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Ten years ago 160 students attended Foxcroft; enrollment dipped to 120 during the 1988-89 school year. This trend, Leipheimer says, closely parallels U.S. demographics for all secondary schools during the 1979-2020. International markets and renewed interest in same-sex schools have helped enrollment stabilize and start growing again.
Most overseas candidates are introduced by alumni through "a tremendous network, particularly [among] our Asian families." She says Asian families view the rural, all-girl school as a safe environment, and appreciate its proximity to, yet isolation from, Washington D.C. They are also reassured by seeing a "population that is not just Asian," assuring them that their daughters will get a "true global experience".
Asian parents are looking for a school that is "not crowded with other Asian students," thereby forcing their children to speak English, concurs Jack Eidan, dean of admissions at the Wyoming Seminary, a co-ed school in northeastern Pennsylvania which, despite its name, is non-sectarian.
The school instituted its English as a Second Language program in 1989 and developed a special summer orientation program and U.S. history course for foreign students. The six-week program includes three weeks of travel to various historical sites, resorts and university campuses. favorite stops include the Pennsylvania Dutch country and a "medieval meal" in suburban New Jersey. Wyoming Seminary also offers a modified host family program so that students can periodically partake of weekend excursions or Super Bowl Sunday family style.
The school's student body "has a 27% diversity factor," according to Eidan, a point he uses to show skeptics "there is more cultural and ethnic diversity usually in private schools than in a neighborhood public school." Just under 16% of the school's 310 students are Asian, including 9 Asian Americans who are all day students. Ten years ago the 313 enrollees included three students from Saudi Arabia, one from Germany and one from France.
[CONTINUED BELOW]
Unlike Foxcroft, Wyoming Seminary has customized its recruitment to
international prospects. Eidan has travelled extensively since 1980 when he
was invited to Saudi Arabia to address employees who worked for ARAMCO,
the Arabian American Oil Company. He began to recruit in the Far East in
1983, using a number of alumni contacts to visit Japan and Corea. The Far
East trips have since expanded through a network of school counselors,
Fulbright Commissions and other government links, banks and alumni
families to include Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan. About five years ago
the tour became an annual event.
Asian parents inspect acceptance rates and school connections to assure
themselves that their children will be getting an edge in their prospects for
admissions into prestigious universities. They appreciate Wyoming
Seminary's proximity to town life, airports and other public transportation,
and are impressed by the faculty's "warmth -- the personal care, the
personal attention that's going to be given."
Yearly recruitment trips abroad are also de riguer for the Darlington School,
according to Lisa Schlenk, director of admissions. Each year the schools's
headmaster visits Japan for a party and fundraiser hosted by an alumnus.
Trips are also made to Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
Darlington is a non-sectarian prep school that has operated in Rome, Georgia
since 19005. It became co-ed in 1973, and this year enrolls 856 students in
grades K-12. Boarders are admitted in their freshman year of high school.
Non-White students comprise less than 9% of the student body, and 6% of all
students are Asians from Japan, Corea, Taiwan and Thailand. Ten years ago
912 students attended the school and, though no official statistics are
available, Schlenk believes that non-White enrollment has gone up about
60% in the last ten years.
Like Foxcroft and Wyoming Seminary, Darlington offers ESL courses and a
special summer orientation program. It also uses its safe proximity to
Atlanta and its international airports as a draw. Unlike its counterparts,
Darlington sponsors an international club.
How do Asian students rate U.S. boarding schools?
Seventeen-year-old junior Hanako Tomimatsu has been at Foxcroft since
September 1991. Before that, she spent a year at a Swiss boarding school
and attended a private day school in her native Japan. Her goal is to speak
English and French fluently. Though she began studying both languages
earnestly in Switzerland, she felt stymied by limited opportunities to
practice English.
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| Like Foxcroft and Wyoming Seminary, Darlington offers ESL courses and a special summer orientation program. |