Sending their children away from the familiar home environment to begin high school life in the United States is a decision that requires careful consideration for many parents outside the country. Besides academics and athletic development, parents are often most concerned about daily life: Where will their child live? How will meals be arranged? Who can help them when they encounter difficulties? How can family members overseas stay in touch?
At DME Academy, we understand the importance of these issues. Students spend more than just classes and training on campus; accommodation, meals, peer interaction, and daily life management also constitute their learning experience. We aim to provide an environment with daily routines, supportive faculty, and opportunities for students to gradually develop independence.
Accommodation is not just a place to sleep, but also the center of students' daily lives.
Our campus in Daytona Beach, Florida, provides housing space so that students from all over the United States and around the world can live in the same community.
DME's renovated accommodations, totaling approximately 18,000 square feet, combine student lounges, learning centers, dining facilities, and other living spaces. After completing classes and training, students can return to a familiar environment to complete assignments, relax, or connect with roommates and teammates.
We value not only the physical facilities, but also the order and respect necessary for communal living. Residential students must learn to manage their personal belongings, comply with daily rules, respect shared spaces, and be responsible for their own time and actions.
For students living away from home for the first time, these small things may take more time to adjust than they imagine; but they are also an important starting point on the road to independence.
The Student Life team connects every day outside the classroom.
Students will not only interact with coaches and teachers on campus.
Our Student Life and Residential Life team focuses on students' daily lives outside of the classroom and training, including campus culture, residential life, shared norms, student interactions, and event planning. This work also requires collaboration with coaches, academic staff, and other campus partners.
We hope that students can clearly understand the basic expectations of campus life and know who they can seek help from when they encounter problems in life.
From adapting to roommates and adjusting schedules to learning to communicate with people from different backgrounds, there isn't a single answer that works for everyone. The role of teachers and mentors isn't to make all the decisions for students, but to provide guidance when needed and help them gradually build problem-solving skills.
For parents, understanding who the everyday support figures are in their child's life is just as important as understanding the school's academic or athletic resources.
Catering and nutrition are an important part of the lives of student athletes.
For students who juggle daily classes, specialized training, and physical activities, diet is an important foundation for maintaining their daily rhythm.
DME has a campus restaurant and dining facilities to provide students with dining space. In 2026, we partnered with Elior Independent School Dining to continue developing campus dining services that prioritize nutrition, food quality, and student needs.
We hope our catering can cater to the training pace of different sports and the dietary habits of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Families with allergies, dietary restrictions, or special needs should also confirm the applicable arrangements and application methods with our team before enrollment.
The cafeteria is more than just a place to replenish energy. Throughout the day, students meet their roommates, teammates, and friends from different sports; much cross-cultural exchange begins with eating together every day.
Studies, training, and rest need to be arranged together.
A key feature of boarding schools is the close connection between students' academics, sports, and daily life.
At DME, students not only participate in classroom learning but also need to coordinate with specialized sports training, competitions, and their individual academic progress. We value the balance between academics and athletics and hope students understand that practice is important, but completing assignments, managing time, and getting adequate rest are equally important.
For students, this means gradually learning to plan their own days instead of always relying on their parents to remind them.
Sometimes training is intensive, and sometimes coursework requires more focus. As students learn to plan tasks in advance, communicate with teachers, and seek assistance when needed, they are preparing for their future university life.
We hope that the homestay experience is not just about getting children away from home, but about helping them gradually build their ability to manage themselves in a new environment.
How do international students adapt to a new language and culture?
When you first go to high school in the United States, the things you need to adapt to are often not just in the classroom.
Even if students already possess English proficiency, it still takes time to truly live in an environment where English and multiple cultures converge. From communicating with roommates and understanding their lifestyles to participating in campus activities, every day brings new experiences.
DME students come from over 40 countries. This makes our campus a diverse international community, giving students the opportunity to study and live with classmates of different nationalities, languages, and cultural backgrounds.
We also provide opportunities for students to connect with local families through international student community programs such as The Bridge, such as dining together, participating in activities, or watching games.
We hope that students can learn about American life while retaining their own cultural background and building friendships and a sense of belonging through different life experiences.
Homesickness and the adjustment period are understandable parts of studying abroad.
When students first arrive in a new country, they may be excited, but they may also miss their family, familiar food, and old friends.
These feelings are not contradictory.
Some students quickly integrated into team and dormitory life; others needed more time to adapt to the new language, norms, and peer relationships.
We hope to help students understand that they can proactively communicate with teachers, coaches, or the Student Life team when they encounter difficulties. Learning to express their needs and seek appropriate assistance is also an important skill for independent living.
For parents, providing support during their child's adjustment period, while giving them space to practice handling everyday problems, may be more helpful than immediately solving every little thing for them.
Communication between parents and schools should begin before enrollment.
When children are overseas, parents naturally want to know about their lives and studies.
Therefore, we encourage families to fully understand accommodation arrangements, campus rules, student support roles, emergency contact information, and communication channels with academic and athletic teams during the admissions assessment phase.
Different issues may require assistance from different responsible units: courses and learning progress are handled by the academic team, sports development-related issues are assisted by the coaching team, and accommodation and campus life are handled by the corresponding student affairs staff.
A clear division of responsibilities helps students and parents know who to contact first when encountering problems.
Specific accommodation rules, contact procedures, leave and travel arrangements, as well as holiday accommodation and transportation coordination, will be subject to the latest information provided for the year of enrollment. We hope that every family will have the opportunity to clarify these important issues before making a choice.
We hope that our children will take away more than just the experience of studying abroad.
At DME Academy, we value academic achievements and athletic development, and we also value whether students can become more independent and responsible individuals.
From managing their own daily schedules and adapting to shared living to building friendships with classmates from different cultures, boarding school provides students with opportunities to practice maturity and self-discipline in real-world situations.
For many parents, what they look forward to most is not just their children making progress on the court or achieving ideal academic results, but the day when they discover that their children are able to take care of themselves, communicate proactively, and are more aware of taking responsibility for their choices.
This is precisely the kind of important growth we hope DME's campus life can bring to its students.
