Dragon Love Story: Blanca & Max

Before joining JIS, Max had already spent five years at Pattimura (PEL) in his early Elementary School years. Blanca started at JIS in 2014, and Max joined in 2016. On Max’s very first day at High School, he was introduced to Blanca. We did not speak much beyond that at first, but later that year, we ended up in the same friend group and gradually became close friends. Over time, that friendship blossomed into a relationship. By Senior year in 2019, we were even highlighted as “Best Couple” in the yearbook!

A lot of our favorite JIS memories are connected to everyday life around school. Max used to pick Blanca up on his motorbike on the way to school, we had art class together where Mr. White would scold us for talking to each other too much, and we spent a lot of time at the High School Gym together. We also got to experience some incredible trips through JIS and Indonesia, from setting up coral reef cages to kite-surfing and diving trips. 

After JIS, we moved to The Hague in the Netherlands together. Blanca studied Creative International Business, while Max studied International Business. During university, Blanca completed a marketing internship at an electric-vehicle charging company, while Max completed a growth-hacking internship at a local crypto platform and started to provide freelance marketing services for several crypto funds and web companies.

After university, Blanca continued to build her career in the EV sector, including work on the SMART project across the EU and Nordics. Max started working early during university, first in fintech at Adyen as a Risk Analyst, then in marketing at DEGIRO, a stock brokerage. He now works as a Product Marketing Lead at Bybit, the second-largest crypto exchange.

Outside of work, Blanca is very focused on health and fitness and regularly participates in running competitions. Max has a strong entrepreneurial spirit and spends much of his time focused on building new projects. We also frequently meet up with other Dragon friends in the Netherlands — the Dragon Spirit is always strong!

We are now back in Indonesia, celebrating our ninth anniversary together, which makes returning to the Cilandak campus feel even more meaningful and full circle for us.

JIS is where our story started. We began dating at 16 years old, and now, nine years later at 25, we are still together. What began as a friendship in the hallways, classrooms, school trips, and everyday life in Jakarta eventually became the relationship we still have today. Coming back to Indonesia always feels special because, in many ways, it feels like coming home.