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SALT LAKE CITY -- August of 2010 brought our foreign exchange student, Shao-Yun Fan, into our lives and hearts. She came from Taiwan with the EF Foundation to have a cultural experience in America. Shao-Yun, or Jean as she preferred to be called, attended 11th grade at the charter school my children attended. Throughout the course of the year, Jean had a wonderful experience and made the decision, with her parents, to come back the following year to finish high school. Her goal was to graduate from high school here, then continue on to college. As this was my first experience with a foreign student, I panicked! How would we go about this?
My first course of action was to contact our international exchange coordinator, Stan Peck, to find out what we needed to do to enable Jean to return the following year. Foreign exchange students on a J1 Visa may only be in the country for one school year. Peck's brother and wife, though, had hosted an exchange student through the EF Foundation from Thailand who had successfully come back the following year as an international student on an F1 Visa. She completed her high school requirements and graduated from high school. He gave me their phone number, and I immediately gave Trudy Peck a call.
Trudy Peck was a fountain of knowledge and experience. She verified that her student completed the required course work in the two years she attended the local public high school. However, it was not an easy path. She had to obtain permission from the principal of the high school, as well as the school district. Once the OK was given, the school district began the paperwork to obtain an I-20, a form that needed to be filled out and taken back to the student's country of origin to obtain an F1 visa. The student or the student's parents also were required to pay the per capita tax assessed yearly to the county's residences. Once that was accomplished, the real work began.
Peck went through a professional and accredited credit evaluation service, the Educational Records Evaluation Service, to assess her student's high school courses from Thailand and to obtain the equivalent U.S. credits for them. Peck took this information to the high school, where the principal and counselor evaluated them, assigned the appropriate credits, then worked with Peck and her student to formulate a plan to meet the rest of the high school requirements she needed to graduate.
And, while carrying a full year of high school courses, this young student from Thailand took more course work using packets and online high school classes. She met the requirements.
With this information in hand, I asked Jean if she would be willing to do the same, to work hard to earn her diploma. She said she would be willing to do it. If this meant taking high school packets back to Taiwan with her, or doing course work on the Internet through the summer, she would be happy to do so. I made the call to our school district office.
Barbara Blotter, the school district representative with whom I spoke, was very helpful and accommodating. Since Jean was attending a charter school
that could not take F1 students, only J1 students, at that point another school had to be found. Jean decided on a particular high school where some of her friends were attending, and I made the phone calls needed to get her enrolled. But as the process began, Blotter told me she had just received information from the Utah State Board of Education requesting that F1 and J1 students not be given high school diplomas after the 2010 school year was over.
Jean's desire was to attend college in the U.S. After mulling over the idea of private schools and correspondence courses, I decided to call Snow College.
Snow College has an ESL program for international students. Jean was permitted to enter,
provided she take an ACT test and obtain her GED. She has been admitted to the ESL course. After obtaining her GED and fulfilling appropriate course work, Jean will be allowed to attend Snow College.
What about other students who desire to do the same thing or something similar?
J1 students, foreign students with an organized program, may only attend a public school for the school year. International students with an F1 visa may only attend a public school for one year. However, they may attend private schools indefinitely. This includes private high schools and of course colleges.
I called the Utah State Office of Education and was told that no, F1 and J1 students may not receive a Utah high school diploma. It is very difficult to do four years of school work in only one or two years. However, the decision to let a student go through the graduation ceremony and such is up to each school district. Furthermore, if a student completes all four years of required course work, then the school district is left to its own discretion of what it feels is appropriate for the individual student.
And though a student may not receive an actual diploma, acquired credits and course work completed is recorded and the student is given appropriate transcripts.
Brenda Bennion is a 48-year- old wife and mother living in Santaquin, Utah. She has five children, a dog and a cat, and loves reading, writing, long walks in the country and cooking for her family.
