International Program welcomes Chinese students to Saint Joseph High SChool

St. Joseph High School

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The students from China at St. Joseph Catholic High School can participate in the entire range of student activities. Courtesy photo/St. Joseph High School

OGDEN — For many years Saint Joseph Catholic High School has been inviting students from other countries to integrate into the Jayhawks community through their international studies program.

Last year, however, the program started to blossom.

"The partnerships started to mature, and that allowed us to increase the program and establish it in a formal way," said Patrick Lambert, principal.

The program offers students many opportunities, said Alexis E. Salvo, vice principal for Student Life, who also serves as the international program director. "It allows the students to expand their horizons. Today, with technology, we live in a global community. Borders don’t really exist anymore because of the Internet. … We want our students here at St. Joseph’s to experience the global community."

This year, six students from China are participating in the program; four are freshmen and two are sophomores. Next year, school officials expect 20.

"This year we focused [on China] because we have established a relationship with some people and companies that are helping us to recruit students that wish to come to Ogden and study at St. Joseph’s," said Salvo.

The idea is that the students will arrive as freshmen and continue their high school education at St. Joseph, so after four years, "they become part of our community," Salvo said.

The program allows the students to participate in all aspects of the community life, from the classroom to the sports field, where they can participate in 15 interscholastic sports; to the stage, where they can act in musical and dramatic productions.

If accepted for the program the international students submit an I-20 form to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service to obtain student status. Because the majority of the population in China is not Christian, Salvo said that the program is "a great opportunity for us to not only show them Western culture, but also Christianity."

Each student in the international program is assigned a host family to stay with while they are at St. Joseph’s.

"If the families want and can shelter them for four years, that is the ideal, but if this is not possible we find other families," said Salvo, adding that each student pays tuition and all the normal expenses like other students.

"They are very active in the school and really look forward to an American experience," said Lambert.

Other St. Joseph students also have benefited from the program, Salvo said. "It’s so important to expose our students to the global community. … Nowadays as the USA accepts more immigrants to their culture ... this allows people to experience other wonderful countries’ cultures."

The international program will keep developing at St. Joseph; next year they will offer a tutor or mentor to help the international students with the classes in which they may have problems, Salvo said.

Also, the future may hold an exchange program, Lambert said.

"There are a couple of private schools in China that we could potentially partner with and offer semesters abroad," said Lambert, adding that he also would like down the line to be able to "offer a semester abroad or a year abroad for our teachers, but that’s probably a few years from now."

Lambert also plans to offer courses at St. Joseph CHS in Mandarin Chinese in the future.

"This is all about being a forward-thinking school and recognizing that ultimately, by us making international connections, we are able to really provide an unique educational experience that will be beneficial for many years to come," said Lambert.