International students returning home

International boarders Larissa Lau, Avina Lee, Joy Kim and Snowy Pha

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

RETURNING HOME

International boarders at Diocesan School in Auckland have been celebrating since border restrictions started lifting, providing many of them with the opportunity to finally reunite with family and loved ones. For some of these girls, it's been more than two years since they have been home or seen their parents, siblings and friends – celebrations, milestones and family events have been missed, young siblings have grown up and loved ones have passed on.

Joy Kim from South Korea has been boarding at Dio for the past four years and is now in her final year at school. Her last visit to her home country was in December 2019 and this was also the last time she saw her parents. With a visit home now planned for the school holidays in just a few weeks’ time, Joy is counting down the days, hours and minutes until she departs.

“It has been very hard not being able to go home or see family, hang out with my friends and eat Korean food. I have two younger sisters – one is now 14 years old and the other is six. She was only four years old when I left! It’s hard being her big sister from afar and I’ve missed out on seeing her grow up over the last two years.” Social media has been a lifesaver for many of these students who have used Facetime, KakaoTalk, WeChat and other platforms to talk to family and friends back home, often on a daily basis.

Dio has been particularly conscious of the impact the pandemic restrictions have had on its international boarders. A Navigating Life programme was set up to help the girls express and share their feelings, teachers check in with students on a regular basis, and protocols were put in place to keep the boarders safe and well during COVID lockdowns. The pastoral care team was expanded to include a Chinese student guidance counsellor to provide additional support when needed. Staff also sacrificed their own personal time to keep the Boarding

House open for longer, including during the holidays, as well as finding homestays for students who were unable to return home.

While it has been a challenging few years, there have been some silver linings, including wonderful homestay families who have taken international students under their wings and into their homes during holidays and through the lockdown periods.

Joy said: “They treated me like a member of the family; they were so kind to me. Another homestay has a young daughter who I really enjoyed being with because she reminded me of my siblings - she was so cute.”

Director of International Students at Diocesan, Simone Clark, said: “The girls have shown incredible resilience and have formed very close friendships with other international students in the same situation. They have remained academically successful despite their personal situations and are always looking on the positive side of things. For many, New Zealand provided a sense of safety and relative freedom compared to their home country.”

Sixteen-year-old Larissa Lau hasn’t been back to her native Hong Kong since January 2020. Simone says the Year 12 student has remained resolute and pragmatic throughout, doing regular Facetime calls with her family and looking forward to welcoming her younger sister to Dio next year.

“I’m not a big stay-at-home person,” Larissa says. “I love meeting new people and it’s great that the girls in Innes House come from all different parts of the world – it makes things interesting.

“I’ve learnt Japanese and Korean from my friends here, and I keep in touch with my friends back home online. One thing I do miss though is the theme parks!” she says.

For year 11 student Avina Lee from Hong Kong, her last visit home was in November 2019 but she was lucky enough to catch up with her parents when they booked flights to New Zealand in May, as soon as the borders opened. “I missed my family but I’ve got really good friends in the boarding house and have been able to stay with my uncle during the holidays. I also text my family every day and video call all the time.”

Snowy Pha is from Myanmar and is excited to be heading to Thailand for the school holidays where she will meet up with her parents again, for the first time since January 2020. “It was very hard not to see family and friends for so long. I felt a loss of connection, missing out on normal, everyday interactions with them. The Dio teachers have been so kind and we’ve been constantly supported in the school and the boarding house. It’s also been nice to experience New Zealand celebrations such as Christmas and the ‘Kiwi’ summer holidays.”

A number of boarders are from China and, after discussions with family, chose to stay in New Zealand when the borders first closed. Regular WeChat and video calls have helped them stay in touch with family and friends as they count down to their next trip home at the end of the 2022 school year. They say it has been more relaxed in New Zealand than if they were home in China and the experience has helped them become more independent and resilient.

Diocesan first opened to boarders in 1904 and currently has 41 boarding students. The number of international students dropped during COVID as some students chose to move back to their home country, and with other new students unable to enter the country. The School is now seeing increasing interest in boarding from international students, particularly as border restrictions continue to lift.

Option 1

• In–home care • Post operative • Palliative care • 24 hour care