With the sale of two homes to one buyer, Squamish's growing reputation as an education centre was further cemented this month.
The side-by-side homes on Skyline Drive were sold to a Korean group that intends to use the homes to house students enrolled in the international student program offered by School District 48.
Chae Lee of Education Daus Ltd. is the driving force behind Korean interest in the educational opportunities Squamish has to offer.
Lee is providing homes for Korean kids who are in Squamish to sharpen their english skills and experience Canadian culture. He expects to provide dormitory style housing for as many as 80 students from Korea this school year. Most of those students, he said, are elementary age and 20 per cent are returning students.
Along with the two houses on Skyline, Lee's company owns a home downtown. Lee said his company is also leasing housing space on the waterfront.
Lee started housing students in Squamish in 2001 with one dormitory home and six students. His program was so well received that the next school year he had to find housing for 30 students.
"The demand for English in Korea was rising," Lee said. "My father and I were thinking of the idea. He operates a dormitory in Korea. I was an international student myself."
Lee, who went to university in Michigan, said education is in his blood. His uncle founded a private high school Korea and his grandfather was an elementary school principal.
The family decided to come to Squamish because of its location.
"It is away from the city," said Lee. "In the city there are too many international students already. I chose Squamish because it is not far away from the city. In Squamish they can learn the culture and English better than in the city."
Lee's program has grown through word of mouth in Korea and his father's advertising campaign in the Asian country.
He said that the elementary-aged students make friends quickly and they pick up English more efficiently than high school students do.
Mike Weeks, the School District 48 international program coordinator, says as many as 140 full-time students are expected to be educated in the district this school year. Along with the students from Korea, the district will educate kids from the United States, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Switzerland, Mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
He said that up to 70 of those students will be at the elementary level between grades 3 and 7.
According to Weeks, the international student program contributes significantly to the local economy. The students getting their education here spend money at many local businesses and Weeks noted that many of the parents of kids in the program come to Squamish to visit their children in their Canadian setting.
"Five families with kids in the program, the parents moved into the area, bought homes and are staying here," Weeks said.
He also said that the money coming into the school district through the international program helps pay for additional teachers.
Participating in the international program is costly as each student is faced with at least $20,000 in costs for ten months of schooling. Many of the elementary students come to Squamish for only a few months at a time to take school district classes during the day, English as a Second Language classes in the evening and to live in Lee's dorms, all the while being exposed to Canadian culture.
The two homes on Skyline Drive sold for more then $500,000 each. Realtors Mike Carney and Denise Salmon had the listings while Dorothy Swanson acted on behalf of the buyer.
Lee said that if he needs more space, he'll be looking to rent or lease more space in the future.
