A Tale of Two Jennies

Jennifer Zenick (Class of 1990) and Jennifer Tiefel (Class of 1999) once walked JIS’s open-air hallways as students, forging lifelong friendships, dressing up for United Nations Day, and discovering their passions in and beyond the classroom.

Today, they’ve returned as educators, bringing with them the lessons, memories, and inspiration they first found here. The paths that brought them back may be different, but they share a common thread: the influence of JIS educators who inspired them to become international school teachers themselves and leave their mark on a new generation of Dragons.

For Jenny Zenick, her years at JIS left a lasting imprint long before she ever imagined returning as a faculty member. Her father’s work at the World Bank brought her family to Indonesia and JIS, where she would spend her formative years, from 1984 to 1988, attending Grades 7 through 10.

It was at the end of her Sophomore year that Jenny had to accept a jarring reality: Her sister was graduating and her family would be moving back to the States. 

“I really wanted to stay here; this was where my good friends were. I didn't want to move back,” she recalls. “There were a lot of tears about it. It’s always hard to leave a place you love. That's one of the reasons why JIS has always been in my heart.”

Alongside the friendships and experiences she holds close to this day, it was the teachers who supported her in and outside the classroom who made a lasting mark — and eventually inspired her to follow in their footsteps.

“They were there for me all the time — just really committed educators and the kind of people who cared for kids as human beings, not just as learners,” she says. “They were my support during that time, and a reminder that teachers can teach you a lot about topics and education, but also just about the kind of human beings to be.”

Their influence made such an impression that they formed the foundations for Jenny’s aspirations. By the time she “was forced to leave JIS”, she had set her sights on not only becoming a teacher, but also traveling the world while making the same guiding impact on the next generation of learners. 

“I wanted to spend my life traveling and living abroad. I think it’s a great lifestyle: to be able to see the world.”

This vision stayed with her through university and a year backpacking around Asia. When she met fellow educator Eddie Wexler, that long-held goal became a shared plan after she convinced him of the wonders of being a global citizen.

The couple, joined by their two children, would spend the next 15 years working at international schools across Nepal, Ecuador, Abu Dhabi, and Switzerland, with Jenny Z teaching English and Social Studies along the way. 

The family then decided to move back to the United States to be closer to relatives, but it didn’t take long for the third-culture kid in all of them to start craving a new adventure. 

“I think going back to the US was a reminder of all the things we missed, and even our children said things like, ‘thank you for giving us the opportunity overseas, we’re so lucky we had it, can we do it again?’” she recalls.

And it was actually Eddie who started looking for opportunities abroad again.

“When this job [as JIS High School Principal] appeared, it was like fate because I love the school, and now there's a job opening for principal! Because I talked about JIS so much with Eddie, he knew it would be a great place for our kids and for us.”

In 2024, in a full-circle journey, she returned to the very school that first shaped her, now as a Middle School Social Studies teacher while Eddie serves as High School Principal.

The moment she stepped back on the Cilandak campus, all the memories came rushing back: Middle School performances in the Little Theater (now the Jatayu Theater), serving on the Student Council, playing roles in The Hobbit and Mikado, and being part of the Grade 10 class that created the very first Dragon plushy. 

Most of all, she was reminded of the reason she chose this path in the first place: the students and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on their lives.

“I feel really lucky to be here,” she says with a smile.

Like Jenny Z, Jenny Tiefel (then Jenny Powell) credits her JIS experience and teachers for not only shaping her journey as a lifelong learner, but also the career path she would go on to forge while blending her passion for art with education. 

Jenny attended JIS from 1989 to 1995, beginning at Pattimura Elementary (PEL) before moving to the Cilandak campus for Middle School. Her start as a JIS student, however, proved to be a bumpy one.

“I wasn’t a typical student,” she reflects. “I got bored easily, was messy and loud, and was often misunderstood as naughty or lazy.”

It was in Grade 4 that she finally began to see herself as a capable learner — and it was all thanks to a teacher named Ms. Bates, who recognized her “messiness came from having too many ideas and not yet knowing how to organize them”.

Ms. Bates noticed her interest in art and created opportunities for her to access the academic curriculum through studying artists and responding creatively. For the first time, Jenny T felt seen at school.

“She embodied differentiated teaching long before it was common practice. She gave me voice and choice and encouraged hands-on, artistic ways to show my understanding,” she explains.

Years later, in Middle School, another teacher would challenge her to take risks as an artist; to be brave in both her work and her life. She can still remember her first impressions of art teacher Bruce Sherratt, who “came in like a hurricane, shaking up both the program and my way of thinking”.
 

While proud of her flourishing creativity, Jenny concedes that she was afraid to stray from the boundaries of perfection. Mr. Sherratt changed all that.

“He saw exactly what I needed. He literally took paintbrushes out of my hands, replaced them with forks and sponges, and challenged me to rethink my process. He allowed me to fail and helped me see failure as a pathway to growth.”

This idea of disruption being a positive force continued to guide her, playing a particularly pivotal role as she was exploring career paths in the art world while studying at a university in Texas. She looked back at her transformative time at JIS, the empowering influence of Ms. Bates, and the way Mr. Sherratt showed her how to turn stumbles into opportunities for improvement. 

Those reflections became the seeds of Jenny T’s journey as an art teacher, a path that would take her from high school classrooms in Texas to international schools in Bangkok, Shekou, Shanghai, and Muscat.

Then came the opportunity to return to JIS, this time to its Pondok Indah Elementary (PIE) campus. But with it came a stomach full of butterflies.

“I wondered how much would feel familiar and whether the memories would be overwhelming,” she concedes. “What surprised me most was realizing that, despite all the development, the soul of JIS remains the same. Once you step onto campus, you’re shielded from the chaos of Jakarta. You can breathe, connect, and sit under a pendopo with friends.”

Today, in the art studio at PIE, Jenny strives to create the same kind of space her teachers once created for her: one where students feel seen, supported, and brave enough to take risks.

“I hope my students experience the art studio as a safe, joyful, and challenging space — one where they feel connected to their learning and confident in taking creative risks,” she says. “My students at PIE are curious, enthusiastic, and full of ideas, and their energy motivates me every day.”

She looks back at her years at JIS as a formative time when she grew from a child into a teenager while discovering sports, music, art, and lasting friendships. Now, she sees that same journey unfolding for her own son, who is now in Grade 5.

“Knowing that my son is having those same experiences within the gates of JIS is incredibly meaningful,” she reflects. “As a parent, I feel reassured by the care, support, and community that define the school.”
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