International Student Program

International Student Meeting 

A few weeks ago, Venus and I were invited to  host a Koonung International Students’ Meeting. As international student captains, Venus and I are proud of our College community and our international students. We cherish this opportunity very much. This meeting is to celebrate our achievements last year, welcome new members and enjoy lots of delicious dishes. Also, the meeting date is the Lunar New Year’s eve, it is very meaningful for our international students who study abroad and are therefore unable to reunite with their families.

As this is the special time of year, we invited our school principal team, sub-school teams and school captains to come to our meeting. In the meeting, Venus and I firstly explained what  Lunar New Year is and the significance of this celebration during this time. Lunar New Year is also known as the Spring Festival. People welcome spring and what it brings along: planting and harvest, a new beginning. This is the most important festival in some Asian countries. After the introduction, we then invited Desmond Pang and Tom Chen to bring their music performance. The music was fascinating. We are hoping that there will be more and more new students participate in our International Sunshine Band and display to the local community the many talents of our international students. After this, the most exciting moment arrived, we began sharing our delicious sundry foods.

After enjoying our meal, we reminded all the international students about important school policies. We then commended all our students who achieved excellent results in the last year VCE exams. Our Year 12 international students last year made great achievements in their VCE. Our top score is 99.35, which was achieved by Beining Chen. Approximately 30% of international students’ ATAR scores are higher than 90 and the median ATAR score is 85.5. Our 2017 Year 11 international students  who  completed Year 12 Chinese First Language  obtained exceptional study scores, with 50% of their study score  above 40, achieving  a median score of 38. We then invited our college principal Mrs Lee to present the awards to students who achieved excellent results in Chinese First Language last year. She encouraged us to aim high and to go further.

Before the meeting ended, we welcomed the new 2018 international students to Koonung and Venus invited Mrs Lee to give each of them an international student badge. Mrs Lee added that she  hopes all international students enjoy their time at Koonung. In this exciting meeting, we found the feeling of being at home with families. In this unforgettable moment, everyone shared their happiness.

I am looking forward to the upcoming international meetings.

                                                                               Jacky Cai

 2018 International Student Captain