International Student Update

Late arrival

We are very excited to tell you that one of our offshore international students, Bowen Zhang, finally received his visa last Friday (19/07). Bowen was keen to get here as soon as he possibly could and booked his flight. Our team sprang into action over the weekend and quickly finalised the administration, including the airport pickup, a motel booking for Bowen's parents, and an urgent homestay agreement. The family arrived in Melbourne as intended on Tuesday  23/07 and, after an annoying glitch involving missing luggage, later recovered, we soon had him and his family comfortably established in their respective accommodations.

We appreciate the full support and cooperation of Bowen, his parents and his homestay host  in making everything run smoothly . Bowen is from Shanghai, China and he is enrolled with us at our English Language Centre  before he enters his Y10 mainstream in 2025. Bowen's dream is to be an entomologist. 

Happy Birthday in July

We are thrilled that two of our international students share their date of birth. Congratulations to Sue and Ivy on their 15th birthdays.  Warm thanks to the two students' host families for organising such great celebrations and we are sure they both had a wonderful time. Please see the message from Ivy:  

"My 15th birthday party at my Australian host family:

When I came back home from school, my homestay host Marie said "happy birthday" to me. About half an hour later, when I came out from my bedroom, I saw a really big blue balloon on the table. I was so surprised and touched ! During dinner time, we had a lot of chicken and duck which my host deliberately ordered from a Chinese restaurant. They are really delicious. Marie also bought a chocolate cake for us. She lit 2 candles. We sang the birthday song and I made a wish. I was really happy and really thankful to Marie. She always cares about us. I love her so much. I gave Marie a Chinese paper cutting as a gift that I made all by myself. I can't tell you how grateful I am."

We are also pleased to say Happy 19th birthday to Roy. Roy has been staying  with his host family for more than 4 years now. The host told us that Roy is part of her family. Thank you to all our homestay families for taking care of our international students. You have played very important roles in maintaining our International Student Program.

                                                                                                         Qun Joan Mao

International Student Coordinator