It’s not just universities competing to attract the best and brightest students from foreign lands.
Waterloo Region’s high schools currently contain more than 300 international students.
In exchange for tuition costs – $13,500 per year at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and $16,000 per year at the Waterloo Region District School Board – students from outside Canada with high marks can get an education at local schools.
They’re separated from their families and have to communicate primarily in English, which is often not their first language, but people who work with them say they’re often amazed how quickly international students are able to adapt to Canada.
“There is certainly an adjustment period, but they are remarkably resilient and wonderful kids,” says Pat Klassen, a WCDSB teacher who works with international students.
The students themselves are quick to turn any talk of what they’ve left behind to what they’re found in their temporary home.
“It’s really tough to leave my family and friends. It’s hard for me to not see them,” says Karmen Yuan, who left China in favour of St. Benedict Secondary School in Cambridge.
“I sacrificed those things, but I actually gained more – more experiences. I have new friends and new family here.”
George Yu, who like Yuan is in his second year at St. Benedict, says he appreciates his Canadian friends, the wider array of subjects taught in Canadian schools, and even Canadian weather.
“The weather is very nice. The air is fresh – not like China,” he says.
School board officials estimate that each international student provides Waterloo Region with an economic benefit of $25,000 per year.
