A Lifetime of Dragon Memories

Many of you may remember Class of 1996 Alum Anuj Ralhan as the Senior class President of the Student Council. He spent his entire K-12 education at JIS, graduating in 1996. We reconnected with Anuj at the 2023 JIS Alumni reunion in San Francisco, where he now lives with his family. He shared that his years at JIS shaped who he has become and looks back very fondly on his upbringing in Jakarta.

What are your favorite memories from JIS?

There are so many, but one of my favorite memories is United Nations Day. Everyone dressed up in their country’s native clothing, parents brought food from different nationalities (you literally got to taste the world that day), and the whole campus was full of colors and music. For example, I’ll never forget the Scottish bagpipe. I also vividly remember Spirit Week, which was movie-themed during my Senior year and was a big hit. We had Clueless Day, Grease Day, and Braveheart Day, to name a few. I enjoyed basketball and soccer, did IASAS Cultural Convention, and got to travel to Taipei.

What were your favorite classes?

In High School, probably Biology with Dr. Harger, who is amazing. I recall going to the islands on a school Biology trip and being asked to collect different specimens from the reefs. We collected starfish and crabs, and we even caught an eel and a baby stingray. The next day, we were given a taxonomy pop quiz to name all of the species we caught — a tough Biology lesson! I also really enjoyed Theory of Knowledge with Dr. Manjula Salomon and Bahasa Indonesian with Ibu Kausar.

How did your time at JIS influence who you are today?

As a “third-culture kid” living in the United States, I am more open to embracing customs beyond my own Indian/Indonesian heritage and have a greater appreciation for the similarities and differences among various cultures. Another big influence is the innate desire to travel. For me, traveling and maybe meeting JIS people along the way (something I try and do in earnest wherever I go) is like going to church, a temple, synagogue, or mosque — pick your religious place of worship; it truly fills my soul.

What advice would you give to current students?

Make as many friends as you can at JIS. They come back and will help you in the future. Do extracurricular activities that make you uncomfortable and that you are not great at — test your boundaries. Reach out to and make friends with those you may not typically interact with; you’ll expand your cultural knowledge. Thank your teachers and remember them! I still keep in touch with many of my teachers from JIS. When you reconnect with them 20 to 30 years later, you will realize that they’re just like us, and you may end up helping one another out down the line. One of my fondest memories is taking our IB teachers out to dinner in our Senior year as a big thank you.

If you could go back to one moment at JIS, what would it be?

My campaign to win the Student Council president race. Initially, I was feeling very defeated. There was another candidate who had his face profile everywhere on campus. I had coincidentally met Miss Universe, who happened to be from India that year, and I got a side-by-side picture with her. My winning slogan became, “Vote Anuj for President, Miss Universe would!” My dad and I went to campus the evening before the election and plastered my poster everywhere on campus, next to my competitor’s campaign poster. His candidacy crumbled overnight, and I won. It was a great feeling and a moment that I reflect on as my family was involved in helping me, and it took some creative ingenuity to win.

Another memorable highlight was theater. I performed in a variety of plays over the years but got the lead role in the zany production of The Servant of Two Masters. I remember one evening, the audience was largely Indonesian, as we had invited many local schools to attend the performance. My Bahasa was quite good at the time, so I improvised part of the performance by translating a part of the play to Bahasa in real time as I was on stage. It was a special moment because much of the audience could now understand the play better, and I was able to relate to them in a unique way.