DODEA School Year Kicks Off with Student Ambassadors and Universal Pre-K

Parents, teachers and staff welcome students to Yokota Middle School at Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)

Students at Defense Department schools abroad gathered en masse in courtyards and hallways Monday for their first day of school, as new arrivals and families with preschoolers prepared to take advantage of new programs.

One of the biggest changes this year is the launch of universal preschool education in most Department of Defense Education Activity schools worldwide.

The program is available for children who turn 4 on or before September 1 and starts on September 4.

In the Pacific, the free program will be available in all elementary schools, DODEA-Pacific spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson said by phone Thursday. The curriculum emphasizes both academics and “soft skills” such as sharing or building friendships.

“It’s something that (families) have access to in many areas across the United States, so we’re very excited to be able to offer this program to our families who are connected to the military,” she said.

Erica Riley, an Air Force spouse at Yokota Air Force Base in western Tokyo, believes the program will help her 4-year-old daughter Gwendolyn prepare for kindergarten.

It also gives Riley time to look for a job and attend classes, which she didn’t always have when her sons Wyatt, 13, and Weston, 12, were younger and in half-day programs.

“I wish they could come all day because they loved school so much and it was getting harder and harder to quit my job and take them to work with me,” she said.

Lunch friends

Killin Elementary School Principal Gordon Lyn-Cook speaks to students on the first day of school at Camp Foster, Okinawa, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

Students listen to opening remarks during a first-day-of-school ceremony at Killin Elementary School on Camp Foster, Okinawa, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

For older students new to the region, all DODEA-Pacific schools implement the Pacific Student Transition Program.

The program, which was previously piloted in four primary schools in the Pacific, uses volunteer student ambassadors to help newcomers settle into their new home.

According to the DODEA Pacific website, the ambassadors will introduce them to the culture of their host country, show them around their new school and act as their “lunch buddies.”

Tiffany Okamora, 17, a senior at Kinnick High School on Yokosuka Naval Base, signed up to be a student ambassador because she remembers the challenges of moving to Japan as a young student.

“I like helping people, and I know I didn’t like being alone and not having a chance to make friends when I was new,” she told Stars and Stripes before school on Monday.

Changes to DODEA’s special education program will also take effect this year. Students with learning disabilities in grades six through 12 will move to general education classes for certain subjects, including math and English.

At Yokota Middle School, students were “clapped” upon returning to school on Monday. Family members and teachers lined up and applauded as students entered the building, where they were greeted by the school’s mascot, White Tiger.

“I’m here to show my support and show that the first day of school is important,” Senior Master Sgt. Dannay Lopez, a parent of seventh-grader Balente Lopez, said at the school Monday.

Yokota Middle sixth-grader Olivia Standifer said she has high expectations for sixth grade.

“My goal this school year is to get straight A’s,” said Standifer, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Grace Stevens, another sixth-grader, says she’s looking forward to the first drama class of the year.

“I can’t wait for the drama,” she said. “I want to design costumes for them.”

‘Pleasure!’

Yokota Middle School mascot White Tiger high-fives students on their first day of school at Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)

Students and parents arrive for the first day of school at Humphreys Central Elementary School in Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Luis Garcia/Stars and Stripes)

Students gather in the courtyard of Nile C. Kinnick High School on the first day of school at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)

On Okinawa, students lined up under the awning of the island’s newest DODEA school, Killin Elementary School in Camp Foster, seeking shelter from intermittent showers on a muggy morning as they waited to enter the building behind their new teachers.

Zeze Champannha ran away from her parents, Jasmine Champannha and Marine Corps Sgt. Damian Champannha, to meet her new first grade teacher before returning to them and telling them what she was looking forward to most this year: “Having fun!”

Zeze told Stars and Stripes that first grade will be more challenging, especially because of math.

Marine Corps Maj. Greg Snyder waved to his daughter Jolene Snyder and shouted “Bye, Peanut!” as she entered the building with her second-grade class. She started at Killin last year, he told Stars and Stripes.

Demitris McGhee, a new teacher assigned to a universal preschool program, arrived on the island on August 2 and said he is looking forward to the program getting started.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to have different stations,” he said. “They’re going to learn how to use the stations properly and then they can rotate through the stations. So we’re going to have everything from dramatic play, where you have the kitchen, the stove, things like that. We’re going to have art, we’re going to have sand and water.”

Traffic at Camp Humphreys in South Korea came to a near standstill Monday as military police vehicles monitored speeders at the base’s four elementary and middle schools.

Kylie Rapp, a kindergarten teacher at Humphreys West Elementary School, said she had an “amazing summer” traveling to Thailand and Vietnam but was “super excited to get back to teaching.”

“I’m more excited about going to school now than I ever was when I was a student, and I loved school,” she said before the doors opened.

Madeline Sharples, 5, waited for school to open with her father, Sgt. Zachary Sharples, a crewman with the 2nd Infantry Division.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking, but I’m just happy for her,” he said of his daughter’s first day of kindergarten.

Stars and Stripes reporters Kelly Agee, David Choi, Keishi Koja, Luis Garcia and Brian McElhiney contributed to this report.