A Return Rooted in Community

Sixteen years after graduating from JIS as the official Class of 2008 historian, Dragon “lifer” Supraja Seshadri found herself back where it all began; this time, walking through the open-air walkways of Pondok Indah Elementary (PIE) not as a student, but as a parent.

She concedes that she wasn’t sure what to expect returning after being away for so long, living and working in the United States. Would JIS feel familiar? Would it be unrecognizable? But stepping onto both the PIE and the Cilandak campuses again, she realized that while their facilities may have evolved, the core spirit of JIS — the respect for the individual and the warmth of its community — was unchanged. 

“My son is loving it. I feel I definitely made the right choice,” she says. “I have total confidence that he’s in a really good environment.”

Supraja was at JIS from Grades 1 through Grade 12, growing up across two campuses and three divisions. She remembers the libraries most vividly, the librarians who always knew her, afternoons spent reading Amelia Bedelia in the Reading Nook, and the early lessons that have stayed with her to this day. 

A Grade 2 unit on metacognition and “thinking about your own thinking” shaped the self-awareness she continues to carry, she says. There were Extended Study Program trips to Bogor and Tanjung Lesung, Project Week in Vietnam, the Family Fun Fair, school plays, service-learning projects, and Theory of Knowledge discussions — all of which are still fresh in her memory.

After graduation, she grappled with choosing between the United Kingdom and the US, ultimately deciding on Emory University in Atlanta, where she studied neuroscience and journalism, later earning a master’s in the latter at Northwestern. She interned at CNN, freelanced, and worked in health and wellness media before feeling the pull of the tech sector.

It was a fellow JIS alum who encouraged her to explore opportunities in San Francisco’s startup scene — a move that would shape the next decade of her career. 

“That just shows you how deep the JIS network is,” she says. 

Through that connection, she landed an interview, relocated to the Bay Area, and focused on building a career in tech before completing her MBA at UC Berkeley Haas and pivoting into consulting. 

But 10 years on, Supraja began to feel the pull of something different. She and her husband were considering a return to Jakarta, not just for new entrepreneurial opportunities, but for community.

“For the tribe,” she explains. “Here, I live across the street from my parents, and [my children] have their grandparents and their uncle. I was in India for four weeks because I had to have surgery, and my kids were taken care of. I would never have been able to do that in the States.”

JIS was an equally important part of that decision, and returning to PIE felt like a much-awaited homecoming. Of course, as a parent, she now sees the school through a different lens, appreciating the thought and care that go into each lesson, activity, and program.

“[The teachers] always look at the individual student. Yes, they give the kids all of the tools needed to navigate the big, beautiful world, but they look at the individual and make sure that each child will thrive,” she explains. “They work as a team, and their feedback is always coming from a good, loving place. It’s professional but very warm, and that combination is wonderful.”

Professionally, Supraja has started a new chapter working for a major conglomerate, helping lead new ventures in renewable energy and healthcare solutions. She is also working closely with her father, building on three decades of his work, and exploring new business opportunities. In particular, she hopes to contribute to improving access to better medicine and healthcare in Indonesia.

Looking back, Supraja credits her resilience and adaptability to two steady influences: her parents and the lasting influence of her years at JIS.

“I feel like my parents were always so confident that they could drop [my brother and me] off anywhere in the world and we would figure it out,” she says. “The confidence and skills to be able to do that, I feel a lot of that comes from JIS.”