Why Small International Programs Are Viable Options

Why small international programs offer viable options.

This has been a good week for the Gulf Islands International Program.

It was wonderful to host the girls from Kobe Gakeun High School again. Their school has been sending a class of students every year for the past decade. Despite being “city girls”, they wouldn’t trade their week on Salt Spring Island for anything. They are amazed by the openness of the community and school. They particularly enjoy working with local artists for an afternoon and are very proud of their projects that they take home with them.

A surprise guest at the farewell dinner was Derrick (English name), who was making his way back to Taiwan after graduating from Purdue University in the United States. Derrick was a student in the Gulf Islands International Program for four years. Like his sister, Jenny, who is in her last year at the University of Iowa, he graduated with Honours from Gulf Islands Secondary School and credits his experience on Salt Spring Island as giving him the confidence to go to university in the U.S. He fondly recounted the days with his homestay and the fun he had while developing the academic, social and language skills he needed for success at the post-secondary level. Like so many of our international graduates, he thinks of Salt Spring as his Canadian home.

While in Vancouver for an awards ceremony, I happened to visit the Korean Consulate Office where I met Ji Sun, who is doing an internship as a translator. Ji Sun was also in the program for four years. She will be graduating from the University of British Columbia next year. What is truly remarkable is the fact that Ji Sun was a Level One ESL student when she started the program. Now she is translating for the Consulate Office. Ji Sun credits her success to the love and support she received while studying in the Gulf Islands International Program. She also told me that studying in a small program helped her focus on learning English. She also liked the fact that our program caps the number of students from each ethnic group. Like Derrick, her heart belongs to Salt Spring Island.

Ho Nam’s host mother forwarded an email to me that she had received from him. Ho Nam graduated from Gulf Islands Secondary School and enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan where he completed a degree in Engineering. He is now brokering major multi-million dollar industrial projects in China, but still misses the peace and quiet in Salt Spring and Canada. He often has memories of the beauty of Salt Spring Island that still ground him.

There are so many reasons why small programs are a good alternative to the larger less personal city programs where students compete for the attention of their teachers, coaches and administrators. Most of the big program directors or homestay organizations don’t even know their student’s names.

This week’s local newspaper highlighted the accomplishments of many of our international students. Yefim and Alejandra, both from Mexico, were described as “standouts” for their dance performance, the Bachata, at the year-end dance performance. Vera and Konstantin, two of the German international students, were described as “crowd pleasers.”

A number of our Japanese , Mexican and German students who recently returned from a musical trip to Cuba, were part of a group of singers, Canadian and international, who performed a concert for the residents of Meadow Brook, a senior’s residential center on the island. In addition to performing, they also prepared and served lunch for the seniors. Bruce Smith, the GISS Music Director, was quoted as saying, “Not only did we fix the food, we sat down and ate with them – we shared a common thing. It was so pure, so beautiful”.

Not to be outdone, our international student athletes also shared some of the spotlight in this week’s newspaper. Three of our German students, Charlotte, Hannah, and Christian, were among the eleven students who qualified and competed in the Vancouver Island Track and Field Championships. It was also a thrill to receive an email from a former German student, who was in the program a couple of years ago. Patrick emailed me to report that he had just received an athletic scholarship to play university football in the United States.

Why is any of this particularly relevant to studying in a small program you might ask? One might think that all programs offer similar opportunities. I have to wonder, however, if they really do.

The Kobe girls come back every year because they love the natural West Coast beauty of Salt Spring Island. They love kayaking on pristine lakes or exploring nature at Ruckle Park. They love the friendliness of the local students and particularly enjoy interacting with the local students and teachers in the Physical Education and Drama classes. Where else could they spend the afternoon working with local artisans at their studios?

Derrick, Ji Sun and Ho Nam all credit their Gulf Islands experience as giving them the roots, confidence and skills that they needed to pursue a post-secondary education in Canada or the United States.

Perhaps the thing that is most appealing about studying in a small program, like the Gulf Islands International Program, however, is the reality that opportunities exist that might not be there in the larger programs where a large number of students compete for dance, music or sports programs.

The Gulf Islands School District takes pride in promoting an inclusion model. We know that involved students are happy students. We also know that happy students tend to do better in their studies.

For what it is worth, all of the dancers, singers, and athletes that I have mentioned had never participated in these activities at this level until they came to study in the Gulf Islands. The encouragement they were given helped them take a risk. Now one of them, who never played football before, is off to university on a scholarship.

I have to think that the risk is worth it.

Caveat Emptor and Learning for the 21st Century

Socrates is credited with observing at his trial for heresy, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” While some might question the apparent obsession with self-awareness these days, it is generally accepted that the ability to reflect is an important personal and professional skill.

It is hard to believe that over 20 years have passed since I first read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (1989). While mostly common sense, I found the book to be so consistent with my values at the time. I still do.

As a teacher, counsellor and school administrator, I have always been interested in what motivates students to learn and why the education system has often failed to facilitate a bona fide desire to learn.

Covey compared cramming in school with bringing in the harvest. He saw schools as artificial social systems where the majority of learners simply got by playing the game. They didn’t adequately achieve “true mastery of the subjects [studied] or develop an educated mind” (p.22).

A farm, on the other hand, is a natural system that succeeds when the farmer is passionate about what he or she does, is knowledgeable about farming, and embraces hard work and commitment.
In many ways, Covey’s comparison of learning and farming is similar to Robert Slavin’s observations regarding learning goals versus performance goals (2003). In the case of learning goals, students are primarily motivated by a desire to learn and a sense of self-improvement. The students who are motivated by performance are more interested in getting good grades and external recognition.

These observations are particularly relevant to the discussion regarding Skills for the 21st Century. While it is important to remain unbiased in terms of student motivation, as both sources of motivation are real and to be expected, it is easy to find the efforts of students who are primarily motivated by learning, as opposed to performance, very exciting.

As I reflect on my experience as an educator and the discussions continue, however, it seems clear that the decision makers must pay special attention to the needs of the students who are currently unmotivated, either by performance goals or learning goals. Artificial quick fixes are not likely to succeed.

As pointed out by my colleague, Dr. Ron Germaine of National University, we need to help all of our students learn to think critically. Learning skills, including clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance depth, breadth, logic, significance, empathy, and fairness, are sorely lacking from early elementary grades through graduate school. This type of learning should to be embedded in any learning culture.

Credible information regarding the potential of radiation drifting to Vancouver Island

I fear the information that is provided by new services around the world is sometimes misleading, confusing, and even alarmist, at times.

Clearly we are all concerned, but we need to know truthfully what is happening. Panic serves no one.

To help the students in the Gulf Islands International Program, their parents, their host parents, and the agents find current information about the possibility of radiation drifting from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan to the west coast of British Columbia, I have put together the following list of links to credible health and government agencies that are closely monitoring the situation:

World Health Organization – http://www.wpro.who.int/home.htm
Health Canada – http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/index-eng.php
International Atomic Energy Agency – http://www.iaea.org/
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – http://www.epa.gov/
Public Safety Canada – http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/jeic-eng.aspx

While noting above that news services are not always the best source of reliable information, I did find the following article from the Vancouver Sun very informative – http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Radiation+nothing+worry+about/4462648/story.html.

It should be noted that Canada and the United States routinely monitor radiation levels in the air from all sources and one of the stations in located only a half an hour from Salt Spring Island.

Should any traces of radiation make it to the southern part of Vancouver Island the situation will be closely monitored.

The good news today is two of six nuclear reactors at Fukushima have now been declared safe.

May this nightmare soon be over for the wonderful people of Japan.

Our prayers are with you.

Japan will endure yet another tragedy

There are times when nothing seems to make sense. The last few days have been an example of one of those times.

After many years of working closely with Sendai Ikuei Gakuen School, the Gulf Islands International Program can only pray that our friends, current and previous students, and colleagues are safe.

This tragic event reminds me, the Director of the Program, of the first time I visited Kobe after the devastating earthquake that hit the area in 1995. Our dear Noriko, our program’s student advisor for Japan, grew up in Kobe. I have always been in awe of the amazing ability of the Japanese people to be so resilient in times like this.

The Gulf Islands International Program is deeply saddened by this most recent and unfair turn of events and we want all of Japan to know that we stand behind you and your tears are our tears.

We will be in awe once again as you stand together and prove to the world yet one more time that the Japanese people have the unique ability to make the best of the worst situations.

The rest of the world has much to learn from you.

Personalized Learning in the Gulf Islands – From Vision to Action

Local education and community leaders will gather together on March 1^st to explore in depth the theme, Personalized Learning in the Gulf Islands – From Vision to Action.

The goals of the retreat are “to deepen our connection with the broader community as we hone a collective vision of the ideal education system and begin to operationalize it” and “to build on the work done at earlier retreats and to create a foundational action plan for systemic change”.

This systemic change is consistent with the changes proposed by the Ministry of Education in British Columbia.

The question that is often asked, but sometimes sadly not fully addressed, when looking at systemic change is, “Why is change necessary?”

Perhaps the answer is best summed up by the entertaining animated 2010 version of one of Sir Ken Robinson’s speeches about changing “education paradigms“.

More after the retreat.

Look for us in Hong Kong and Taiwan in March

The Gulf Islands International Program will be in Taiwan and Hong Kong in mid-March. The Director of the program would be happy to meet with prospective students and their parents if they would like to find out why the program is particularly suited to highly motivated academic students who plan to attend university in Canada or the United States.

Dr. Bergstrome will also be participating in the Nationwide Education Fairs in Taiwant that are sponsored by Luby Canada Immigration and Education Consulting Company.  

Look for us in Taichung and Koahsiung on March 12, Taipei and Hsinchu on March 13, and Tainan on March 14.

For more information, please contact the Director at sbergstrome@sd64.bc.ca.  See you soon.

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