OACS News Service
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Woodstock school’s international program heightens students’ global awareness The school started its international program at the end of 2008 as a 10-week pilot and Meinema says they “haven’t looked back.” JKCS works with Keystone Leadership Academy in Seoul, South Korea. At Keystone, students take after-school English classes. The academy’s travelling component includes visiting different locations to be immersed in the English language, including southern Ontario. The groups of 10-15 students are in Grades 3-6 and hosted by JKCS home-stay families. Keystone requests there is one child per home so students aren’t tempted to speak Korean and become a part of the family, notes Meinema. A Keystone supervisor comes and acts as a support for the students, staff and home-stay families. The supervisor also communicates with the academy, and provides updates to the families in Korea. Meinema says the supervisor is key to making the program so successful. Though the international students benefit the school financially through tuition Meinema says it is not the cash the school is interested in, rather they want to make it a wonderful experience for the students and an opportunity for them to take part in Christian education and Canadian culture. John Knox students benefit from being hosts and learning about another country. “Our students have the chance to become hosts and they have to learn the skills necessary to welcome people not only into our country but into our homes and our classrooms,” says Meinema. “That impact has been powerful.” “Our students are more globally aware and they are much more enriched, they have the chance to work as little teachers sometimes, where they are helping one of the international students out,” he says, adding this takes a new set of skills. This global awareness recently came to light when JKCS students fundraised $3,800 for Haiti earthquake relief. “The world has really opened up for them and that’s in part why they responded to a disaster such as this . . . they are much more aware of the world and when something disastrous like this happens their gut instinct now was to respond, which was powerful,” Meinema tells the OACS News. Janet Scheele is a JKCS parent and one of the home-stay families. Scheele and her husband have been hosting international students since 1998 as a way to bring people from different parts of the world to their home, as they live on a farm so travelling to other parts of the world is not viable, she says. “When the opportunity to host Korean students came up at our school, it was a logical step for us to sign up,” she says. The Scheele family is currently hosting its fourth student through the program. “Hosting international students has been good for creating awareness among our children,” she says, noting they enjoy learning about other cultures and trying different foods. “This has also been an exercise in hospitality, as God commands us to welcome strangers in His name,” she says. Scheele says their advice to other home-stay families is to treat the children as your own and be clear with expectations. JKCS will be hosting Keystone students three times this year. To learn more visit the International Student Programs section on the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools website. If you have feedback on this article please contact jennifer(at)axiomnews.ca, or call the newsroom at 800-294-0051.
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