Founded in 2000 as a primary school, Hong Kong Academy in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, has added one grade level each year and graduated its first class of seven students in 2012.

Although more than two decades have passed since Claire Matern attended Zurich International School, she can still remember the warm embrace she felt as a newly transplanted second-grader from Brooklyn, New York.

"I got sung the song and I sang the song [to others]," Matern says of the welcome anthem serenaded to all newbies during school assemblies. "It was a nice indication that you're one of us. And when you left, everyone sang ‘Happy Trails,' which was so touching."

That Matern still recalls those details despite attending ZIS for just three years is an outcome any international school would welcome, too.

International schools typically follow a national or international curriculum different from the host country. They educate a highly transient, multinational, and multilingual student population for global citizenship. Since 2000, the K-12 international school market has tripled, as more wealthy local families seek the Westernized education and career opportunities that come from it for their children.

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