{"id":5046,"date":"2022-04-14T06:45:51","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T09:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=5046"},"modified":"2022-04-14T06:51:58","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T09:51:58","slug":"international-student-program-bounces-back-looking-for-host-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2022\/04\/14\/international-student-program-bounces-back-looking-for-host-families\/","title":{"rendered":"International student program bounces back, looking for host families"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Five

International students atop Castle Rock in Chester. Photo Yumimphotography courtesy SSRCE<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

As Nova Scotia reopens its borders, staff at the South Shore Regional Centre for Education are looking for families to open their homes to international students.<\/p>\n

The program was effectively shut down during COVID and only reopened in February.<\/p>\n

Director for the International Student Program at SSRCE Steven McGill is impressed with how quickly the program has rebounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to the pandemic, we usually, for our South Shore, would get between 40 to 60 students arrive in February for second semester. Currently we have 49 students with us. So, it\u2019s almost back to pre-COVID numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the provincial government made the decision not to allow international students into public schools in August 2020 some recruiters said Nova Scotia\u2019s reputation would be hurt.<\/a><\/p>\n

McGill says despite enrolment in the program being comparable to pre-pandemic years he will be reaching out to reconnect with those recruitment agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would imagine that some agents and some agencies have gone elsewhere but if they have, then there are other agencies and agents that are definitely willing to send students our way. But obviously, there\u2019s some trust that we have to gain back and some rebuilding of relationships that we have to do moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill says the program typically welcomes 100 to 125 students each September and sees no reason why they shouldn\u2019t expect to meet that target this year.<\/p>\n

He says there\u2019s no shortage of students from around the world who want to come to study in Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love to have even more host families. It\u2019s not a matter of not having students wanting to come to the program, come to Nova Scotia. It\u2019s the matter of being able to find the host families to have them and of course, having the schools to have the numbers as well, to be able to welcome international students in their classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill says host families are needed in North Queens and the Forest Heights areas as those schools currently have space but no host families.<\/p>\n

He says it\u2019s not just students who benefit from the experience of living with families in Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got host families that now have, they call them their grandchildren or great-grandchildren even, because of the relationships that they formed. Many families have either gone to visit their past international students and vice-versa, international students have now graduated and have their own jobs and have come to visit so, definitely keeping in touch. It can be a life-changing experience for everyone involved for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill says some host families sign on for a short term to see if the program works for them before deciding to accept a student into their home for a full year.<\/p>\n

He says families will be supported by a team of homestay coordinators who will help families and students settle in and get the most out of the experience.<\/p>\n

Information on how to become a host family to an international student is available on the SSRCE website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Reported by Ed Halverson\u00a0<\/strong>
\nE-mail:\u00a0edhalversonnews@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nTwitter: @edwardhalverson<\/strong><\/p>\n

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.<\/em><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/International-Students-Apr-14-22_mixdown.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Nova Scotia reopens its borders, staff at the South Shore Regional Centre for Education are looking for families to open their homes to international students. The program was effectively shut down during COVID and only reopened in February. Director for the International Student Program at SSRCE Steven McGill is impressed with how quickly the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[678,679,676,520,298,677],"class_list":["post-5046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-homestay-coordinator","tag-host-families","tag-international-student-program","tag-south-shore-regional-centre-for-education","tag-ssrce","tag-steven-mcgill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5051,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}