Sunil Semplay arrived in Thunder Bay, Ont. in early 2022 to a winter of "unrelenting cold," when locals were breaking their shovels just trying to dig out of the snowbanks.
But things felt pretty good to Sunil, besides missing his home in decidedly warmer Punjab, India. The computer science undergraduate had received a $10,000 annual scholarship to study at Lakehead University, a big reason for choosing the school. People were friendly. And with the pandemic still ongoing, "there was nobody around," making part-time jobs plentiful, as well as housing.
Two years on, there have been many more bumps in the road. While he doesn't regret his choice, he's been caught out by annual tuition increases - he's paying about $31,000 this year - without a corresponding change in his scholarship amount (Lakehead says in addition to expanding scholarships, it periodically increases their value, most recently in 2021, by as much as 50 per cent). He's working three part-time jobs to help cover his costs. As a Lakehead student union board member, he was getting daily messages last fall from fellow international students desperately seeking a place to live. Canada has provided him with opportunities, he says. "But if somebody asked me back in India about whether they should come here, I wouldn't hesitate to say no. It's not a good place anymore. It was at one time."
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