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This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.
The United States has always been a place for people to find a safe haven. Every year around 70,000 refugees come here searching for new opportunities. In Utah alone around 1,200 families are resettled in cities across the state. However, when many of these people arrive, they come from difficult situations with limited educational opportunities. Some are illiterate in their own language. This is an opportunity the folks at The English Language Center of Cache Valley in Logan addressing.
Co-directors Katie Jensen and Ronda Kingsford offer a comprehensive immersion program designed to teach adult immigrant students of all nationalities, starting at the pre-literate level and catering to those who don't speak the language at all. They also offer U.S. citizenship prep classes and basic computer literacy. This helps provide job preparation and skills everyone can use.
Since opening their doors in 1998, The English Language Center of Cache Valley has served thousands of adult students from 97 different countries. In fact, pick a place on the globe and chances are they've had students from there. For more information, visit elc-cv.org.
A student comes into the English Language Center and is given an assessment approved by Utah State Office of Education. Reading, speaking and writing tests allow them to be evaluated and placed in the correct learning level. They're provided two textbooks and start classes for at least two days each week, for a minimum of seven class hours each week. Students set their level of participation so they can choose to take more classes at a time if they feel ready.
And the success stories are remarkable. Take the young man who came to the Cache Valley as a refugee from Burma. He had been separated from his entire family because of genocide and war. At the English Language Center of Cache Valley, he took English classes, received his GED and is now a junior at USU. Or the mother from India who had been told she couldn't learn and now knows how to read and write.
For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.
English Language Center of Cache Valley 1544 N. 200 West Logan, UT 84341 435-750-6534 www.elc-cv.org
