A new partnership with an English as a second language company will help Grand Valley recruit international students.
Grand Valley is one of 35 centers in the United States to host ELS Language Centers. ELS was established in 1961 to teach English skills to non-English speakers; there are more than 80 centers worldwide.
The Grand Rapids ELS offices are on the fifth floor of the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences; classrooms and a media center will be on the fourth floor after equipment is installed.
Todd Patterson, ELS center director, said he expects about 10-30 students to enroll in four-week sessions over the next year. Students are typically 17-23 years old; many come from Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Europe.
ELS holds two programs: intensive and semi-intensive. Sessions in the intensive program include reading and writing skills; students are in class about 30 hours per week. The semi-intensive program is 20 hours per week and does not include reading and writing. Students can keep advancing through grade levels; some stay one month, others one year.
Patterson said advanced ELS students, if they choose, can apply to Grand Valley or other universities based on their skill level and without taking a traditional English-language test. Patterson, who has been with ELS for more than 20 years, said the company had wanted a site in Michigan the closest is in Chicago. Students, he said, will like the city and campuses for many reasons.
The city is small, but not too small. Its close to Chicago and Lake Michigan. They will like the safety of the university, he said.
He expects to hire an academic director, registrar, two teachers and a home-stay coordinator over the summer. While most students will stay in Winter Hall on the Pew Campus, a home-stay coordinator will recruit residents to host students in their homes.
Jim Crawley, associate director for international recruitment, said the ELS partnership will aid him as he travels.
This is a great opportunity for us to open ourselves up to international students who we couldnt help before and who were difficult to recruit because of their language skills, Crawley said.
