Thanks Giving 101

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	Many students this fall are facing tough classes, feelings of isolation and homesickness. The pressures are particularly difficult during the holiday season. Some students in Claremont, Calif., who are unable to see their families this Thanksgiving are benefiting from a campus ministry that helps them feel right at home.

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SCRIPT:

This year, 19 million people are in college across the country. Claremont, Calif., hosts its fair share of them, with seven liberal arts schools. Many of the students are away from home for the first time in their lives.

Becky Ford: “There’s a homesickness and it’s not always expressed.”

It can be a jarring transition from the structure parents provide to the freedom and responsibility the campus offers.

Sung Sohn: “They have drinking problems. They have peer pressure and they need intimate family support.”

Helping college students feel more secure, this Korean family opens up their home for fun and fellowship.

Becky Ford: “There’s a lot of meal preparation, laughter, a lot of talking, and it’s a wonderful atmosphere to come to."

Sung Sohn: “OK, let us pray.”

Sung Sohn, who’s studying to become a United Methodist minister, also offers a worship service for students struggling to fit it.

Sung Sohn: “One person, one family, can impact whole life.”

After church, everyone’s invited to the pastor’s home. If you feed them, he finds, they will come.

Robert Felix: “To attend to a need like that, I think cooking and spending time with people is really an ongoing way to showing love for them.”

A home-cooked meal, gentle conversation – for far-from-home students, it’s a recipe for love.

Becky Ford: “It provides a family that I otherwise wouldn’t have. And that’s what’s so valuable and that’s what’s so magnetic.”

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The Sohn family opens their home for special meals for those students unable to go home for the holidays.