Fox Mill Students Experience Life Across the Globe
- The Reston Letter Staff
- 20 hours ago
- 1 min read
Contributed by Fox Mill Elementary School
Fox Mill Elementary has restarted its cultural exchange program with Yabe Elementary in Yokohama, Japan. Fox Mill’s Japanese immersion choice fueled the exchange program, run by the collaboration with student guardians from the Japanese immersion program.
The resumed exchange program consisted of children from Yabe who travelled to the U.S. in September 2024. Fox Mill fifth- and sixth-graders went to Japan in June 2025, where they practiced their Japanese language skills and learned more about the Japanese community by attending school with the Japanese students and spending seven days with a Japanese student’s family.
Outside of school, the chaperones were flexible about the students’ choices. One of the longest trips was to Kamakura, a popular tourist spot near Yokohama, where the students viewed giant statues and towering temples and wood panel doors that lead to stone-lined paths descending into forests, and ate traditional Japanese cuisine.
Sixth-grader Erin Edwards said she “was worried that they wouldn’t have many food choices for me, but the diversity of foods was astonishing, I really enjoyed the fresh fruit. It was truly a life changing experience, I really appreciate this opportunity and I'm so glad that I took it!” Kaia Milligan had a similar response: “I had an amazing experience and enjoyed being able to communicate with some Yabe students.”