International students at the powhiri (front row seats – a new experience!) by Frances Couling

Riccarton International

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We’re starting off the year with a nice, round total of 50 international students - here for both long and short term enrolment programmes.

Chris Stoop ran another successful international orientation in February, welcoming 14 new international students from Vietnam, China, Slovenia, Korea, Brazil, Chile and Japan. 

Luckily, late starts and delayed entries due to the Coronavirus outbreak had minimal impact on the school in 2020.

We welcomed Eric Wang to the international staff department. Alongside his role as a mathematics teacher, Eric is now the International Student Academic Mentor.

The International Peer Support team headed this year by Selina Knorr and Pavithra Bowatte have been very active in the last few weeks with international orientation and various activity days to Sumner beach and around town.

Riccarton International - Sumner Beach excursion with International Peer Support — Image by: Frances Couling
Riccarton International - Peer Support activity day – mini gold in the CBD — Image by: Frances Couling

Looking back to last year’s international student graduates, we had some very pleasing leavers’ results, plus three of our students received international student scholarships to New Zealand Universities. Elin Park and Shieru Yamazaki gained International First Year Scholarships through The University of Canterbury, and Greena Kang received a $10,000 scholarship to The University of Auckland’s Foundation Programme.