As many as 30 students from Guangzhou, China are expected to visit Lacombe for a two-week cultural and educational exchange this July.

It will be the first exchange resulting from an agreement between Wolf Creek Public Schools and the Liwan Bureau of Education signed last week in China.

WCPS superintendent Jayson Lovell was part of the Canadian delegation that attended and says Chinese education officials were eager to work with Canadian counterparts to create opportunities for cultural awareness for students.

“So it really is historic in terms of the goodwill and spirit of this opportunity,” Lovell says. “We’re really proud as a school division in Alberta to be the first district to engage in this MOU (memorandum of understanding) but most importantly, to provide those enhanced opportunities for our students and our staff.”

High school students from WCPS will participate in a two-week exchange of their own in March.

“Our students are global citizens. When you sit down with students who are looking at their future, certainly they’re focused on life in Canada but they also have a strong interest in experiencing other cultures and really expanding their understanding of the world. This pathway with China really does promote that opportunity,” Lovell says.

According to a media release from the division, Lacombe Composite High School and Iron Ridge Junior Campus in Blackfalds have both been flagged as initial sister-school matches with a pair of schools from Liwan Education Bureau.