STRAIT AREA: Those involved with the Nova Scotia International Student Program (NSISP) are happy the program is returning.
Tommy Dilosa, Home Stay Coordinator with the NSISP, said the program was stalled from September 2020 to January 2022 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“I try to recruit families that are interested in hosting students from all around the world, for one month, three months, five months, and for a year, at local high schools,” he said.
Elizabeth Teasdale, Strait Regional Centre for Education SSP and Discipline Coordinator, as well as the Central and Northern Inverness Family of Schools Coordinator, wrote The Reporter via email that they are excited to rebuild the program locally.
“The program re-opened modestly in February with 13,” she wrote. “The NSISP program has the potential to enrich the experience of all students and teachers in schools where the program is hosted. Not only are lifelong friendships established, we all learn more about cultures, humanity and the world. The program also results in positive economic impact in our communities.”
Teasdale wrote that the NSISP is looking for families to host international students.
“Inviting a student into your home is a rewarding experience,” she noted. “Host families become a home away from home for students, and in turn, the students become a member of the family. Relationships form that last long after the student has returned home.
The NSISP welcomes students from around the world into homes across Nova Scotia to study and learn about life in Canada, Teasdale wrote. She said students are “carefully matched” with host families with the help of homestay coordinators, and students range in age from eight to 18 years old and stay anywhere from one month to one year.
In normal times, Dilosa said there would be approximately 100 international students in the Strait area.
“It was what we were asked to do, and we were more than happy to comply with that,” he noted of the program’s slow restart.
Dilosa said they have reached out to host families, and he reported there will be 10 students attending SAERC in September.
“We’re just looking to increase that a little bit more so that we can have a little bit more diversity in the town. It brings a lot to the community, I think,” he said. “We’re also looking all through Inverness County, not just Port Hawkesbury.”
Some of the misconceptions the program coordinators face are that prospective hosts assume they are required to have children attending school, they have to be married, or be part of what is considered a traditional family unit, Dilosa noted.
“You can be single, you can be widowed,” he said. “It’s not necessarily your mom and dad and two kids families. (It can include) your empty nester, what have you; even those in the community who are single and looking for a new adventure.”
Despite COVID-19 worries around international travel, vaccination status, masking, and other aspects of the pandemic, Dilosa added that the province is in demand.
“The amount of students that are requesting to come to Nova Scotia has increased and we just need to find few more homes because the existing homes that we have are pretty much all filled,” he added. “Now we have to figure out how to get a few more host families on board to try the experience and bring the world to their home.”