean Vahey said.

However, JIS has not completely escaped the political and economic turbulence that is part of Jakarta's history, notably when the Cilandak Campus was evacuated in the mid-1960s in the aftermath of an abortive coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and later when the school year ended a fortnight early due to the 1998 riots preceding Soeharto's fall.

"In 1998, when the various embassies called for their people to leave, many of our parents and students left. At that time, we were about 3,162 students. When we reopened in August the next year, we had about 2,300 students," Vahey said.

Despite the undeniable international atmosphere at JIS, students and staff fully appreciate their location, with Indonesian language and culture studies an integral part of the curriculum at all levels, regular cultural activities and field trips across the archipelago, and an active community outreach program.

One such program run by JIS students is "Tolong Anak-Anak", or kids helping kids, where various activities are organized for local orphans, street children and other disadvantaged Indonesian children.

For example, students recently organized a walk-a-thon to raise funds to send Indonesian children to local schools, while a JIS theater production saw students interact directly with Indonesian children who were invited to take part in the performance.

"There's always been a tradition of helping those in need in the Indonesian community -- a sense of responsibility because we are guests in our host country," JIS Director of Admissions Steve Money said.

JIS's vast collection of black-and-white and color photographs depicting its half-century is testament to staff and students' commitment to recording their school's history.

However, a fire which destroyed much of the Cilandak Campus in 1981 has left something of an archival black hole, with records from the 1950s and 60s lost in the blaze.

This year's odyssey is a unique chance to track those alumni whose details were never recovered, and JIS established the "Capture the Dragon" campaign for this purpose in March 2001. As a mark of its success, the alumni website database has swollen from 500 to 3,500, and continues to grow.

"We have discovered a number of Indonesians who went to Pattimura in the 1950s and 1960s, and they are beginning to come to us, which is great because they have so much knowledge about the history of the school at that time which we have very little information about. We have a real plea to try to find as many of our former students as possible who are living here in Indonesia," Michaud said.

The centerpiece of this year's celebration is "A Voyage Home", from June 2 to June 6, when JIS expects hundreds to return to Jakarta for a week of festivities, including an opening reception, reunion dinner dance, barbecue and band, golf day, museum and sightseeing tours, spa and beauty treatments, and a special children's program.

For more information on JIS's 2002 Odyssey, visit the website at www.jisalumni.com, or contact Michael Sheridan via email at 50years@jisedu.or.id, or fax (62-21) 765 7852.