The kids arrive at Melody Church to meet their host families.

In the early evening of July 17, several groups of parents and families anxiously awaited at Melody Church in Live Oak for the arrival of 17 Chinese children who they would host for two weeks. The families are volunteers as part of a non-profit organization called Education First. Hosting a foreign student is part of the Educational Homestay Programs. 

Suwannee Middle School teacher Jahnie Economou was able to make this event possible through Education First. 

“I got involved in 1998 while I was teaching in Jacksonville,” said Economou. “My daughter was friends with the woman who was working with EF. She was a program leader and asked me if I wanted to do a group.”

When she first began the program she hosted a German boy and had a group of German students come to the U.S.

“Then I hosted a French boy and the next year I did an International program,” said Economou. “We had students from like six or seven countries and I was the English teacher and had kids from six countries in my class. It was awesome.”

The students were able to stay for three to four weeks and she said it was an extremely rewarding experience.

“We call it building bridges,” said Economou. “We’re building bridges and crossing those divides sometimes that we think are between the nations and they’re really not.”

She said she loves working with all the different nationalities and is excited about working with the “junior Chinese”, as she referred to them.

“They’re only eight to 13 years old and very young,” said Economou. “We’re getting a lot of young kids from China.”

She said she will be working with them on their English and introducing them to American family life.

Economou has conducted these programs in Jacksonville, Panama City, Tallahassee and Atlanta.

“I started a program in Tallahassee and I only did like 20 kids and now they have 100 something kids coming to Tallahassee,” said Economou. “I would love to see the program grow here.”

Lafayette Elementary School second grade teacher Sunny Wimberley is host to two kids.

“I’m getting two girls,” said Wimberley.  “They aren’t sisters. They know each other and requested to stay together.”

Wimberley’s sister is a teacher with Jahnie Economou and introduced her to the program. She said her own kids were ecstatic about the thought of having foreign kids stay with them. She said when Economou came to her house, she noticed Wimberley could house two kids.

“I have three little girls, so it didn’t matter to have more,” said Wimberley, smiling.

She said her parents have a pool, so they expect to do a lot of swimming during the two weeks. The Wimberley’s often go to the Suwannee River and Sunny said they may also take the kids to Keaton Beach in Taylor County. A lot of swimming is going to give them all an appetite, so they also plan to take in several different restaurants during their stay.

First time hosts Mary Check-Cason and husband Dave were excited about bringing 13 year old Chen into their home. They were uncertain about what to do or what the experience would be like, but were thrilled to be part of it.

“I’m sure she’s going to be as nervous as we are,” said Mary Check-Cason. “We live on a farm and we’re hoping that she’s a farm girl and will enjoy the cows and horses and animals.”

When asked whether they thought there would be any communication barriers, Check-Cason said they have been in correspondence with their host child through e-mail and said Chen seemed to have a pretty good command of the English language.

“We’re excited,” said Check-Cason. “We’re having a baby. She’s 13 years old.”

Chen said it was a long 15 hour flight and she and the other kids looked pretty exhausted.

“It was exciting,” said Chen.

She said her parents were happy for her and she is also looking forward to the last of the trip because all the kids will get to go to Disney World for two days.

Kim Jennings and her husband Anthony are hosting two boys; 11 and 12 years old, Ming and Yuntao.

“We were approached in April to possibly host,” said Kim Jennings.

Jennings is the assistant principal at SMS and Economou, a sixth grade math teacher, asked her if she might be interested. 

“We’re excited to learn about their culture and hopefully share some American culture as well,” said Jennings.