JIS graduates 82 students in Singapore

JIS graduates 82 students in Singapore

SINGAPORE (AP): Amid rowdy applause and some somber
reflection, one-third of the graduating class of Jakarta
International School (JIS) counted their blessings Tuesday as
they took part in a graduation ceremony most thought would never
happen.

Students from the school are among thousands of expatriates
who have been evacuated from Jakarta since last week.

"I'm happy that we've been evacuated because it has brought us
together. I'm sad because the country which we have lived in and
loved, Indonesia, is falling apart," Andrew Bennett, 18, of
Vancouver, Canada, said while delivering the commencement address
in a cramped Singapore hotel ballroom.

He had lived in Jakarta for 14 years.

The ceremony and informal prom drew a huge crowd of 500
students, parents and friends who all fled Jakarta. Organizers
hoped to offer some closure for the 82 graduating students after
their years of study in Jakarta.

They wore shorts and sneakers -- whatever they managed to take
with them when they fled -- under caps and gowns borrowed from
the Singapore American School.

T-shirts commemorating the unusual event read "It was a riot!"

Some seniors arrived in the middle of the ceremony, straight
from the airport after flying out of Jakarta.

"Graduates, at school you studied history," chairman of the
school council Guy Robinson told the students. "Today you are
living through history."

Becca Weimar, 18, an American who has lived most of her life
in Jakarta, is bound for Louisiana State University. In
Singapore, she is "trying to party with all my friends as much as
possible because we only have a few days left together".

Aside from the impromptu ceremony, she and her classmates have
been enjoying the luxuries of affluent Singapore. They have been
getting their hair done, shopping, going to movies, hanging out
at trendy restaurants and partying late into the night at clubs
and bars.

But their parents are faced with more sobering
responsibilities, ranging from business concerns to worries over
friends and employees left behind.

Bill Botwick, 51, of Rochester, Michigan, is president of
General Motors Indonesia and has been going to work at the
Singapore office since he flew out of Jakarta on Saturday aboard
a company-chartered plane.

"We're still in operation in Indonesia. We've set up a command
center here," he said. "We're spending most of our time
addressing issues of our customers in Indonesia and our
employees. We're concerned about the welfare of both."

Although they do not know yet when or if they will return to
Jakarta, the evacuated kids can bet on one thing: writing
interesting essays next term on "How I spent my summer vacation".

Botwick said: "(My sons Benjamin, 14, and Aaron, 8) had a
sense that they lived through some history, a very important
event. And it's something they will remember for a long time."