To be eligible to participate in the EWC program, participants must meet the following criteria:

• Be 14-17 years of age when they take part
• Be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant
• Be enrolled in an educational institution recognized by the ministry of education in their province or territory
• Obtain an authorization from their parent and/or guardian
• Obtain a recommendation from their school

The EWC recruitment and selection process can be broken into three stages.

1^st stage – schools: Thanks to thousands of dedicated school liaisons (councilors, teachers, principals), students are made aware of the EWC program. Once they show interest in attending, they communicate with their liaisons, who provide them with individual access codes, enabling them to register online at: www.encounters-rencontres.ca. When students complete the online registration, they must have a hard copy signed by their parents and liaisons, authorizing them to attend the program. Each school has unique, self-imposed guidelines in order to determine which students will be allowed to attend the program – these vary from academic to extracurricular merit. Once applications are signed, they move to the second stage of the selection process.

2^nd stage - regional coordinators: Every province and territory has a group of highly dedicated and loyal volunteer regional coordinators and one president, who coordinate recruitment activities in that region. Every coordinator is given a certain district, as well as a quota of students to recruit on an annual basis. In order to get an equal representation from his/her region, the coordinator sets smaller quotas for each school in his/her recruitment area. When the coordinator receives applications, s/he must “sign-off” on them, ensuring that all necessary documentation is included and then forwards them to Ottawa. Should anything be missing, the coordinator will contact the specific school, in order to have the application completed in a timely manner. Coordinators are instructed to fill their quotas on a first-come, first-serve basis, in order to ensure the maximum level of fairness, impartiality, equity and timeliness.

Quebec and Ontario: The process is slightly different here. These provinces employ a team of paid recruiters who cover large territories to recruit the necessary quota. They are responsible for finding funding for the students, developing new and innovative recruitment strategies and meeting their individual quotas to meet the overall provincial quotas. These paid recruiters are necessary, because EWC has unique challenges getting students from these provinces, often requiring substantially more work than a group of volunteers is prepared to do. 

3^rd stage – Encounters with Canada: Once the applications are received from the various regional coordinators and presidents, the applications are then sorted and assigned sessions at EWC. Through their theme preference and availability, EWC staff carefully assign students an EWC week. If any conflicts arise over the week assigned, an EWC staff member immediately communicates with the student, in order to resolve any problems or conflicts.

In 2008-2009, EWC hit a recruitment record – 3260 students attended the program – 101% of its budgetary target – a 27-year high!

Director General Linda Brunet praised the efforts of all those involved – Director of Transportation and Recruitment Eric Saxton, his recruitment team of Andreanne Lamoureux and Jean-Lud Andre – and EWC’s dedicated team of volunteers around the country – some 1,000 strong, who help recruit both its student participants and teacher-monitors.