International students add to culture at Fishburne Military School

Min Ho Cho was struggling in school in his native South Korea. It was his mother who found Fishburne Military School halfway across the world in her search for a solution.

Cho came to Fishburne as an eighth-grader in 2009. Now a fifth-year student at the school, he’s on course to graduate in the spring, and calls FMS his “second family.”

“I’ve met a lot of different people from different places, so I learned how to deal with other people. My roommates made me learn to deal with other people, time management, money management, leadership. It’s just a great school,” Cho said.

Close to 10 percent of the Fishburne Military School cadet corps is international students like Cho. Admissions director Cedrick Broadhurst said international families look at FMS “because we offer the discipline, the respect, the things they need to be able to succeed in life.”

“Everything they learn in our junior ROTC program, everything they learn in their everyday activities, through the classrooms, through the sports, everything we do here at Fishburne is preparing them for life after high school,” Broadhurst said.

Min Chang Kang, a sophomore from South Korea, has learned in his time at Fishburne how to manage his time more wisely.

“I used to always just hang out with my friends or just play computer games every day when I was in Korea. But now I just do my homework like I’m supposed to do,” Kang said.

“If your grades are bad, or you have some problems with family or at school, you should come to Fishburne. It’s a great school. We’ll straighten you up, and it will help you a lot, your grades and stuff like that,” Kang said.

The learning goes both ways – the international students learn from their American classmates, and vice versa.

“Both the American students benefit by being exposed to other cultures, languages and traditions, and the international students benefit by being able to become an integral part of the community as a whole,” said Debra Casado, an ESL instructor at Fishburne.

Dario Martinez, an eighth-grader from Monterrey, Mexico, the son of a Fishburne alum, has already made himself part of the FMS family, participating in exhibition and wrestling.

“Back in Mexico, I was messing up with my grades and my friends and all that, so we decided that I needed to come here to Fishburne,” said Martinez, who is happy to be following in his father’s footsteps.

“It will help you a lot later in your life. You learn so much in education, in sports,” Martinez said.

More online at www.Fishburne.org.