THE HISTORY OF ALA
In 2007, Yuni Nguyen envisioned the American Language Academy (“ALA”). Ms. Nguyen immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in 1989 and from her own experiences she realized the importance of English language education for foreign students. Starting out as a local immigrant community language resource center in Greensboro, North Carolina, the center offered translation, tutoring, financial, and personal assistance services. In 2009, the school introduced English language instruction.
The beginning of the road
As the school grew, ALA sought and earned federal recognition under the Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP) in 2010. ALA was granted authorization under U.S. Federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students, and began enrolling international students. Once enrollment of international students began, ALA became a language institution focused on preparing international students for college and graduate school in the United States by providing intensive English language instruction. ALA’s programs target students seeking to increase their English language skills for academic, professional, and social purposes.
Got our first Accreditation
In November 2011, American Language Academy began seeking institutional accreditation from the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (“CEA”) for its Greensboro, NC campus. In April 2013, CEA granted American Language Academy accreditation for its main campus, and again in April 2014.
Multi-campus English Academy
Following its Greensboro campus accreditation, American Language Academy opened three more locations in California, Tennessee, and Miami in 2014. Upon review by CEA, the additional branches were granted accreditation in late 2014. Building on the success of its Intensive English Program (IEP), American Language Academy now offers GRE and TOEFL preparation and teacher training classes. At the same time that ALA was creating and growing its schools in the United States, we were teaching in other countries. In 2013, ALA partnered with the University of Duhok in Iraq to teach IEP to 100 graduate students.
International Presence
Beginning in 2014 and continuing to the present, ALA has been teaching IEP to high school students in the World Language School located in Jiling, China. In 2015, we created and conducted teacher training programs for 800 Chinese middle school and high school teachers in Shanyeng, China. Ms. Nguyen and all of the ALA leadership and staff look forward to continuing dynamic growth in the years ahead