Everett Community College to recruit more foreign students

EVERETT — Taking a page from its neighbor to the south, Everett Community College plans to expand the number of international students on its campus.

International education has not been a traditional priority at EvCC as it has at Edmonds Community College.

That trend is about to change, Everett officials said.

The college expects to hire a director of international education later this month. It is a newly created position that drew around 40 applicants from across the country.

Whoever is hired will hit the recruiting circuit right away.

The college has signed up its incoming director for a three-week trip through the American Association of Community Colleges to recruit students and establish relationships in Indo­nesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

“They are literally going to hit the ground running with their bags packed,” said Sandra Fowler-Hill, the college’s vice president of instruction.

Having more international students in EvCC classrooms and being able to send more local students abroad makes sense, Fowler-Hill said.

“It enriches the campus and the classroom by having international students. So many of the companies that are in the area are global companies and are expecting our graduates to be global citizens when they graduate,” she said. “Nothing is isolated any more.”

EvCC traditionally has enrolled a fraction of the international students that Edmonds Community College has. The EvCC number has ranged from about 40 to 60 over the past six years, compared with the 550 to nearly 780 in Edmonds.

“We know what Edmonds does and how successful they’ve been,” said David Beyer, EvCC’s president. “They have done a great job in Edmonds with international programs.”