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Whistler Secondary hopes to host more international students next year

Homestays are key to increasing the number of overseas kids Wanted: People to welcome international students into their homes. Whistler Secondary is hoping to host more students from overseas next year.

Homestays are key to increasing the number of overseas kids

Wanted: People to welcome international students into their homes.

Whistler Secondary is hoping to host more students from overseas next year. But it will only happen if locals come forward and open their homes to the kids.

"The one major drawback for the program has been consistent homestays in Whistler," said Whistler Secondary principal Ken Davies.

The school has several reasons for wanting to increase the number of foreign kids not least of which are the large fees they pay to attend school in B.C.

Each student must pay about $12,000 for the year. The school they attend gets $5,000; some is used by the local school board to cover salaries and costs associated with the program, and the rest is shared between all the schools in the district.

There are dozens of students who would like to study in Whistler but with accommodation at a premium here there are few places for them to stay.

The school board pays $800 a month to each household that welcomes an international student.

The student needs his or her own room. But more than that said district principal Mike Weeks, the students need support and help as they try and settle into a foreign culture and new surroundings.

"The intent should be to provide a warm, caring home," said Weeks.

"They need to look after the student as if he or she were their own child."

That means taking the student on weekend outings, or trips, welcoming them on family dinners out or when enjoying entertainment like movies or theatre productions.

Of course helping them enjoy all the recreational opportunities in the area is part of it too, although students have to pay their own expenses when it comes to passes up the mountains, equipment, and evenings out.

Margaret Pattison has hosted several international students in her Squamish home. She also helps run the Howe Sound School Board’s recruitment program.

"It brings a wonderful experience to the home because you learn about another culture," she said.

"I have three children so the children see a broader world.

"But it is work because you have another teenager in your house."

That means ferrying them back and forth to their activities, along with the other kids.

One thing Pattison realized quickly though was, "kids all around the world are very much alike.

"Most of the ones we have had have integrated with the family really well. They participate in whatever we do.

"They teach my children language and they bring a lot of souvenirs of their cultural histories.

"And the students gain from us because they do the hiking and camping and things they have never done before."

Homestays are visited by the school board and assessed for suitability and all members of the household must undergo a criminal records check.

Prospective international students are also closely checked.

Squamish has spent the last several years building its reputation as a destination for foreign students.

Four years ago there were only a handful of overseas students. This year there were almost 40, and next year there will likely be 70.

The school board will also welcome 30 Korean elementary students and some parents to study for a few months next year.

Weeks believes Whistler could handle about 30 foreign students without any disruption to the school, if only homestay families could be found.

This coming school year there are already five confirmed international students at Whistler Secondary and five at Myrtle Philip.

Initially all the overseas students coming to Whistler must have a strong command of English.

Whistler Secondary principal Davies said the local Parent Advisory Council has discussed it and supports the idea and is trying to get people involved.

Hosting overseas students will bring an element of diversity and culture missing from the school currently and Davies is anxious to round out the high school by adding this experience into the mix.

"Part of what we would like to do as a school is open ourselves up to a variety of cultural groups so they give us that wealth of opportunity and experience from different parts of the world," said Davies.

"That would enrich our school culture."

For the most part the international students come to improve their English and try and gain a place in a Canadian university.

They are strongly focused on their education and from the school’s point of view provide excellent role models for other students.

"They are fairly highly academically-motivated individuals and that assists in creating and encouraging the climate we would like in this school when it comes to striving for excellence in their classes," said Davies.

That is something Howe Sound principal Peter Hotston has seen first hand.

He recalls the banter between a Squamish student and an international student following the results of a Chemistry 12 test.

"One of our local students said to one of the international student who got the top mark (in chemistry), ‘ I’m going to get you in Calculus,’ and that sort of healthy challenge is good, so our school benefits in that way too," said Hotston.

"What I really like about it is in the classroom most of them have a very strong work ethic and it is a good example."

But it is not just the students who work hard to make the program a success. The school works hard too, said Hotston.

Howe Sound Secondary has had to learn on its feet as it put in place an English as a Second language program and began a program to integrate the international students into the daily routine of the school.

For most overseas students it takes three years to complete Grades 11 and 12 due to language challenges.

They spend part of their time in supported learning classes and the rest of the time in regular classes. The mix is different for each student, depending on how proficient they are in English.

At Howe Sound Secondary a peer tutor program is in place so senior students help tutor international students, and then they see them in regular classes as well.

"This is working very well," said Hotston, to help international students fit into the culture of the school.

"It has been a lot of work for us to get the program up and running especially for our counseling services," he said.

"But I think it is a great program and it will become better yet."

One improvement Howe Sound Secondary counselor Grace Halvorson would like to see is a richer transfer of cultural information.

At the moment she said the international students learn lots about Canadian culture but there isn’t a lot of exchange the other way.

"I think we have to work at that," she said.

"It’s not like it passes through the air so you can pick it up just by sitting beside each other. You have to work hard at that."

And that means more than just hosting cultural activities like dinners. It means a true learning of others cultures.

For example some students, especially those from Asian backgrounds, are used to group culture and find the transition to Western society’s cult of the individual quite hard.

"We attempt to treat everyone as an individual and they come from cultures where that doesn’t happen," said Hotston.

"Sometimes they find that stressful, because they are not given much opportunity to make decisions, so they find that stressful until they realize we are sincere and it is for their own good.

"Ultimately I think they like that because it is a factor of freedom."

When students first come here they are often faced with crippling loneliness. Some would just stay in their rooms without the support of a good homestay, said Halvorson.

"I think we really have to be sensitive to the fact that these kids are all alone," she said.

"They have left everyone they know. They are very courageous."

Most have never eaten Canadian cuisine and it takes a while to get used to it. And it takes a while to get used to the corridor’s remoteness.

"Most of them have come from very large cities and they ask, ‘what do you guys do here? There aren’t any malls or markets and all that kind of stuff.’

"But after a while they really love it and what they really love is the air, the smell is so clean. They love our physical environment."

Halvorson said the schools and the homestays also have to think about the sacrifice the parents are making. They have given up their kids. For many, admittance to a Canadian university means it is unlikely they will ever go back home and lead a traditional life.

That makes the support of a homestay even more important.

"The families I have spoken to have really enjoyed having the students but you have to want to do that," said Hotston.

"That’s where a lot of the social integration takes place and that is where you need to take them in as a family member and eat with them and take them when you go out and really include them.

"It is very important that you make that effort because some of them, especially the Asian students, will just stay in their rooms and study.

"We really want parents to do this in our communities but they really have to want to do it and do it properly."

For 19-year-old Li Wen Wang her homestay has made all the difference.

"My homestay Dad even went to see my real Dad," said the top student who received many scholarships this year, including one for $2,500 to study Commerce at the University of B.C.

She said her "two dads" still e-mail back and forth between her hometown of Beijing and Squamish.

Wang came to Canada because her father wanted her to speak English and go to a Canadian university. She has fulfilled that dream and is looking forward to the future.

The family chose Squamish because the large Asian population in Vancouver was too great a temptation for Wang. "I wouldn’t be able to control myself," she said laughing. "I would speak (Mandarin)."

For Scheng Sun schooling in Canada has allowed the 19-year-old to pursue subjects he would never get in China.

He is studying photography and hopes to go to the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver when he graduates next year.

"I can do whatever I want (here)," he said.

"But in China you just follow the instructions with eight subjects and you have to do those exact subjects for the whole year even if (you are) not interested in (them)."

Sun said it is worth the large fees to come here.

"You get used to the life here," he said. "It is pretty fun and that is why I choose it here."