Tom Zhou arrived from Beijing three years ago to attend Chinese Christian High School here. The 17-year-old is graduating in June and is set to attend the University of California, Los Angeles in the fall.
In China, "high school is just tests" with no emphasis on personal development, says Mr. Zhou. But at CCHS, "we learn to learn like Americans," he says.
Going to a U.S. high school and learning to learn like Americans are what increasing numbers of students in China are hoping to do in order to improve their chances of getting into an American college, CCHS says. As an evangelical private high school with experience teaching students from China, CCHS has been taking in more of these overseas students and is starting to refer others to like-minded Christian high schools in the U.S.
Foreign students like Mr. Zhou now make up about a third of the 217-person student body at CCHS, the U.S.'s oldest accredited school founded by and catering to evangelical Christians from China, according to superintendent Robin Sun Hom. The school also has students from Taiwan and even one Mandarin speaker from Venezuela.