Snowshoeing, learning how to manage money, and visiting a Canadian restaurant for a lesson in local history are all part of an informal curriculum for foreign students at Langara College.
The public college, in Vancouver, B.C., wants its 1,700 foreign students—about 14 percent of its full-time enrollment—to participate in Canadian life before transferring to Canadian universities. So in 2006 it created the Langara PLUS Program to help those students track their extracurricular activities.
Langara is located in one of Canada’s hottest destinations for foreign students. Last year more than 24,000 of them poured into British Columbia for postsecondary education. Most of those at Langara live with Canadian host families for their first term, so they are exposed to Canadian homes, meals, and routines. The college, which also runs ESL programs, specializes in preparing all students, foreign and domestic, to transfer to universities in their third year.
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“Universities want to see what their people skills are,” says Gordon McNeil, the college’s director of international education. “So someone with a 4.0 GPA who sits in the bedroom on the computer all the time is not what they want. They want to know what you’ve done in the community. Have you done any volunteering? Did you work as a camp counselor in high school? That sort of thing.”
Foreign students are far less likely than Canadian students to have worked part time or done volunteer work, partly because many come from cultures that emphasize studying. Catherine Snyder-Lowe, international-services coordinator, calls Langara’s program “a carrot for students to get them involved, to be part of things, in the hope that it helps them down the road.”
“Our hidden agenda is to help our students relieve cultural-adjustment issues and relieve loneliness,” she says, “because the sooner they join in, the more committed they are to our community and our college.”
A practical handbook for international students—the first entry tells them to phone home as soon as they arrive—suggests they get a Langara PLUS “passport” the first week. It looks like a real passport, but its pages document activities completed by the student.
Foreign students are encouraged to take part in four types of activities: study-skills workshops, social events, recreational activities, and lifestyle workshops that cover practical skills such as searching for an apartment or a job and learning how to volunteer.
One such workshop inspired Sung Man Cho, a business major from South Korea, who is now a volunteer at the YMCA. “It may not be a big deal to others, but to me it’s a huge achievement,” he says.
Social and recreational events include a weekly coffee hour, dinners, and outings for ice skating and snowshoeing. Volunteers, mostly international students, are key to the program’s success. Students want to go out and explore their environment but are nervous about doing it on their own, says Ms. Snyder-Lowe. So the volunteers do some legwork first. One group set up a tour of Vancouver’s Gastown area after studying its history. The walk ended at an Italian restaurant, where the waiter, a local historian, provided a minilecture during their meal.
Students can collect enough documentation on their passports to reach gold, silver, or bronze levels, which come with a certificate. More important, many find that their community involvement gives them material for admissions essays when applying for transfer.
Langara officials say two words sum up their approach to international students: customer service.
“We’re serving the people who give us business, so it seems pretty logical and ethical that we treat them in the best possible way,” says Mr. McNeil.
“Students seem happier here, and this word of mouth helps with recruitment abroad. Even parents like the idea that their children will become well-rounded.”
