They're back.
Students returned to class yesterday as Genesee Community College opened for the first day of classes of the fall semester. Enrollment was up over last year. First day totals came in at 4,098, up from the 4,032 from last year, and the college expects those numbers to increase as courses in area high schools get underway in the coming weeks.
Among those 4,000 students are nearly 100 from 19 countries around the world, proving once again that the college is an international destination. "Students came from Belarus, Canada, China, Columbia, El Salvador, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Mali, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, and Venezuela."
In addition, Genesee Community College is among 21 other campuses across the state to welcome 150 students from China.
[They come] from the city of Chengdu in the Sichuan Province of western China, which was the site of a massive earthquake in May. The students will have the ability to continue their college studies for one year in the United States and then return to their homeland to help with the rebuilding effort.