Humber an attractive option for international students
This article originally appeared in Humber EtCetera on April 8, 2016
Flora Fan had no other school on her mind than Humber College when deciding where to study in Canada this past fall.
The first-year Food and Nutrition program student from China fell in love with Canada while visiting Vancouver in 2012. She has always wanted to come back and study here.
Fan is one of the 3,400 international students attending Humber from more than 100 countries. What immediately caught her attention was the fact that it is one of Canada’s largest colleges, but she was also intrigued by what her program offers.
“The courses designed to my program interest me and equips me with necessary knowledge for my career,” Fan said.
Humber has a new International Centre in the North campus LRC that helps international students with enrollment, study permits and adjusting to living in Canada.
Fan said that at times, being far from home can be lonely but added Humber offers many services to make the adjustment easier. One big thing that helps her and fellow students adjust, Fan said, are the clubs run by international students.
“The clubs are like a family for students from different countries,” she said.
Anastasia Kvasniuk, a first-year architecture student from Russia, found Humber’s school spirit and short commute to downtown to be very important to her when choosing her school.
“I toured many schools in the area,” she said. “Humber was the only one that was close to downtown, had crazy school spirit for their sports and had a nice residence building.” Humber has international recruiters who each specialize in a continent. They travel to their assigned continent for two to six weeks to expose potential students to information about Humber and encourage them to apply.
Linda Chao, associate director and Asia International Recruiter of 10 years, said the diversity within and outside of Humber is one of the main attractions for international students coming here to study.
“It is a very diverse area, many international students have family who live close by,” Chao said.
International and Canadian students being together in classes is a great way for both parties to learn about each other’s cultures and lifestyles and can help give a better understanding of where they come from and why they chose to come to Canada, she said.