Welcome to our family!
About Us
Hi, Assanali—we’re the Jones Family, and we’ll be your host family this year!
Here’s who we are and what we do:
Dad: Cody (graphic designer)
Mom: Kalen (librarian)
Brother: Henry (11-year-old fifth grader)
Cat: Ginny (sleeps a lot)
You’ll be our fifth exchange student and our first boy! We’ve previously hosted two girls from Japan, one from Spain, and our current exchange daughter is a FLEX student from Georgia who was FLEX Student of the Month last December. Through her we learned a lot about the FLEX program and we knew we wanted to get another FLEX student this year.
Haruna 🇯🇵 (2022 Spring)
Hina 🇯🇵 (2022-23)
Jana 🇪🇸 (2023-24)
Anano 🇬🇪 (2024-25)
Our Home
We live in Franklin, Indiana. It’s a medium-sized midwestern city about 20 minutes away from the state capital of Indianapolis and about 3 hours from Chicago.
Franklin is a unique and interesting city with festivals all throughout the year that really give it the “American” vibe. We live in a somewhat rural area (it will be very flat compared to Kazakhstan!), but there’s plenty of things to do within a short drive. Our house is in a typical suburban neighborhood with access to trails and a workout area. You’ll have your own bedroom on the second floor and share a bathroom with Henry.
Your School
You’ll be attending Franklin Community High School, which is only a few miles from the house. Most days you’ll ride the school bus to and from school. The school has around 1,600 students with a beautiful building and campus. You’ll get to choose between many different classes, and we’ll go over options closer to the school year. It is very much a traditional American high school with events like Homecoming, football & basketball games, and prom, and lots of clubs and organizations to join.
The school has great sports facilities and offers many different team sports throughout the year. Boys Volleyball is actually somewhat new to high school sports here, but Franklin has done well in the past and was one of the top 10 teams in Indiana last year. The boys volleyball season is in the spring.
Our Hobbies
During family time we like to play all sorts of games, including Dungeons & Dragons and many other board and video games. We even have a dedicated game room to play in! We’ve also enjoyed making some social media content with our past students if that’s something you’re interested in. Individually, Kalen enjoys baking and crafting, and I enjoy watching all kinds of sports as well as tinkering with tech stuff and 3D printing. We all share many interests and think you’ll fit in well here.
