Schools in Chatham-Kent are welcoming around 100 international students from nearly 20 different countries to the classroom this September.
Leigh-Ann Coffey, project coordinator for the municipality's Newcomer Attraction Program, says a final head count is expected to be on par with past years, but that number won't include those starting in the winter.
She says recruiting students from places as far and wide as China and Spain isn't the challenge. It's getting them to come back for good.
"A lot of our students are secondary students, so they're here for a year and then they do go home. But that's certainly something we're hoping to change," she says. "They establish strong ties while they're here with their host families and with their schools, and so we want to use those ties to bring them back."
Coffey says they're keen on seeing all former students go on to study at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus or the St. Clair College Thames Campus, and then start careers in the region.
"The project I'm working on right now - the Newcomer Attraction Program - we're looking at ways of providing information to international students, and to all students in general, about how they can find careers here," says Coffey. "How they can start planning for a career that will allow them to return to Chatham-Kent."
Developing a system to track how many students from abroad actually end up returning to the area is something Coffey says they'll consider in the future.
For now, she says the municipality is looking to expand its role, as the local school boards are the ones doing all the leg work recruiting students.
"We're here to support them, we provide them with material about Chatham...We're here to promote the municipality to all newcomers," she says. "We're really happy the students are here."
A welcome event is scheduled at Kingston Park this Saturday from 11am to 2pm, for international students and their host families.
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