Chinese students in search of 'American experience'

[...] like 15 other students from China at St. John Paul, Yuan attends Catholic retreats and prayer services with the rest of her classmates while pursuing a private school education that she hopes will lead to a spot at an American university.

While private high schools in the U.S. have been experiencing an influx of Chinese students for several years now, seats at Christian schools are becoming increasingly popular with students from the Asian superpower.

For Chinese students, that means attending prom — and shopping for formal dresses — joining clubs, playing sports and doing volunteer work.

According to the Institute of International Education, 23,000 students from China currently attend high school in the U.S.

The Chinese students— who tend to be from prosperous families —bring not only tuition funds to their schools but stipends for host families and fees for the many management agencies that have popped up to serve as intermediaries between students and schools.

The experience has been good for the more sheltered Cape Cod students, said Joe Remillard, interim dean of Cape Cod Academy's lower school and international program director.

Private schools— including Christian schools —also are finding Chinese demand for an American education to be a financial boon during a time of declining enrollment.

While Cape Cod Academy and Falmouth Academy are both secular schools, Christian schools are seeing a surge in interest from Chinese students.

Foreign Policy, a magazine published by a division of the Washington Post, obtained data from the Department of Homeland Security via the Freedom of Information Act that showed 58 percent of the F-1 visas given to Chinese high school students in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 were for Catholic or Christian schools.

Even tiny Trinity Christian Academy in Hyannis is interested in exploring the option of having international students, said admissions director Denise Murdock.