Chamber takes stock of international student program

International students working in the Cape Region are getting hit by cars, and it happens often.

How many is up in the air because many of the students do not report accidents. The only way the outreach program finds out is if the police become involved or the student is taken to the hospital, said Maryanne Kauffman, director of the local International Student Outreach Program.

Last year, 19 students were hit by cars, and the number was similar for this year. A student was hit and left critically injured by a car in both 2015 and 2016. Kauffman said as of July 31 out of more than 900 international students, 774 of them were working in the region, about the same as last year.

Six hundred registered with the outreach program to get bicycles through a partnership with Delaware Department of Transportation.

Program volunteers often do free repairs on the bikes.  

Speaking to members of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce Sept. 17, Kauffman said Romania, Russia, Kazhakstan, Turkey and China sent the most students to the area.

Besides bicycle safety, Kauffman said the program also hosts dinners for the students Monday through Thursday at various churches. She said the churches served 5,000 dinners this summer.

“The dinners are an opportunity to not only feed the students, but it’s an opportunity for cultural exchange. So they not only interact with the volunteers, but the students also get to interact with one another,” Kauffman said.

The outreach program provided four trips for the students, two to Philadelphia and two to Washington, D.C.

The students’ safety is the responsibility of their sponsor organization; they work in the area through the J-1 visa program, said Sandi Taylor, international recruitment consultant with sponsor organization CIEE. Sponsor organizations work with employers to find the best fit for individual students, who are expected to check in with sponsors monthly. If sponsors do not hear from students, they get in touch with the employers. The sponsor organization also provides health insurance and vets the employer. All employers must be vetted, she said.

The program allows international students to work and learn about the United States, and, in the process, the students will also share their cultures.

Speaking to chamber members and student employers, Taylor said, “We want you to share experiences. We want you to understand that everything the students learn and do, they take back. They are taking their experiences back to their friends, their counterparts and their families.”

She said the program is intended not to replace American workers but to enhance the staff. 

Taylor said employers must pay at least minimum wage, update sponsors and provide cultural activity. The employer is also responsible for student transportation to work.

“It’s a life-changing experience,” Taylor said. “For you, as well as the participant.”

The students often take several jobs, but Taylor said it is important for the students to have free time for cultural exchange.

Jamie Bond, community relations manager with sponsor organization Intrax, said strong relationships between employers and sponsors can help solve a lot of problems. Another avenue for help is the Cape Region’s International Student Outreach Program, a coalition of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches, volunteers and other community leaders.

Bond said support groups can control the conversation, on a global level, that people are having about the local community.

“Nobody goes home and says, ‘I had a great time on that State Department program,’” she said. “They go home and they talk about Rehoboth, they talk about Dewey, they talk about their employer, they talk about their landlord. You get to control the marketing that goes on in Romania or Poland.”

Bond said a good experience leads students to tell their friends and family to either visit or vacation here, providing the sort of marketing that is hard to come by. She said Delaware hosted 1,700 travel participants in 2017, providing $9.2 million in economic impact. Half of those 1,700 students were housed in the Cape Region.

“You guys need this program,” Bond said. “That’s a lot of money.”