History

Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) was founded in 1951 with just a few students and  teachers. Now in its 75th year, JIS has grown into a community with 3 campuses, 2,500+ students from 70+ countries, and 300+ teachers. Over the years it has developed quite the reputation as the top international school in Indonesia. So much so that when creating my list of the top international schools to visit on Adventure Year, I decided that I would make a trip to Indonesia just to see it. It just so happened this was my 20th international school visit so far!

Collaborative Leadership

Deputy Head of School David Lovelin shared about his leadership and toured me around the Cilandak campus. David is a collaborative leader who balances compassion with high expectations. He has previous leadership experience in Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, and the USA. Throughout our time together it became clear that David is a leader who takes care of his people, this is an essential practice for healthy school culture. One example of how David takes care of his people is the book of staff ID photos that he studies daily to know the names of his staff in order to connect with them by name when he is around campus. 

Highlights

Top tier international schools like JIS have too many awesome things to highlight in a short article, but here are a few that I enjoyed. 

Instead of being an international school in its own bubble, JIS is making a push to welcome Jakarta into their campus. One example of this is that all after school activities are open to students who don’t attend the school. Another are the local teacher training courses taught by their staff that they offer each summer. These initiatives show the school’s heart to know and serve the surrounding community. This reminded me of Ecolint in Geneva, read more about that visit here. 

Forge and maintain strong organizational partnerships. JIS understands the simple fact that education is FOR the students. In order to safeguard students and maintain a high quality experience for their families they build strong relationships with their partners. This includes vetting potential new partners and educating them about the child safeguarding policies they must adhere to.  

It must be the physical education teacher in me, but I am often impressed by phenomenal athletics facilities. JIS has beautiful covered tennis courts and an international regulation track, branded in Dragon blue, of course! Facilities like this allow JIS to offer excellent athletics experiences for their student teams and provide the opportunity to host larger athletics events which provide unique experiences for their community. 

3 Key Takeaways

• Communicate With Care: How you communicate is more important than what you communicate. How you make team members feel during hard conversations IS the culture. 
• Welcoming Environments: Clean, purposefully designed, and culturally relevant spaces can elevate a school to a dynamic multicultural learning community. 
• Future Focus: Don’t just wait for the future of education to come to you. Instead, source the best possible information to position your school to prepare students for their unknown futures. 

Build culture, unlock potential. Visit my Connect Page or send a message on LinkedIn. 

Stay tuned for more international school visits – up next Sekolah Pelita Harapan, Sentul City!

Peace & Blessings, 

– Josiah