The International Influence
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 28 September 2017 17:55
- Written by Dan Stein
AROUND THE NEK - In the Northeast Kingdom there lies a rich history of private institutions like that of Saint Johnsbury Academy, Lyndon Institute and The Danville School. One of the rich histories for those schools is the influence of international students. Many international students from many different countries come in year round to attend these schools. Saint Johnsbury academy has about two-hundred international students this year, Lyndon Institute has their international enrollment at ninety-six students coming from twenty-one different countries, and the Danville School has just three exchange students but hopes to see more according to their principal Karen Hoffman “a lot of feedback from parents is about the student body and student diversity and we’ve made some attempts this year”.
However the question is, what drives the international influence? Jack Cummings the associate headmaster of admissions and advancement of Saint Johnsbury Academy says that “they come for smaller class sizes, the culture and climate and we do a very good job of bringing them in, there are a lot of things happening here that are very good”. Without the support of these factors it might not be possible to bring in such a plethora of these students.
What’s more evident is that a large number of these students are staying right here in America for college. Cummings went on to say that “most of them are coming here and then going to universities in America” There are nine-hundred and eighty students at the Saint Johnsbury Academy and around two-hundred of those being international.
At Lyndon Institute director of communications Gloria Bruce says that the “domestic students who have may have had limited opportunity to travel benefit greatly from the relationships that they form with international students”. Gaining a global perspective not only can be important for the international students but also the domestic students as well.
Student’s needs are what the Danville School is focusing on to help with more international flow into their school. Principal Karen Hoffman says, “you cant tailor your program to an individual student but you can tailor it to a group of students” Some of those groups being the international group. They offer things like college classes and course work that could help that international drive just a bit more.
