STRAIT AREA: Chris Penny says a popular program for international middle and high school students might be Nova Scotia’s best kept secret.
“We’ve been operating for years but people just don’t hear about us,” the Chéticamp-based program manager for the local branch of the Nova Scotia International Student Program told The Reporter.
The program is now in its 25th year and has 18,000 alumni, many of whom attended schools in the Strait area.
While there seems to be plenty of interested students from a multitude of regions, including Africa, Asia, Latin American and the European Union over the years, host families are in short supply.
Penny is eager to get the word out.
“We’re operating right now at what is maximum capacity,” he said. “We could have more students, but our limitation is host families.”
Host families are “the backbone of the program,” he said. “They support the students in their homes and social lives and show them the area and the culture, whether that’s cooking traditional Canadian dishes for them or taking them around the Cabot Trail or to a hockey or soccer game.”
Maya, who’s from a small town in Germany that’s a two-hour drive from Frankfurt, is in Grade 10 at SAERC.
“I like the life, how people live here,” she said. “Once we went whale watching. I didn’t know you could do that here. We only had to drive three minutes to get there.”
A typical day for her might include ice-skating after class, a trip to Tim Hortons with friends, then home for supper with her host family.
She said a lot of other German-speaking kids attend her school, but they make an effort to speak only English. “I am here to learn English,” she said.
Fellow SAERC student Martin, who’s from Chili’s capital city Santiago – with a population of eight million – said living in a rural area is a whole new experience.
“I like it,” added Martin, who’s in Grade 12. “Students and host families learn a lot about the life and each other.”
The student program went on hiatus for more than a year when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Canada’s borders.
With its resumption in September, the Strait area welcomed 60 international students from 18 different countries.
Students come for different lengths of time, ranging from a month to ten months, or even years. Both Maya and Martin are here for a five-month semester, from September to January.
The province is currently host to about a thousand international students through the program.
Before COVID-19 hit, the 2020-21 school year was set to be the biggest with over 1300 students poised to arrive in September and another 600 in February.
Many host families take in two or more students a year.
They get a stipend to help cover the costs of housing and feeding students. They also benefit from the exposure to different cultures, Penny said.
“Our slogan is ‘Bring the world home.’ It’s a chance for host families to get to know a different part of the world without having to travel.”
Rural communities also get a boost. Beyond the exposure to different cultures, the influx means some schools end up with enough students to have a sports team.
“For example, at the Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre and Academy), the division three boys’ soccer team had five international students,” said Penny. “They reached the provincials and one of the internationals was the top scorer.”