CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND SCSBC’S RESPONSE: Find the lastest updates here for students, faculty and staff.
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND SCSBC’S RESPONSE: Find the lastest updates here for students, faculty and staff.
International exchange programs and homestay experiences have been a crucial part of our schools’ programs across this province for more than 30 years. They offer valuable learning opportunities beyond the classroom while also providing rich layers of experience in which our families are intertwined with churches and the broader community. At the heart of our Christian schools, we remain grounded in God’s presence and trust in Him; yet another shared common thread in our school culture is that we look out for one another.
Rooted in Relationship and Trust
This past November, I co-led a group of 30 domestic students on a two-week Japanese Exchange trip with PCS. Planned more than a year in advance, the trip emphasized the relational cultural exchange by partnering with our two sister schools. Students spent more time with Japanese students and families and engaged with individuals, not just as a collective, as a visiting group on a tour. By providing structured opportunities for students to have unique experiences within a very different cultural setting, immersed in a foreign language, students were able to stretch their comfort zones and build a stronger sense of compassion and empathy for students in other parts of the world. In this case, our domestic students had already generously welcomed students from these schools into their homes earlier this year, so it was time for our students to be brave, take risks, and build trust with their homestay families.
Learning That Begins in the Home
There is nothing quite like the excitement and anticipation I feel when the students are leaving with their new homestays for their first night away (at home or abroad), dispersing into neighbourhoods across the city and having parallel yet unique experiences. Sleep often eludes me as I worry about them, even as I feel an overwhelming joy at the learning that happens for both students and families. I look forward to their return the next morning, as it is like watching a movie unfold: listening to students as they reunite and sharing, with tired excitement, about their homes, activities, meals, and unexpected nightly routines. Homestay families, too, are just as hopeful and nervous to share their lives and their homes so generously.
It requires an incredibly complex blend of vulnerability, risk, trust, excitement, and openness on both sides. It is also completely unique from the day-to-day school programming that domestic students experience, walking down the very same hallways. It is a rich, valuable, and transformational act that aims to curb “othering” in positive ways and encourages healthy ways of finding common ground in otherwise very different global circumstances. I often comment, “Now imagine trying to focus and learn at school today, knowing that as an international student you would be in that home for months, miles away from your own home.” When students return to our schools here in B.C., they have a deeper appreciation for international students studying in our schools, having had the opportunity to identify commonalities and differences between our education systems.
When exploring different countries for new school partnerships or sister-school opportunities, I look first for alignment in core values, visions or goals, and academic programming. Homestay programs often mirror the broader school system by reflecting a school’s vision, guiding principles, sense of belonging, and commitment to individual care. For this reason, having students stay with families within the school community can deeply inform our understanding of the school’s culture, creating valuable opportunities for critical reflection on our own school homestay practices and policies.
Homestay as an Extension of School Culture
As of July 2024, approximately 217,600 international students were enrolled in secondary and post-secondary institutions across B.C. (almost half in private institutions) (Heslop, 2025). 46% of international permit holders in B.C. are classified as students. In the K-12 education sector, international students represent approximately 1% of the student body population (Heslop, 2025). In 2023, 6% of high school graduates were classified as international students (Heslop, 2025). Students who are travelling alone in grades 8 to 12 are placed in B.C. homes by schools or agencies. Homestay-student family relationships are the backbone of robust, enriching, and healthy international programs. It does not take much to connect the value of a firm foundation provided to high school exchange students with the success stories they have continued to have in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Homestays can have an incredible, lasting, and profound impact on kids, as some end up in B.C. for a wide variety of reasons.
A Growing and Complex Landscape
Within a B.C. context, there are a variety of additional layers for consideration when selecting potential homestay families—it is our job to ensure that families are doing what is best for the students. Given this reality, it is imperative to be rooted in a relational approach to programming, emphasizing the value of dialogue, reflection, and care. Intentional conversations can help address potential bias, underrepresentation, and access issues, making schools more welcoming and diverse through practices such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL). International students can face many barriers while studying abroad, including issues related to inclusion, studying, the study permit application, reapplication, and the immigration process itself; these can also cause heightened levels of stress and anxiety, compounded by pressures from home (Harden-Wolfson & Zhang, 2025). As such, homestay families and school staff play a critical role in creating safe spaces and opportunities for students to share their experiences, thereby broadening awareness of the signs of homesickness and of mental health and wellness initiatives.
From Policy to Practice: Strengthening Homestay Programs
Homestay programs function as extensions of in-school programming, bridging macro-level to micro-level policies. They can be transformative, offering stability for students within an ever-changing industry. Schools have a duty to support both the student and the homestay family to ensure they are appropriately cared for. International students are often vulnerable to a wide range of difficulties and barriers that go beyond language or cultural differences. Homestays can create a safe space in their homes for our students to share their feelings and build confidence. Guided conversations within the home can foster mutual understanding and allow families and students to learn about each other’s lived experiences, commonalities, boundaries, and concerns while also acknowledging areas of intersectionality.
Learning Together Across the Province
For decades, the International Networking Group at SCSBC has collaborated to identify common trends, values, and concerns across homestay programs. In 2015, a team of International Program and Homestay Coordinators came together and created the Homestay Handbook to support families and students across the province. This resource provides guidance on topics from daily life and common expectations to tough conversations. It evolved into what is now referred to as the Homestay Guide, and later this year, a new interactive manual will be available that aligns with Ministry guidelines, language, and protocols for best practice. This new manual will integrate policy, guidance, and resources as we continue to find new ways to support staff, families, and students through cross-cultural exchanges and opportunities for our community to gather and work together on this crucial component of our programming.
Sarah Edgar
SCSBC International Student Program Coordinator
