Alexandra Sereda travelled halfway around the world just to stay put.

The 16-year-old Austrian arrived in Nelson in January for a semester as an international student. She wanted to ski, and her homestay family had plans to take Sereda to Vancouver Island as well as south to the Oregon coast.

Instead, Sereda has spent her days exploring Nelson and waiting out a global pandemic that has provided a once-in-a-lifetime experience, albeit not the one she or her parents thought she鈥檇 have.

鈥淭hey wanted me to go back, but I really wanted to stay because it鈥檚 also an experience,鈥� says Sereda. 鈥淚t鈥檚 different.鈥�

It sure is.

When B.C. announced a public health emergency on March 17 as COVID-19 cases began to spike, Sereda and other international students were faced with a choice: stay or go.

Some left. School District 8, which oversees schools in Nelson, Creston, Kaslo, Meadow Creek, Salmo, Crawford Bay, and the Slocan Valley, had 74 international students visiting for either part of or the entire academic year.

When spring break began on March 16, 12 students returned to their home countries while 48 remained, according to Jann Schmidt, district principal of international education. As of June 1, 32 students were still in Canada.

Sereda is one of those 32, in part because she told her parents she felt safe in B.C. Austria has suffered 17,285 confirmed cases and 690 deaths of COVID-19 as of Monday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Staying in Canada, she says, made sense.

鈥淚t鈥檚 awesome experience and it wasn鈥檛 too bad. I didn鈥檛 want to go home.鈥�

Retired principal Marion Hunter is one of Sereda鈥檚 homestay parents. Hunter said she and her husband Ken have done their best to keep the situation fun by taking Sereda biking, teaching her how to golf and playing crib.

They鈥檝e also managed to inadvertently bring some Canadian nature to Sereda, who has seen five bears in person including one who visited her bedroom window.

鈥淪he鈥檚 been unbelievably great to have here,鈥� says Hunter. 鈥淚 mean, my granddaughter thinks that she鈥檚 going to kidnap her and make her stay with us and never let her go because she just loves her.鈥�

But some homestay families also debated whether their student should go home.

Angel Stuyt had two students living with her. One from Germany returned home in May, while another from Spain has stayed in Nelson.

Stuyt, who has two children of her own, has been hosting students for five years. The situation in Spain, where 28,323 people have died due to COVID-19, settled the issue for her.

鈥淢y maternal instinct was maybe these kids should be with their families,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ecause who knows how long this is going to take, maybe they should go home, but I didn鈥檛 voice that to them.

鈥淏ut that dissipated really quickly when we saw what was happening in Europe.鈥�

Most international students visiting School District 8 come from Europe. Each of the 60 districts in B.C. do their own recruiting, and there are financial reasons to do so.

In 2019 B.C. hosted 144,675 students, or 23 per cent of all visiting students in Canada, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education. B.C. colleges and universities earned over from international student tuitions for the 2018-19 school year.

A report released by the federal government in April 2019 said international students at all levels of schools made a in 2016.

The Ministry of Education doesn鈥檛 provide funding to districts for international students, who at SD8 pay $13,000 per year in tuition or $6,500 for one semester plus $850 per month to their homestay family.

That tuition is more than what a B.C. student brings in from the ministry, which doles out $7,500 per full-time enrolled student. Secretary-treasurer Michael McLelland says that total is actually over $10,000 when accounting for additional funding that can include resources for special needs students or to account for the district being spread out over a large area.

If the district doesn鈥檛 need to pay for additional teachers and classrooms, there鈥檚 less overhead associated with the international students and more money for public schools.

Schmidt said recruitment is already underway for the fall semester when she hopes to have 50 students travel to the district, and that a plan to quarantine students has been approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The challenge she faces is in flight availability, both in sending students home as well as eventually bringing them to the Kootenays. The district works with agents abroad to manage travel logistics, while parents are responsible for setting flights up.

But finding those flights, even within Canada, has become a problem.

鈥淭here have also been times where we think airports are going to be opened by a certain date. So flights are [booked] and then the airport closure has been extended,鈥� says Schmidt.

鈥淪o families will then get a notice stating that flight is not going to work because the airport isn鈥檛 open at that time. And we have to start the process again.鈥�

Joanna Markin is one homestay parent about to send a student home with plans to have another visit in the fall.

Four years ago Markin鈥檚 daughter Julia asked her parents to host an international student. A Russian student arrived and made an impression on Markin, who has Russian heritage.

鈥淚t was fun to be able to speak the language a little bit because I don鈥檛 speak it, but more to understand the things that she was saying,鈥� says Markin. 鈥淪o that encouraged us to do it more.鈥�

The family is currently hosting Lena Feldhusen, 16, who came to Nelson last August from Berlin. Feldhusen had the opportunity to return home, but like Sereda opted to stay in Canada. Her parents continued to work, so Feldhusen saw little point in flying back early.

鈥淚t鈥檚 safer here because of the situation,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檝e got Julia here, so I decided it鈥檚 better to stay here.鈥�

Markin describes Feldhusen as a 鈥済odsend.鈥� With her parents and brothers working, Julia would have been home alone since March. Instead she spent the lockdown with a friend.

But soon Feldhusen will also have to return home. Over the last 10 months Feldhusen has become part of the family, and the thought of putting her on a plane during a pandemic terrifies Markin.

鈥淪he鈥檚 one of ours, right? But you also remember that she鈥檚 not,鈥� says Markin. 鈥淪o you鈥檙e trying to find that balance.

鈥淪he came here for an experience and [you have to decide] when is it safe to head out and start seeing friends, because her friends are leaving in two weeks. So you know, trying to find that balance of what do you allow in the pandemic while still trying to do the right thing and making sure that everybody鈥檚 safe.鈥�

COVID-19 cases have slowed to a trickle in B.C. The province has had a total of 2,790 confirmed cases and 168 deaths, but there are currently only 178 active cases according to a from the health ministry.

But the pandemic continues to grow outside Canada鈥檚 borders. WHO鈥檚 Monday reported 4,025 deaths and 152,323 new cases over the previous 24 hours. Of those, the United States accounted for 1,022 deaths and 34,666 new cases.

Still, Markin said her family will host another student in the fall. That student will quarantine in their house, wash their hands, cough into their elbow and be mindful of physical distancing. The extra steps, Markin says, are worth taking.

鈥淚 highly recommend it. Just to develop those relationships [and] understand more about how things work in their culture,鈥� says Markin, who as she speaks glances over at Feldhusen. 鈥淵ou know, just even to see her, she鈥檚 completely fine without her family. She鈥檚 an independent young lady, strong in more ways than I realized.鈥�

| tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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